© Kelley L Cox | 2020 Mar 12
Don’t feel alone. I’m just as confused as you are.
We’re all in this together.
First March without Madness? We’re all in it together.
No Opening Day for our beloved baseball? We’re all in it together.
No Steph Curry launching threes for the Warriors? Well, that one we got used to since November — but again, you aren’t alone in missing it.
Today’s Jock Blog is a road map for the weeks ahead. Only problem is, when we unfold the map, there is just one gigantic question mark.
It’s like trying to drive back in the days before GPS. You remember. Your Mom and Dad would be unfolding AAA road maps and barking at each other in the front seat on the summer driving vacation:
“You said you’d tell me which exit to take!!??!!”
“What do you mean you forgot the name of the motel we booked on our land line rotary phone!!??!!”
“I’m not tailgating! The guy behind me is tailgating! Fine! Why don’t YOU try driving then!!??!!”
Wait.
Were those only *my* summer driving vacations without GPS?
At any rate, we have no map. We have no end game. We have no idea when sports will be back in our lives.
And when I mean sports, I mean ALL SPORTS. Like, try to find a sport — other than UFC and NASCAR, which admittedly, are not Murph/Mac strongholds — still going. A current check of my TV when it should be overrun with conference championship basketball:
Talk shows. Replays of old sporting events. And more talk shows.
Not that there’s anything wrong with talk shows.
So what do we do? We breathe. We stay calm. We read great sports books we haven’t read yet. (May I recommend “The Great American Sports Page”? My favorite book of the last several years; it’s a compilation of actual deadline sports columns from legendary writers. Greatness on deadline. It gave me goosebumps.)
I will admit, the one group I’m worried about are you sports gamblers. No action is a tough deal. I’ve already read about online groups betting on chess and checkers. No joke. Unsolicited advice: Take the Russian chess guy, and give two moves to the house.
The ‘Murph and Mac’ show will carry on. We’ll be there every morning, trying to make you laugh, get you through your routine, reassure you that everything will be OK, eventually. Because it will be. The human race has been doing this for a few million years, so a couple of months without sports is something I think we can overcome.
We’ve kicked around fun ideas already: Watch a classic game on YouTube; come to work the next morning to discuss. Rank all time Bay Area players and events: best Candlestick moments, best China Basin moments, best Bonds home runs, best 49ers wins of all time, best Gabe Kapler New Age philosophies . . . right?
So, we begin our sports quarantine together. Play catch with your kids in the yard. Show them the top 20 sports movies of all time. Shoot some hoops in the driveway. Now is the time to lean on the sports cliches we always rolled our eyes at: One day at a time, sports fans. One day at a time.
We’ll get through it, and we’ll get through it together.
Now, was Kenny Lofton’s NLCS-clinching single in 2002 more epic than Brian Johnson’s 1997 home run against the Dodgers, or . . .
Talk to you on Monday, sports fans.
