Sports, Time Never Seen

The days move on and the sporting world gets pushed further away from our existence by the mandated social distancing and threat of the deadly Coronavirus.

For many, including myself, sports has sometimes played too large of a role in everyday life.

As some have told me, "there is more to life than sports."

Through some culture introduced to me by my wife -- before she was my wife -- and my children, who in addition to being athletes are talented musicians, singers, actors, dancers and volunteers, I found diversification of interests was a good thing -- a really good thing.

In my life, there is more to life than sports. I love music, even though I cannot play it, the theater, even though all are dark, and volunteering, working with others, who I can't be around right now.

My son, every now and again plays his saxophone, my daughter sings songs almost daily. Dancing is out for now. We do have drama time-to-time, the impact of spending all hours together now for more than four weeks. I still can provide volunteer work, making phone calls, pounding on my computer keys and meeting with others either virtually or via teleconference for meetings.

Nothing is the same.

My family is healthy. We push forward.

It doesn't mean certain things are not missed; the school musical is postponed. Baseball games and track meets cancelled for the spring.

Baseball, my favorite sport, barely got started and MLB is uncertain of having a season. The NHL and NBA suspended their seasons. The NCAA cancelled March Madness, the wrestling championships, the hockey championships and whatever else is contested in the winter and early spring. Harness racing is shutdown; no golf; no Masters, no anything. 

I do occasionally take a peep at my inactive online racing wagering balance hoping somehow a little, unspoken of, help from the stimulus package was earmarked for my Xpressbet account. 

My baseball fix has been reduced to playing two, eight-team brackets of Strat-O-Matic baseball's 16 top teams of the 1970s, which was introduced this year as a special feature of the regular game that features teams and player cards based on statistics and metrics from the previous season.

My son and I have played these two tournaments out to a final four  -- the 1974 Dodgers and the 1975 Reds in Bracket A and the 1979 Pirates and the 1972 Athletics in Bracket B. 

The Dodgers and Pirates need just one victory to advance to the World Series and play for the mythical "Best Team of the 1970s" championship. The Reds -- Big Red Machine I might add -- and A's need two wins to move on. Dodgers' pitching has been dominant. Johnny Bench has been well... Johnny Bench. The Pirates have been dramatic, if not sharp, and Pops is still the leader of The Family as he terrorizes opposing pitchers and -- out of nowhere  -- Tim Foli has been Honus Wagner. The A's are athletic indeed, which has offset some subpar defense and an uncharacteristic shaky and unreliable bullpen.

That has been fun and helped to provide a baseball fix.

No amount of movies watched -- including Dark Waters, The Irishman and Two Popes, all of which I enjoyed -- replays of games, 1979 World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, huge prize fights and other random contests on TV and You Tube can't make up for real live, contested athletic events that provide fresh results and exciting moments or frustrating and disappointing results. I'll take good, bad, even devastating at this point.

I am getting my music fill from You Tube, started reading two books -- Me and The Spitter by Gaylord Perry and The Big Red Machine, written many fungoes ago by my friend, the great Bob Hertzel -- and initiated a writing project I have contemplated since early 2017.

Through it all, my family eats dinner together every day. We share computers and ideas and there's enough room here to go to a neutral corner when needed. The family dog, Eloise, still remains Queen.

Everyone here is healthy and relatively happy.

I miss sports, watching my children compete and perform. But time spent together is precious and even with all the bad going on, we're all good here and making the best of it.

For now, we all hope and yearn for a semblance of normalcy. We’ve learned about and now use Zoom.  We understand sacrifice a little better and we thank God we can live through this.

Be well, stay safe and God bless.

My blog will appear on a regular basis and will focus on, sports, notes and news, opinions, features, and some trivia for good measure.

I hope you enjoy.

-- John Sacco 

sacman18@comcast.net

sacco_john