What we would like to do and what can be the realty of sports remain yards, feet, and meters apart. Now should be high school and college cold-April track and field meets. Rain-threatened high school baseball games should be the rule, in spite of the high 70 degree exception Tuesday this week. Other Spring sports should be flexing their muscles.
Talk and rumors about plans to resume major college and professional sports are about the only discussion extant, not comparisons of teams and leading players.
In Major League Baseball (MLB) the story line in some talk today is that when play begins it all would be in Arizona in empty stadiums. The devil is in the details.
How many weeks? Would Florida and southern California have an influence? Would the northern teams realize a proper amount of revenue? How would home teams be rotated? It does align in the talk category without serious discussions. Instead, speculation.
The northern teams may balk because the MLB season may not start until late May or early June to allow logistics to be worked out and a streamline approach, if possible. Spring training would be held and most teams see that time as good-weather propositions. There is no way that the MLB can make a decision without input from the Major League Baseball Players Association. It will be interesting to see how it works out and if discussions are serious sooner rather than later.
Other professional sports form variable possibilities. The Chicago Steel minor league hockey team was awarded the regular-season championship because they had the best record when the games were suspended. The season was declared completed. What will be the destiny of the Chicago Wolves in the American Hockey League, the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Chicago Bulls? Creative solutions are the topics with no easy answers. Infringing on the following seasons is a consideration. Chicago Fire soccer and NASCAR are seeking to resume in early or the middle of May, however, the Indianapolis 500, originally set for May 24, was pushed to Sunday, Aug. 23, which will be a stretch for NASCAR and Major League Soccer to resume in May.
Even Wimbledon tennis in England, set for late June until the middle of July has been canceled. Some of the courts are being used for victims of the COVID-19. Tennis fans will be saddened. The French Open, which would have started in late May, has been pushed to September 20-October 4.
Wimbledon leaders have commented that there are no other dates possible for the prestigious tournament. Such is life. Our expectations must be lowered and the realization of safe health is paramount.
• The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association 2020 annual all-star games in early June have been canceled. The IBCA Hall of Fame banquet originally set for May 2 has been postponed and not canceled. A new date has not been selected.
• The realization apparently has sunk in for the participants and leaders of the sports world the hiatus is more than just a two, three, or, even a four-week hiatus. The Nation is in a health-related shutdown.
We must see a greater reduction in deaths prior to any games being played on any level. Even the youngsters must be made to realize the severity of the process.
Good health cannot be replaced. The 1918-1919 flu killed approximately 50 Million world-wide and 675,000 in the U.S., however, residents did not have cable television to report the nightly numbers of casualties. By comparison the death total in the U.S. has passed 10,000 deaths.
• Ending on a happier note: The Indian Creek boys basketball team, 35-1, and victorious in its first 35 games, captured four of the eight unanimous player berths in the Little Ten Conference boys basketball team. The quartet: Cooper Larson, senior forward, Drew Gaston, junior guard, Michael Lampson, junior guard, and Cameron Russell, junior guard. So three of the four will return next season.
The other four unanimous all-conference selections come from four schools. They are Liam Roberts, senior forward from Somonauk; Landon Larkin, senior guard from Earlville; Tony Pusateri, senior guard from Serena; and Marcus Winn, senior guard from LaMoille-Ohio. Two more players round out the honor team, Nate Christian, and Alex Tollefson, each from Newark.