AngelsSurfer

13 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

So every other sports team, including every NFL game where sideline reporters are instantaneously updating injury news - all those teams are furiously getting HIPAA consents....okay.

 

Most likely scenario would be that players sign something allowing disclosure of game-related injuries or illness as part of their contracts so there's a standing HIPAA consent in place.

7 minutes ago, mp170.6 said:

I went to a doctor one time that accepted only cash.  No insurance, no Medicare, nothing.  She said she was exempt from HIPAA.  I'm not sure if that meant all of HIPAA, or just some of it.

In any case, that's what I was driving at here.  Team doctors and team medical staff may not fall under HIPAA.  I'm sure MLB and MLBPA have their own confidentiality policies. 

 

The only exception to HIPAA in the USA is with medical providers who don't do anything electronically at all. If the doctor had all paper records, didn't take insurance and didn't call in prescriptions, that would have applied to her. However, 99% of the doctors in the USA would not fall into that loophole. Any other medical provider or staff member absolutely has to follow HIPAA.

The state of California also has additional medical privacy rules, such as the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA). 

https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/HIPAA-Administrative-Simplification/HIPAAGenInfo/AreYouaCoveredEntity.html

RE: HIPAA: what's been said is true, the player has to actively consent to have information released by the medical providers they see, or disclose the information themselves. However, non-medical staff is not bound by HIPAA, which is why, say, a sports journalist can report on an injury once it's been disclosed by the med staff/PR. And AFAIK MLB also has a policy of not disclosing injuries or illness that are not directly related to the game in the interest of player privacy (like when Johnny G. was out last year, it was reported as a "personal medical matter" until he chose to disclose it).

In the case of both Richards and Heaney, is it at all possible that they were in denial and trying to come up with every possible alternative reason before finally admitting that the players had dire injuries? Or that they actually did not realize the extent of those injuries? Both of those would be reasonable. Right after Richards left the game, it would have been plausible, at that moment, to think, "well, the guy's having muscle cramps. Meh." It would also have been plausible that when the arm continued to really bug Richards after a few days, they'd realized it was worse.


Richards has not entirely been himself all season (although he should have had more in the wins column...thanks offense), IMHO it's possible something felt off to him all along and he was trying to fight through it. After being out so long with his knee, the prospect of losing another season has to really bite for him.

Way to blame the fan. Yes, a lot of fans don't pay attention, but even if they are...those balls are coming at them at very high speeds and they're often very hard to see. There isn't a lot of time to react and with that many people around you it's not that easy to get out of the way even if you do see that it's coming at you. Heck, the players get hit from time to time, and they're trained to react fast.

And fans who are sitting behind the net one probably think they're safe.

 

Agree with the others in this thread who are wondering why Bedrosian is still in the org at all.

They got rid of two of the stronger bullpen arms they had...Gott and Ramos. Right now they have three reliable bullpen arms. That is it. Bedrosian is awful and Salas is inconsistent.

Puig is talented.  But it isn't on the field numbers stuff that irks the players.  It's off/on the field antics, discipline, and for his lack of baseball devotion for lack of better term.  I guarantee, this guy will have a huge season just before he hits FA'cy, then become the next Ryan Howard once he signs the big deal.  He is becoming the poster child for the term clubhouse cancer.

 

If Papelbolm was on the Dodgers, they'd probably be duking it out in the clubhouse every other week.  

 

And one of the rumors is that Greinke won't sign with the Dodgers because of Puig.  No way would I want that in the Angels clubhouse.  Even if he would help the team.  

I agree. There are plenty of other options that have been discussed that would be better alternatives than Puig. At some level the bad attitude and inability to play well with others overtakes talent, and that seems to be the case with Puig. It's noted in one of those articles that he and Mattingly were not even speaking to each other by the end of the season, and several players have spoken out on how much they dislike him. The guy isn't the second coming of Mike Trout and IMHO the Angels don't need a clubhouse cancer.

blows away ? because they have a couple of nice screens in the outfield ?  The place is just as old, and filthy.  I'll grant you they have better viewing angles in the upper decks, particularly down the line but generally its a piece of shit.  Thats with out even considering the nightmare to get in and out and all their wonderful patrons.  I go out there once or twice every couple of years with friends, but if I never go to Dodger stadium again, I am totally good.

