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Late Friday afternoon, the Mets announced the creation and implementation of a $1.2M program for their seasonal game day staff that are in need of financial assistance during this pandemic. The team also has established a COVID-19 Disaster Assistance Fund for this purpose. The grants from this program will be provided to workers on a case-by-case basis.
New York Mets starting pitcher Steven Matz, is donating $32,000 in relief to the first responders and hospitals fighting this disease in NYC through his TRU32 program. Matz shared this news on his Twitter account.
Klutch Sports Agency, announced that they have acquired Tidal Sports agency. Klutch has primarily represented professional basketball stars like LeBron James, but with this acquisition, they now represent baseball players including Marcus Stroman, Alex Bregman, and Jarred Kelenic.
Latest MLB News
Scott Boras, the most prominent sports agent in the MLB, has put forth a plan for baseball to come back sooner rather than later. He proposed a “functional isolation” scenario where teams would return to their spring training facilities and play the regular season there. He pitched this idea to Chris Cotillo of MassLive, in which the 15 teams from the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues can play in empty stadiums to start, and each player would be tested daily for COVID-19.
With the absence of open spring training facilities for players to workout, the San Diego Padres minor league pitching and catching duo, Jacob Nix and Chris Betts took to a local hardware store to create their own pitching mound. The two players documented their progress on social media from start to finish, and Andrew Battifarano of MiLB wrote about their project in his latest article.
Do you want to work in baseball? Tim Dierkes from MLBTR spoke with a group of successful general managers around baseball to give advice to those who dream of a job in sports.
Asian baseball leagues are setting the tone for the rest of the sports world, as they have resumed the play of exhibition games without fans in attendance. They tried testing everyone who came into the facilities, but three players tested positive and have now quarantined themselves. Those test results lead to further quarantines for the teams they have been in recent contact with. Alex Speier of the BostonGlobe has more information on this story.
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Marshall Field wrote about the anniversary of the Mets signing “The Franchise” Tom Seaver.
Tim Ryder discussed the work new manager Luis Rojas is doing during this break in baseball action.
On This Day in Mets History
Happy Birthday to Jimmie Schaffer (83) and Lastings Milledge (34)!
In 1988, the Mets established a record of six homers in one Opening Day game. Kevin McReynolds and Darryl Strawberry each hit a pair of home runs to help set this mark.
