LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — I have always counted the days until the start of the Major League Baseball season. I do it every year.
Only 148 from the final out of Washington’s World Series victory over Houston to the first pitch of the White Sox home opener against the Royals Thursday.
Winter meetings. Free agency. Pitchers and catchers reporting. First spring training game. Roster cuts.
Play ball!
I set my calendar to the rhythm of the sports world, my work calendar pivots out from games every Saturday from September through April.
Without Saturday basketball this month, Tuesday has seemed like Thursday which has seemed like Saturday, which has seemed befuddling.
Today, Friday March 27, I finished a different countdown — 14 days since WDRB sports director Aaron Matas and I returned from the Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament in Greensboro, N.C.
That was the last time I did not practice social distancing as seriously as I practice it today. That was the last time I was in close quarters with a large group that likely included somebody carrying COVID-19.
Good luck maintaining social distance in a media room with work tables placed three feet apart. Good luck trying to determine the health of the person who earlier occupied the work space that Aaron and I selected.
Confession: I deliberately picked a spot close to a wall. Nobody could have sat to my left.
I mention the trip to Greensboro because it’s been two full weeks since players, coaches, staff and media left the Greensboro Coliseum and the ACC tournament was canceled. If you have been exposed and infected by the novel coronavirus, your symptoms should begin within 14 days.
I have not found reports of outbreaks resulting from the ACC gathering in Greensboro. But earlier this week I did read about a writer who covered the event who was certain he had the virus after he showed multiple symptoms shortly after he returned home.
He wrote that he spoke with his doctor, but was not tested and is now feeling better.
That left me counting down the time from our trip to Greensboro until 14 days were complete.
I don’t believe Aaron and I were in the media room at the same time as the writer who said he had symptoms. The last game that he covered ended several hours before we arrived.
But … I checked the schedules. Those are some of the things I think about, especially after Eric Crawford, another WDRB teammate, shared the news today from New York City that Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked President Trump for approval at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.
And, that the Marriott Hotel at the Brooklyn Bridge was under consideration to be transformed into a medical facility.
Aqueduct has always been known as the site for the Wood Memorial, a top traditional prep race for the Kentucky Derby
The Marriott Brooklyn Bridge served as the official ACC hotel during the seasons when the league played its men’s tournament in Brooklyn.
My mind danced to that and to how much the world has been on tilt since Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gobert announced he tested positive on March 11 and the dominoes fell.
On March 12, we were this close to the ACC starting its quarterfinal opener between Florida State and Clemson. Both teams were on the court, stretching, shooting, preparing for a game.
ACC commissioner John Swofford certainly wanted the game to go on. The Big East played the first half of a game at Madison Square Garden in New York City that day.
Although the arena was closed except to only several hundred family members and friends of the players, I remember looking at the Florida State section and wondering why all the fans sat shoulder to shoulder in the first 10-to-12 rows.
Wasn’t the idea to spread folks across the entire lower bowl?
Why were the pep bands arranged in each end zone as if the place was packed?
I’m not saying either league was reckless or out of touch. They were trying to figure it out, the way we’re all trying to figure out this new reality.
From that day’s early vibe that the games should go on we have reached the point where sports influencers like ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit said things like this (on a national radio interview) Thursday:
"I'll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I'll be so surprised if that happens.
"Just because from what I understand, people that I listen to, you're 12 to 18 months from a [coronavirus] vaccine. I don't know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don't know how you can do it with the optics of it.”
Herbstreit is not an immunologist. He’s a former Ohio State quarterback. He won’t make the call.
But those are issues that commissioners and athletic directors will have to confront.
Herbstreit expressed concerns others will certainly ask:
How many players will hesitate before returning to locker rooms before a vaccine is available?
How many fans will pause before spending their money to sit shoulder-to-shoulder at massive outdoor stadiums or inside arenas?
I’ll stop there. It will be a long list. Everybody will make one after we return to the days of counting down to the start of resumed seasons.
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