Photos of Baseball Being Played Amid 1919 Flu Outbreak Should Make Fans Sad About Coronavirus Suspensions

We're going on a week without sports, and MLB fans are already pining for the return of their beloved pastime amid the growing coronavirus outbreak. While this is a public health crisis that should force us all to stay inside in order to prevent the spread, the influenza epidemic of 1918 was much worse in terms of the fatality numbers. Still, baseball marched merrily along through the chaos, as games were played while players sported masks in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease.

I was fascinated by these pictures of a ballgame in January 1919, when *everyone* on the field wore flu masks (including the mascot!), so I dug into the history of baseball and outbreak https://t.co/hglYqA2BPt pic.twitter.com/oHUFsHUj3k
— Emma Baccellieri (@emmabaccellieri) March 9, 2020

Baseball was such a force back then that not even one of the deadliest pandemics ever was enough to grind it to a halt. However, given the more advanced medical knowledge we have in 2020, we can confidently say that was probably not the best move.

Every moron pointing to this as evidence that the MLB should continue playing games is being extremely short sighted. The flu these guys played through killed 675,000 Americans, including a few who were MLB players at the time.

this current COVID-19 pandemic reminds me of back when I played in 1918, the Spanish flu hit the globe & killed up to 675K Americans! But MLB played the full season. some ballplayers actually passed away due to the flu https://t.co/CWIxYi9sfM
— Pickles Dillhoefer • MLB 1917-1921 (@PicklesMLB1921) March 15, 2020

If we all take proper precautions to prevent the spread of this virus, we can get our beloved baseball back sooner rather than later. Let's work together, folks!