The doctors called and asked Donovan Mitchell Sr. to open the door to his hotel room, slide the bolt so that it remained open and then back into the room.
He was unfit. But then the doctors started walking in full hemat suits and that day – what was going on Mitchell’s mind on March 12, 2020 – was how ill he could be. And if he was indeed ill with COVID-19, did he make the entire Met team sick?
“They were there for two minutes to test me, then they left,” Mitchell said, recalling the uncertain time of a year ago. “I stayed there for the next few days wondering if I had it or not and to whom I would have given it.”
It was part of a “scary, scary time” in the words of Mitchell, who was the Mets director of public relations and community engagement at the time. On March 4, he accompanied his son, Utah Jazz star, Donovan Mitchell Jr., to Madison Square Garden to play Nucks.
The following week, he was back at spring training in Port St. Lucie. March 11, Wednesday night, he was back at the hotel after dinner with friends as Jazz was to play in Oklahoma City. Mitchell turned on the game on his laptop, but the voice muted, and he was surprised that the game had not started. They felt that the clock was defective. The referees then waved the teams back to the locker room and Mitchell made a sound. But even before that, he was thinking, “Is this a virus?”
He and five friends were scheduled to leave for Salt Lake City the next day to take part in three games over four days, but his FaceTime rang and the first thing his son said was “cancel the trip.” Mitchell Jr. told him that a player on the team had tested positive, but did not say who (it was star center Rudy Gobi).
The next day Michelle Sr. was on the phone with a friend, when another asked, “Is this true?” When he saw the ticker on TV, he knew what it was: his son tested positive for COVID, as well. Michelle calls her son, who assures her that he feels fine, no symptoms.
But when Mitchell Jr. contracted the virus, there was no certainty about it. Mitchell was with his son at the Senior Garden, and he set up tickets through the Knicks at a reduced price for about 65 Mets employees who he had in the game. He then traveled to Port St. Lucie.
Now, after learning of his son’s diagnosis, Mitchell mentally ran through every player on the Mets’ roster and, yes, he made contact with all of them.
“We did autograph signings, productions, appearances. I was with every player in that locker room,” Mitchell said. “If I had, it would have been such a deal to the extent that I would have done it to someone. … Now, I’m starting to get nervous. If I have, I do not want to be the reason that they cannot practice or they cannot play or I have infected someone in the team. “
The panic was further aggravated when doctors in the Hazmat suit showed up to test him. It got worse when the doctor called with the result, as he first said, “Hold on, Jeff Wilpone is on call,”.
“Now, I’m really scared because why would Jeff be on the phone until I have?” Michelle said. But Wilpone and Michelle had a long, positive relationship and so the owners wanted to call.
“Jeff broke me: You’re fine, you’re good. It was a sigh of relief.”
Games, like all sports, are nonetheless closed. When baseball returned, Mitchell was installed in the newly created role of Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In December, around Christmas, Michelle did not feel well. He had contracted COVID-19, which was a minor issue.
“It’s such a strange year,” Mitchell said. “Everyone is impressed.”
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