Kevin Goldstein is a former baseball blogging nerd whose mastery of advanced analysis allowed him to achieve every baseball nerd’s wet dream: he was hired as Director of Scouting by an actual major league team. Goldstein had a major role in building the Astros from laughingstock to juggernaut under General Manager Jeff Luhnow. He’s now returned to civilian baseball analysis as editor of Fangraphs.com which, for my money, is the best collection of advanced baseball statistics and analysis available on the web.

On March 11, Goldstein wrote an account of the days in the second week of March 2020 when he realized that the shit had hit the fan and it was time to scramble back from the Dominican Republic and hunker down. Here’s a taste:

“I waited patiently at the counter; when it was my turn, the agent took my passport and began to type on his terminal. Then he typed some more. Then he paused and cocked his head like a dog confused by the sound of a fart. Then he typed some more and stared at his screen in silence for what was probably just 20 seconds but what felt like an hour.”

Here’s the rest:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/marking-a-pandemic-anniversary/#more-356365