Agree with this completely. The way one has take specific gates for specific sections, and the fact that there's no real way to walk freely around the stadium are complete nonsense.

The thing that I find remarkable about Dodger stadium (aside from it being a shit hole on a hill surrounded by residential favela like shit holes with terrible access)  is what I swear is the culture among many Dodger fans thats its cool to antagonize someone wearing a different teams hat relentlessly until an fight is inevitable.  Many of these scum bags seek it out.  I actually once watched a Dodger fan grab off another dudes hat and throw it, of course prompting a fight.  Ive seen not dissimilar things multiple times there.  Im not saying its a majority of the fans there, but there is absolutely an element there engaged in those types of things commonly.  The Dodgers know it, and they don't do anything.  Unless an LAPD officer is around ive seen it all over the stadium.  Ive seen fights at the big A but its usually just 2 drunk dipshits.  I cant stand the ****ing Dodgers and their "rep LA" bullshit.  Its not even about baseball, its just infested with gang bangers wanting to start trouble.

That's actually why I stopped going to Dodgers Stadium. I used to attend games there periodically if I liked the opposing team (Angels, etc.) but the way people acted there made that completely unpleasant and scary. I never wore my Angels team colors because I thought I'd be shanked. I remember being on a Dodgers Express bus when a bunch of their fans started loudly shouting that anyone who wasn't on the Dodgers's side shouldn't be on the bus.

Final straw was a situation I honestly thought was going to turn into a Brian Stowe-type beating. Guy walked to his seat wearing an opposing team's jersey and the entire section went after him.,..open threats, getting in his face, I think someone even threw something at him. Security did absolutely nothing. It went on for minutes. I wrote an email to the Dodgers about it afterward; they didn't even bother responding.

Months later, I got a telemarketing call from the Dodgers and I cited that incident, and the lack of attention paid to safety and security, as specific reasons why I will never set foot in their stadium again. The guy started stammering "um, well, we can't control the fans..." BS. No responsibility taken for it at all. Not even "well, here's what we're doing to improve security for all fans..."

The fans at that stadium, regardless of ethnic background, feel free to act like animals and the stadium's management is complicit in it.

Well I mean they are kinda right lol he just showed up and killed people for land. Pretty amazing the guy gets a holiday.

This. And if we're talking about Europeans in the Western Hemisphere, Leif Erikson beat him by a good 400 years anyway, without the same murder/enslavement history.

It's too bad, and I think they could have let him finish the season with the team, but in the long run, IMHO it's for the best for him. I do think that Sosh, etc., had a grudge for some reason. The fact that Featherston -- who doesn't have that whole "veteran with a track record" thing going and has played terribly all year long -- has had playing time over Green makes no sense.

Anyway, if the Angels aren't going to give him a chance, hopefully he can sign with another team who will. With a change of scenery and a team who gives him consistent playing time, he might really flourish.

I'm not saying what Dipoto told Chuck isn't true.

 

I believe what he told him was an obvious lie for PR reasons.

This. Dipoto likely said what he needed to say to keep the waters calm. Not necessarily the truth. Not really a surprise that he wouldn't be revealing conflicts to those outside the team.

when the Dodgers played the Angels, Vin Scully mentioned that Featherston was a very good college player ---

 

as a Rule 5 guy from Colorado, we had to keep him on the 25 man roster all season long to keep him and so the Halos did.

 

In doing so, I think the Halos weakened the 2015 roster and didn't do Featherston's career much help as he sat the pine most of the season instead of playing every day at AAA

 

He would have been up on a major league roster in September with whatever team he would have been with -- Rule 5 or not ---

 

I would have kept Grant Green on the 25 man roster coming out of ST (and sent Featherston back to Colorado) and said so at the time. By the half way point of the season with Featherston hardly playing at, getting few ABs, not much defensive replacement time and some PR but not much -- it was too late to do anything but keep him as a Rule 5 guy at that point. 

 

It's fairly certain that Featherson isn't going to be the starting 2B or SS next season -- that's why you devote a season long roster spot to a Rule 5 guy.

