Will COVID-19 be the needle that finally bursts the sports bubble?

Add to that the number of college athletic programs to include the same sort of allied businesses pulling income as well. Same thing applies.

They're going to be desperate. A lot of people will be. This thing is a long way from over.

 

I'm going to run right out and rejoice that I can't drink good beer and watch the best baseball in town in a gem of a local ballpark. Let me hurry and get right on that for you.

C'mon, man.

 

I've seen tweets from some short-A or Rookie league teams and fans wondering if their teams will ever be back.

 

We have a pretty solid AA franchise in a very nice indeed new ball park. I *think* they're safe.

 

Yeah, but Double A teams weren’t already on the chopping block. The short-season teams definitely are.

 

Like tearing down statues!

In all seriousness, little is more important than getting the kids back to schools, but I fully expect most of the nation to get that wrong. The federal government hasn't been much help, and state and local governments, apparently helpless to resolve its own issues anymore, won't, in many places, get it done. Finally, some pediatrics academy has pulled its head out of its rear end and advocated for full in-person school, and Fauci seemed OK with it today, as well. I just don't think there's enough time.

When Biden wins, I sure hope the nation's misery switch get flipped and we feel like, you know, doing shit again. America appears to be in a full-on pout, with the virus giving license to throw up our hands. Trump hasn't been very damn good at it but, if we're honest, not a whole hell of a lot of people have been up to it. We're so broken down into demographics and denominations and silos and identities that we can't agree on the simplest things, like masks.

 

I don't want the leagues to pack it in.

COVID is going to decide for us where our resources are best spent and sports is not one of those areas right now.

Science doesn't give a fuck if you need football back.

Why are we throwing more energy into getting these seasons rebooted and not the schools? Why?

I'll hang up and listen.

 

So I've been misreading hundreds of pages of comments over the past three months about how pointless sports are, and how we'd all be better off if they'd just cancel every season for the foreseeable future?
Maybe we're all getting a little cranky after a few months of this. But there also appears to be a lot of folks in sports media who appear to be just fine with not playing in 2020 -- or, seemingly, ever again -- even though their livelihoods and a lot of other people's livelihoods are tied in to the sports industry. It's been there for a while and the past few months have cranked it up a notch.
It might manifest itself as concerns over spreading the virus, or the players sticking it to The Man (owners or the NCAA), or social justice issues, but there is a remarkable amount of disdain and self-loathing for the entire enterprise that is really grating on me.

 

This is not an appealing habit of yours.

 

Nor was it appealing for it take until the end of June for getting kids to go back to school to become the priority it always should have been. To be fair, I don’t blame the academy for that.

 

The nation as a whole may never have had as low a level of patience (or lack of attention span) as it does right now. Plus, journalists are notorious nabobs of negativity, particularly when there's nothing to waste column space on. And every issue, no matter how large or small, seems to require an all or nothing response right now.

This, too, shall pass. IF people will be patient. But we have none, and it's only going to make things worse.

Are professional sports necessary for the betterment of society? No. Are they a decent time waster and a way to escape the world's troubles for a couple of hours as a pastime? Heck, yes. Have I watched the PGA Tour? Yep. NASCAR? No, but that's a professional courtesy.

For me, the fight is between my irrational interests and my need for logical response. I would love to see the Tigers get blown out in a baseball game that means something. But is the risk worth the reward? I'm not putting myself in harm's way any more than I have to. Why should I ask a professional or amateur athlete to do the same, just to amuse me?

 

Not sure if this is completely fair. There are loud voices here and on the national scene that definitely are against sports coming back right now, many for very good reasons.

I think there are just as many who are rooting for sports to return. Also for very good reasons. They just might not be as loud.

I want them back for personal and professional reasons. I like that MLB and the NBA have a plan. But yeah, I'm skeptical because of the virus spike around the country. And the seeming unwillingness of the non-mask, crowded bar demographic to do what it takes to have sports back.