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After your team wins the World Championship, it’s natural for you to take to the field to celebrate with your teammates.
But when you were diagnosed with COVID-19 – and received a warning from security to leave the field – this natural instinct could lead to a “full investigation” by Major League Baseball.
Justin Turner, captain of the third Los Angeles Dodgers team, finds himself in such a position after entering the field Tuesday night after the Dodgers won their first World Championship since 1988, beating Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 in the sixth game.
CBS Sports clarified that Turner tested for COVID-19 on Monday, but came back inconclusive during the second half of Tuesday’s match. So the lab was quick to retake the test, which came back positive. Turner was removed from the match after the seventh inning. He was quarantined in a doctor’s office near the square.
“I feel better, there are no symptoms at all,” Turner said Wrote On Twitter shortly after the match. “I just experienced all the emotions you could imagine. I can’t believe I can’t be there to party with my buddies! So proud of this team and incredibly happy for the city of Los Angeles.”
But After Turner tweeting, he was back on the field where not only did he hold the trophy, but also shared the team’s image – he took off his mask and sat side by side with his fellow players.
MLB officials aren’t happy. “Turner has been placed in isolation for the safety of those around him,” the association said in a statement. However, after the victory of the Dodgers, Turner evidently chose to ignore the common protocols agreed upon and the instructions given to him regarding the safety and protection of others.
The statement continued: “While the desire to celebrate is understandable, Turner’s decision to leave isolation and enter the field was wrong and to display every person who had contact with him in danger.” “When MLB Security raised the issue of being on the field with Turner, he categorically refused to comply.”
The league said the league commissioner’s office would conduct a “full investigation” into the matter.
But Dodgers chief of baseball operations Andrew Friedman defended Turner’s actions. “I think the people around him would be in the contact-tracking network anyway – and that’s how close a lot of us are to each other,” Friedman said, according to The Orange County Register.
And Turner’s team-mates seemed uninterested in his return to the field.
“He’s part of our team,” right-wing Dodgers player Mookie Betts Reporters. “Forget all of that. He is part of the team. We do not rule him out of anything.”
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