March 12th, 2020. It’s 4:00 in the afternoon, just getting ready to lock up the office for the night. As I leave for the day, I checked the phone app to update myself on the happenings of conference tournaments around the country. The start of the greatest three weeks in sports was on the horizon, namely the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Like millions of other Americans, I needed the edge to best complete the annual rite of passage, the tournament bracket. To my astonishment, where the games scores should have been, I saw one word continuously pop up game after game…canceled. Following the announcement from the night before that most games would be played in empty arenas moving forward, the unthinkable happened. Sports came to a screeching halt.
More cancellation announcements followed in rapid succession. No NCAA Basketball tournaments and no more NCAA spring sports. Other events of great magnitude such as the Masters, Boston Marathon, Indianapolis 500, the Summer Olympics, and the start of the 2020 Major League Baseball Season have been postponed. My sports world now primarily consists of re-watching the Ken Burns Baseball documentary series and trying to skipper the Red Sox to a world championship in MLB The Show on Playstation 4. As an aside, if you have not seen the Ken Burns Baseball documentary, it is outstanding.
Terms such as rebounds, turnovers, and blocked shots have been replaced by a whole new lexicon. You can’t go anywhere without reading about or hearing the phrases “social distancing” or “flattening the curve”.
Since that day, I feel like I’m walking on proverbial egg shells when talking or writing about the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s hard to find that perfect balance of taking this health situation seriously while at the same time quelling panic and fear. Then there’s the question as to what role, if any, the discussion of sports should play during this time. To borrow a phrase from longtime Maine media personality Mike Violette, sports are “the toy department of life”. With the health and security at stake for many worldwide, physically, emotionally, as well as economically, the sports world certainly takes a back seat. I totally get that. However, we may need that toy department now more than ever.
The most difficult aspect with all of this is the unknown. I feel for the players who don’t know at this point whether they will even have a season. Look, I’ve had the opportunity to have had twenty-five wonderful seasons behind the mic at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor, doing the baseball public address announcing. I expect to be back at some point this season. Even if, and I emphasize if, we don’t have a 2020 baseball season, Lord willing, I will have many more to look forward to as long as I can still do a good job and they are willing to have me. Our young student-athletes have a very short window in which to compete. Yes, there are more pressing issues that people are dealing with right now than sports. I get that…I really do. But, that doesn’t mean sports don’t matter. They most certainly do.
I speak from personal experience, and I’m sure most of you can relate, sports provide so much more than what happens inside the lines of competition. For me, they provide a certain rhythm, a comfort level to life, almost akin to breathing itself. It’s something that has always been there. Most of the meaningful relationships I have in this world were developed through athletics. While I enjoy the games themselves, I relish the banter in the press box during games at Mansfield Stadium. I love greeting the grounds crew members and concession workers when I arrive for the day. I enjoy the conversations with the coaches and trainers in the fall while operating the score clock at a soccer or field hockey game, or doing public address announcing for football. During the high school basketball season, I look forward to meeting up with the table personnel when our John Bapst basketball teams travel on the road.
During this time, I’ve often pondered what our country will look like when we return to normalcy. Granted, we likely won’t flip on a switch and have everything come back at once as we knew it. I anticipate a gradual return to normalcy. We likely will see closed businesses reopening, followed by the return of local baseball. Just an educated guess, but I believe we are a long way off from seeing mass gatherings and the return of Major League Baseball. This will likely be the final thing that returns.
I think we all have to answer for ourselves what the post COVID-19 world might look like. A lot of it will be based on the lessons as a society we collectively learned. Often it is during times of extreme hardship we are changed and learn the most. So, what will we learn? For me, I have learned never to take anything for granted. I am very blessed to be able to do what I do and vow never to lose sight of that. I’ll try not to grumble if the game is 15-3 in the top of the seventh and the poor young pitcher can’t get the ball over the plate. I’ll just be thankful I’m there doing what I love to do.
I’ve also reflected on the importance of relationships. In a strange sense, during this time of social distancing, many of us realize how much we crave face to face contact. Text and instant messaging are nice but they don’t take the place of gathering together. Going forward, I hope many of us will be intentional about fostering those relationships that are most important to us. Hopefully, we won’t get too busy for people.
The days ahead will be tough but we will get through this together. When we get to the other side we hope we will be better for this together.
