Is it Opening Day Yet?

We want them back, and we’re finally see some sports leagues coming back. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) came back, but I think that’s the last one that should have come back. It’s literally men in boxers fighting each other – social distancing, anyone? This is literally where coronavirus spreads.

Bundesliga came back for a few games and I guess I’m fine with that because soccer isn’t really a contact sport.

Now to the sports that hopefully might come back this summer. I heard that baseball actually might open its stadiums in June for Spring Training but on ESPN’s main page today, they said that there might be a season returning on July 4. However, the MLB needs the cooperation of 27 cities and an undisclosed foreign country. MLB’s plan includes frequent testing, which is responsible, but it’s wasting tests for people that may actually be positive. Right now it’s a double negative, it’s wasting tests but it means that live sports can come back.

I want sports to come back so much that when horses began running around the track and there was a clip of it on TV, my eyes were glued to the TV because it the first glimpse of live sports I had in a few months.

Sports resuming poses a rightfully big concern for some, including star player with the Los Angeles Angels Mike Trout, who with his wife are expecting their first child in August, says that his wife is his biggest concern, because if he gets infected and then that won’t be good for anyone. I understand Trout but I think that with all the precautions that the MLB is taking, players won’t get infected. Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood can’t wait to get back, saying, “It’ll be a good thing for our country and our fans.” I surely agree with Wood because I really want sports back.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred isn’t being the boneheaded clown that he was during the Astros investigation and should be grateful for COVID-19 because it’s diverting attention from Bozo’s great handling of the investigation to the returning of baseball.

National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver has been very weird in bringing the NBA back. Oh, yeah, NBA practice facilities are coming back, did they? No one knows. Silver did say in a May 14 interview that sports could come back in two to four weeks. At this pace, basketball will be coming back in two to four days or two to four months.

National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell is the only one who’s holding himself well. He told NFL practice facilities to open and some did, some didn’t. Goodell has been handling himself okay, but Bozo’s screw-ups will never be forgotten. Silver has been wishy washy and just plain weird. I think Goodell is handling himself professionally because he took away the pass interference review rule. So what if it’s a low overturn rate, it shuts the coaches and fans up, and so what if the coaches waste a timeout reviewing the call, let them do it. I personally like the rule because it carefully reviews bad calls (or so coaches think) made by the refs.

With all of the jockeying for the right policy and faux starts, I think that the leagues should resume games this Spring with empty stadiums and arenas because, after all, sports is good for the country’s health. Television experience won’t be the same but we all have to make sacrifices at this time.

Remember, you read this here first: Sports are important for America. If sports were meaningless, then the Atlantic Ocean would be a drop of water.