Last week, I mentioned the blockheaded statement by Oklahoma State football coach, Mike Gundy, regarding the urgent need to start preparing for the college football season on May 1st. His remarks were crass and showed that he viewed the landscape of life through a drinking straw. Lots of commentators pounced on him – justifiably – for those remarks; here is one such comment from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:
“Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy, a coronavirus denier who wants his players back at work May 1, shows every sign of being what psychologists call ‘a flaming idiot.’”
Dabo Swinney announced that he was “absolutely certain” that the college football season would go on exactly as scheduled in 2020. He took gas for that sort of a remark. Now, before you generalize and try to portray all college football coaches as maniacal control freaks – – which many of them admittedly are – – consider these two remarks by UCLA coach, Chip Kelly, from a conference call with reporters:
“I’m not well-versed in infectious diseases. I’ll leave that to the Dr. Faucis of the world, who I’ve got a lot of faith in. When I listen to him talk, it seems like he’s got a pretty good grasp of it, so when he says ‘Go,’ we’ll go.”
AND…
“If it’s not safe for fans to attend the games, then I don’t know why it would be safe for players to participate in the games.”
I don’t know abut you, but I am comfortable associating myself with Chip Kelly’s comments here…
While on the subject of starting up sports leagues and how to do that in the time of COVID-19, please consider these two observations from Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:
“A non-starter: Baseball’s Arizona plan is an example of a league thinking it can outsmart a pandemic. Science? Who needs that when you can send 30 teams to the desert for a mid-May start, sequestering players in hotels before letting them out to play in any of 11 stadiums? It also would prevent players from seeing their families and significant others. Whatever idea the NBA may come up with to restart its season, it cannot top this for stupidity.”
AND…
“Almost lifelike: The Taiwan Chinese Professional Baseball League is beginning play without people in the seats. The Rakuten Monkeys, however, have dressed up 500 robot mannequins as fans and placed them around their stadium. I wonder if they can do the wave.”
This stay-at-home environment – combined with no live sports to watch – presents me with time on my hands and a need to go and find things to rant on. Don’t ask how I ran across the following pair of stats; it was a long and convoluted journey:
- The MLB career leader in balks is Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton. He was called for a balk 90 times in his long and otherwise sterling career.
- On May 4th, 1963, Milwaukee Braves pitcher, Bob Shaw, had a bad day on the mound. He committed 3 balks in the 3rd inning that day (a major-league record) and a total of 5 balks in that game (also a major league record).
The NY Post reported over the weekend that CBS would not renew its contract with Dan Fouts as the color analyst on its #2 NFL announcing team. Fouts had been paired with Ian Eagle for the past several years and I was always glad to have them on the air for a game I was watching. [Aside: I think Ian Eagle is an excellent play-by-play announcer for both football and basketball.] CBS will replace Dan Fouts with Charles Davis who has been the color guy for FOX and its #2 NFL announcing team.
If the execs at FOX happen to be looking internally for someone to elevate to the #2 announcing team, might I please place Ronde Barber’s name in nomination. Last year Barber was paired with Kenny Albert for FOX games and I think he has plenty of potential behind a microphone.
The XFL has ceased operations. It did not merely cancel its games and furlough its workers; it fired everyone working for and with the league. Too bad. I wonder how many more years it will be until someone else comes up with the idea of pro football in the springtime…
Finally, here is another comment from Greg Cote of the Miami Herald regarding another scheduling casualty in the days of COVID-19:
“Scripps said it would not hold its annual National Spelling Bee May 24 as planned, leaving a bunch of 13-year-old brainiacs totally c-h-a-g-r-i-n-e-d.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
Google and Apple are working on a contact tracing app that will let you know if you were potentially exposed to the virus. That may be fine for a 25 y/o person in perfect health, but for a lot of us that is the notification that we will probably be dead in a few weeks. I plan to continue my stay at home regimen until I feel it is safe to change. Maybe I will consider attending a sports event at that time.
Doug:
I too plan to maintain my voluntary isolation. It is not only sporting events that I will shy away from over the next several months; I will not go to the movies or to a concert or to a Smithsonian Associates lecture (my wife and I do plenty of these). Going to a restaurant will likely be the first “public excursion” we will try and that is not in the foreseeable future at the moment.
Having suffered through 3 years of Chip Kelly in Philadelphia with his reputedly antisocial personality, I am surprised to see that he has become the forward and logical thinker he now appears to be.
Gary:
His comments on that conference call were certainly rational and mainstream.