Fox hosts attack MLB players skipping shortened season
Brian Kilmeade: Players have an obligation to play “if you don't have an underlying condition, if you're not going through cancer treatment”
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From the June 30, 2020, edition of Fox News' Varney & Co.
STUART VARNEY (HOST): Let's talk baseball, Brian. Four players have announced that they are not going to take part in this season.
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Ryan Zimmerman, Joe Ross, Mike Leake, Ian Desmond. Look, if they're not going to play this season, this -- they're concerned about the virus, this is just -- it cannot be much of a season for baseball, can it?
BRIAN KILMEADE (FOX & FRIENDS HOST) We'll see how many join them. If it is twenties, if it's dozens, it's a problem. But a lot of people Stuart want to make money. And they haven't got paid. Basketball got paid, remember, they are two-thirds through their season. Hockey got paid, remember that. Football is -- plans on launching. A lot of it has to do with, if you have a multimillion-dollar lifestyle and those checks stop coming in, that falls off a cliff, so you play.
But in these players' situations, I was just reading about Ian Desmond. He says he is really -- he is biracial. He says I'm really upset about this whole George Floyd thing. I feel as though I want to spend my time with my wife who has, we have a young family. I am worried about bringing it home. Number two is I want to work with my Sarasota baseball club. And then, Ryan Zimmerman who's 35 years old, says listen, I'm not retiring. I just don't want to play a shortened season. There is too much of a chance of an injury. But in the Ian Desmond situation, he was going to -- he was supposed to make 17 million. He is about to make five million. He's saying keep it. Very interesting. I mean this is going from May to June and calling it a season. They usually go from May to October.
VARNEY: Okay, look. I understand their concerns. And I understand the money side of things, but don't they know what they're doing to baseball? I mean, it's already under a great deal of pressure. This kind of thing is really going to hurt badly. I just cannot see baseball coming back, to being America's pastime, a major sport.
KILMEADE: I think you have an obligation for the fans to go back. I absolutely do, if you don't have an underlying condition, if you're not going through cancer treatment. And there's a lot of great athletes who have some conditions we don't know about. And if you don't have that, or for example, you have to take care of your parents, you're the only one, even though you usually have money to be able to do that, where you can't -- you have to be with people who have underlying conditions. If there's extraordinary circumstances, but if I have to sacrifice three months and go to Orlando, like the NBA does, and say well I'm going to miss my family. Well there's whole bunch of families missing people in Afghanistan and Iraq, and they're not making $25 million. They're sitting there, they're making 3,000, can't wait to get that combat pay, and it goes right to their family at home. They're not spending it at the Walmart in Kabul.