The Pandemic Blues, looking back, Part 3 --- Sports then, and now

 

NOTE:
This column, which was published in early May in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, discussed the at-then tentative plans to allow sports back. As it turned out, pro sports did make a comeback, but college sports have since been decimated due to the cancellations or delays of seasons, except for the bigger football conferences.
But at the same time, thousands of athletes have been penalized by the pandemic with the elimination of sports at dozens of colleges such as cross-country, tennis, golf – and many of those colleges refuse to charge less for remote learning while giving students much less bang for their dollars.
The result is that we see the big colleges trying to plow ahead and play competitive sports, especially football, during the pandemic; yet every time there are outbreaks of positive tests, activities are stopped and people seem surprised by the increased positive test numbers, so it remains to be seen whether those seasons will be able to be completed.
Meanwhile, our splintered response to the pandemic has created a patchwork of conditions and rules around the country --- a condition that only figures to prolong the pandemic as infections and deaths (now more than 200,000) are both on the rise in the United States.
We’re split between laissez-faire reactions and those who want more severe restrictions. We see some governors, such as that of Florida, deciding to end all rules despite rising cases, something that seems extremely risky at this time, and which in the long run will only hurt our economy by forcing a return to more stringent rules.
We see the contradictions all across the country.
On the one hand, huge political rallies for the president are being held with little regard to social distancing or mask-wearing, and we all saw the summer’s massive motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, where hundreds of thousands of people gathered without masks.
Yet, on the other hand, we have dozens of states with still-restrictive rules for gatherings – rules that are confusing, confounding and are being interpreted and enforced haphazardly in far too many cases.
Case in point: Right in Massachusetts, we still have a 50-people outdoor limit and 25-people indoor limit and yet I’ve seen youth ball fields with well more than 100 parents watching games shoulder to shoulder -- and few people socially distancing or bothering to wear masks.
The bottom line; We will have no chance of getting past this pandemic until and unless that tired catch-phrase that far too many companies have appropriated in their annoying TV commercials --- “We’re all in this together” --- actually starts to mean something.
Right now, it rings hollow!

NOTE: This column is from May 1, 2020
No one has a crystal ball when it comes to predicting how the next several months will play out in terms of whether the coronavirus pandemic will be contained enough to allow a return to even a semblance of our former lives.
Most experts agree that reopening the nation should be done gradually to reflect the virus' spread in different parts of the country, lest all the good that social distancing has done be wiped out.
But one common thread that appears in most discussions by health care professionals about when and how to open up the country concerns whether to allow large-scale events. Most experts say that, without a widespread vaccine, it would be foolhardy to do so.
As a result, many events have already been shelved until 2021, including concerts by Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber that had been planned for Gillette Stadium this summer. The major sports leagues, which suspended  play in mid-March, have been tossing around plans to reboot their seasons without fans, but it's only been talk at this point, as the proposals are riddled with obstacles.
Major League Baseball's preliminary plans, for example, of playing in spring training locations in Arizona and-or Florida, sound too convoluted to be practical. Worries include what would happen if a couple of players tested positive for the virus. Plans floated by the NBA and NHL carry similar pitfalls.
Yet even if such gatherings were approved in some fashion and included social-distancing measures, you'd have to wonder how many people would choose to attend until we're all protected from the virus by an effective vaccine. Until that day arrives, which could be at least a year away, we should ask these  questions:
* Would even the most zealous football fans want to tailgate at Gillette Stadium this fall for Patriots games and-or stand in line for autographs at the team's crowded summer training camp?
* Would music fans dare attend concerts at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield or Gillette?
* Who among the most passionate Red Sox or PawSox fans would want to watch a game at Fenway Park or McCoy Stadium, and would they feel safe lining up to buy hot dogs, beer and pretzels?
* Would golf fans go to the TPC Boston course in Norton if the Northern Trust tournament is able to be held as scheduled Aug. 17-23?
The answer to those questions is that people have been so frightened by COVID-19 – which has killed tens of thousands across the country and hundreds of thousands across the globe – that they very likely would think twice about attending such events in 2020. Indeed, several recent polls taken have suggested that most fans would stay away from  games and other large-scale events until there's a vaccine.
That's why, with so much uncertainty about the virus' spread, it's time to consider 2020 a lost year for major spectator sports and concerts. Being a longtime sports fan, and a Red Sox and PawSox diehard, I didn't arrive at that conclusion lightly. It nonetheless appears the right thing to do, because no one has a handle on what to expect from the virus for the rest of the year.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan reflected that uncertainly when he declared, when announcing the Northern Trust tourney's August dates: “The health and safety of all associated with the PGA Tour and our global community continues to be our No. 1 priority.”
Monahan then added the caveat that's on the minds of all those entrusted with organizing major events: “But, as we’ve stressed on several occasions, we will resume competition only when — working closely with our tournaments, partners and communities — it is considered safe to do so under the guidance of the leading public health authorities.”
Those same concerns are also why the Boston Marathon should have been postponed for a full year, to April 2021, and not to Monday, Sept. 14, because the huge number of entrants is too daunting to ensure everyone's health. Having more than 30,000 runners from 112 nations and all 50 states, according to the Boston Athletic Association (BAA), cheered on by thousands of spectators lining the 26.2-mile Hopkinton-Boston course, should be reason enough not to hold the marathon in September. Being a lifelong Boston Marathon fan and former entrant, and having been a runner for 45 years, it's not easy to advocate delaying the race until 2021.
But it's becoming increasingly clear that the safest thing to do would be to let the health care professionals and government leaders work together to open their states as much as possible later this year, and hope for the best with respect to a COVID-19 vaccine being approved early next year. Such a decision would make fans feel a whole lot better about returning to the stadiums, concert halls and theaters sometime in 2021.
It's more important that our current efforts be directed to getting as much of our everyday lives back as possible without taking the enormous risk that allowing large-scale events would pose, especially when schools in Massachusetts and many other states won't open until at least September, and college students' return to their campuses in the fall is also up in the air.