Totally agree with this. It's not Featherston's fault at all that he is where he is, and he's doing the best that he can. However the Angels did the team, and him, a disservice by keeping him on the MLB roster this year, Rule 5 or not. It did absolutely nothing for the team.

Too bad about Rucinski, I was hoping they would give him a chance in September, seeing as they're desperate for some relief options. Good to see Freese and Cowgill back. I would imagine that this is going to be mostly a look-see for next year's prospects because I think the team's wild card chances are dwindling every day.

I'm going to try to make it to one more game this season (I honestly don't think they have a prayer of making it to the post season; that would change things...) but it definitely won't be the Dodgers series. Those fans act horrendously, and the prospect of having to ride the Angels Express back to LA with them doesn't appeal to me at all.

One of the Angels Booster Club people once told me that they were afraid to work the Dodgers-Angels games because they'd actually been cursed out by Dodgers fans in the past.

"Collusion" suggests that all of these teams actively got together and decided not to sign Bonds -- and that there would have been some financial benefit for it. The case was rightfully decided for MLB.

So the teams didn't want to take on someone who was a substantial player in a major doping scandal, was reportedly a poison in the clubhouse, had complicated licensing agreements and would have cost an arm and a leg. Quelle surprise.

Eh, many New Yorkers hate the Yankees (I did) -- there's a pretty big Mets contingent. And a lot of transplants to CA end up loving the Angels or Dodgers and couldn't care less about the Yanks. 

I think there's a lot of truth to the assertion that half the people walking around in Yankees hats know *(*(*@ about the team and aren't actual fans. Or that if they *are* fans, they're not from NYC. In NYC a lot of tourists just bought the hats for souvenirs. I've seen people in European and Japanese music videos wearing them. They're just fashion accessories, not statements of team support.

Can Robertson play 2B? I'm a little surprised they haven't brought him back up.

Guy just can't get a break. Hope he's not seriously hurt.

If Scioscia actually lets him play for a reasonable stretch, absolutely.

Minute compared to the number of pitched and batted balls over 125+ years.

It's actually comparable to the number of player deaths from similar incidents. But interestingly there are a lot of measures in place to try to protect the players; there isn't anything for the fans.

And again this doesn't include people who end up with permanent brain damage, massive facial damage or lost eyesight. There have been both players and fans who have lost vision in one eye from fouls.

BTW, stadiums in Japan have netting and nobody's melted down about it.

Actually it isn't 0 deaths. The stats across high level play are:

Foul ball fatalities – 125 (includes one at a major league game and two at minor league games)

Thrown ball fatalities – 46 (includes one at a major league game and one at a minor league game)

Bat fatalities – 48

Field-related fatalities – 41 (includes 17 at major league games and three at minor league games)

And some might reasonably argue that being left with significant brain damage and problems from it is right up there with death...

How many millions attend games each year?

If you read the article you'd know that. There's probably a 23 in a million chance of being hurt in a plane crash, too. Does that mean we don't equip planes with safety measures?

The bottom line is that this is something the players want. No, the average fan sitting in a crowded section does NOT have the reflexes or time to get out of the way of a ball going approximately 130 mph. If they did, we wouldn't have 1750 injuries a year, and these players don't want a fans' death or massive head injury on their hands. It's time to listen to them.

Out of the million or so fans that come to the stadium a year, I'd say less than a dozen are hurt by foul balls. Putting nets down the baselines would be an overreaction.

The actual figure as of 2014 was estimated at about 1750 per year, including some very serious injuries. This article mentions a girl with a shattered skull, for instance. And this stat doesn't include injuries from bats that end up in the stands.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-09/baseball-caught-looking-as-fouls-injure-1750-fans-a-year

And according to this article, the players union actually REQUESTED netting as part of the contract negotiations in 2007 and 2012. The owners refused. If the PLAYERS are feeling strongly enough about this to request it collectively, perhaps the MLB owners need to listen to them.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/boston-red-sox-fenway-park-mlb-broken-bat-injured-fan-safety-netting-060715

All the "better" pitchers have been used up last 2 games

Really? Seems they sent Gott out there just now.