Crazy damn times, huh?
Also, does anyone else get the feeling we’re embarking on a new, horrifying normal?
Let’s run it down here. For starters (and OBVIOUSLY most importantly), the Dragons’ season has come to an end. YOU HATE TO SEE IT YOU GUYS! Now we’ll never know if that second-half run I was predicting would’ve come to pass! Oh well, at least we’ll always have detesting Brandon Silvers.
The NBA is shut down for a while. MLB looks to be starting its regular season a little later than expected. I think NHL is on a break, as is MLS, and someone even told me that golf is out!
Of course, the big one for me is the NCAA Tournament being canceled. I go on an annual trip to Reno for the opening weekend of March Madness and it’s easily the most fun weekend of the year. My flights and rooms were reserved, my Drink Bracelet was purchased (all you can drink, all 4-day weekend long, during the college basketball action, for a total of $165), my PTO is set in place. It was all going according to plan! And then the rug was pulled out from under me.
My friends and I are coping as best we can. We’ll have some local get-together set up hopefully. But, obviously this is fucking weird.
It never made sense to postpone the NCAA Tournament to May, even with all the money at stake. There are too many college seniors and underclassmen who are declaring for the NBA Draft this summer; you think they’re going to participate in some dopey tournament this close to seeing their lifelong dreams being realized? No way! So, right there, you lose a significant portion of your talent pool, which ultimately fucks up how the teams are seeded (because if they’re seeded according to how they played WITH those future pros, then obviously they’re going to be seeded incorrectly).
Plus, you know, I probably can’t make it to Reno in May. I likely won’t have the PTO saved up, and I’ve been looking forward to this mid-March week off since the turn of the new year! I refuse to change my whole mindset and resume working!
I don’t even know how to … like function? I mean, it’s not like March is the busiest sports month for me anyway, but the NCAA Tournament is a big deal! The first two days (not counting the play-in games) are the best two days in all of sports! And yeah, it’s not like I was necessarily looking forward to the 2020 Mariners, but I did have tickets to the opening day game! That’s something that’s still fun to go to, regardless of how shitty they are!
I wouldn’t say my life is turned upside down by this news (it’d be a lot worse if we were smack dab in football season), but usually the first thing I do when I turn on my TV is find sports, and leave it there until I find something that I REALLY want to watch (usually, I settle for whatever sports I turned it to initially). It’s always great for background fodder; sports’ presence in my life is much more significant than I realized before they just went away.
And, obviously, concerns over the virus have me second guessing plans in the rest of my life. I’d like to go see a movie today after work. I said the same thing to myself last Friday, and ended up staying in and watching a movie at home instead. Now, of course, the movies being released this time of year aren’t the greatest, but that’s never really stopped me before! Maybe it’s because I’ve been working from home, and it’s super easy to continue staying at home when the working day is done (Oh Steve’s just wanna have fun!).
But, also, that little nagging concern – what if you get sick at that movie – is always there. Wasn’t enough to keep me from Reno if the NCAA Tournament was still happening, but … LOOK OVER THERE, BEHIND YOU!
*Runs serpentine away from my own failed logic*
I mean, what do we do now? Watch the fucking news? Those fucking scavengers, whipping everyone into a frenzy where they’re so paralyzed by fear that all they can do is hunker down on the couch and keep watching more news, hoping and praying that things get better before they get worse. Fuck that!
I say, put those sports-viewing energies to better use. Rent movies, watch comedy specials, read books, go get whatever creative project you’ve been meaning to do and get started on it right away! Learn how to knit, write that short story, buy Pro Tools and become the world-famous D.J. you were always meant to be!
Binge-watch Cheers!
In closing, I don’t know what I’m gonna write about on here, but I figure I’ll start getting antsy at some point. Get ready for some strange, loopy shit! Seattle Sports Hell might just turn itself into an Aerosmith Fan Blog for all I know! Steve In An Elevator!
I dunno, we’re just spitballin’ here. I’ll do better.