Normally I’d have written a sports piece by now. These
aren’t normal times.
The Cubs would be in week 2. You can’t get a great sense of
a team that soon but April baseball is still baseball. I can’t watch old
replays of games from years ago. ESPN showed the classic ‘20 strikeout’ game
Kerry Wood pitched in 1998. I couldn’t bring myself to watch it. I’m not one
for re-living old games. Sure not having any sports is tough but I can’t go back
there. Maybe a couple minutes of Michael Martinez hitting into a grounder in
game 7 of the World Series. Chris Bryant scoops, throws; Anthony Rizzo catches
and steps on the bag, celebration on. That last inning I’d watch, 2016 wasn’t
that long ago.
Yes I know how insufferable we are about ’16. I’m sure every
Cardinals fan rolls their eyes when we say it, but how bout them Cubs!!?
I listen to a podcast by David Kaplan called Cubs Talk. It’s been awful since Corona.
It’s a twice weekly show with no content to speak of. The guys are still
putting out episodes but it’s like guys at the bar talking. The subjects are Cubs
all-timers, funny player stories and team trivia. Not great, but then it’s
hardly their fault. I’m impressed that they’re still putting out material. I’m
not sure I could put together enough for two shows a week when the team isn’t
playing, or practicing, or trading.
All the 24/7 channels like Fox Sports and ESPN are doing
work but it’s very lean. Fortunately there are some moves happening in the NFL,
trade rumors and draft talk to report on. Normally I beat these guys up for
focusing too much on silly non-sports stuff like Twitter wars amongst athletes.
I’d kill for some of that gossipy stuff now. I feel genuinely bad for these
hosts with really nothing to report on. They’ve resorted to just asking other
hosts for opinions from their upstairs offices. The ‘studios’ are just laptop
cameras, earbuds, poor audio and over-lit rooms.
Not being at work means I haven’t watched as much. Work for
me means TVs at high volume and sports around the clock, it’s a sporting goods
store after all. Being at home means less TV and fewer games, or at least less
of the news and talk stuff early in the day. For most people it’s the other way
around.
I heard Kaplan say that when baseball finally does come back
they’ll have to do another spring training before they can start the games.
That seems odd to me. Why aren’t the players staying in shape during this
quarantine phase? Maybe there is just something about game level speed that
can’t be replicated without a full month of training. I’m sure this is true for
pitchers but I doubt position players need to see a month of big league
pitching to get right. Spring is usually a slow month for hitters anyway. When
the weather warms up the averages climb, at least I think that’s right. But
since everyone is slower I don’t see the problem with starting everyone as soon
as possible. They have the same disadvantages after all.
There are more important aspects of life that need to get
sorted out first. We need to get back to work for one thing. We need to earn
money and find purpose again. Kids can’t be learning much from zoom lectures.
Then again maybe the parents who can will see the benefits of homeschooling
through all of this. It’s not an option for most but others can really thrive
in a goal driven environment. Maybe some teachers will be able to create
amazing lessons, upload videos and get great feedback from kids. Not having
certain classroom distractions makes it possible to actually teach. This may be
a blessing for some.
In the meantime my sports bug will just have to itch.
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