The Day the Madness Ended.

In these times on infection, it is time for inflection.  The Coronavirus has been known of since the 1960’s.  The current strain COVID19 is the most recent release.  No one on the planet has an immunity for this virus except for those who are already infected with it.  Containment is the only short-term solution. The Yard has hunkered down in Las Vegas and asked the rest of the staff to work remote.  We made our national emergency order for the Yard about seven days before our President did the same for the nation.  The Donald trying to calm the nation with his usual bluster but was ineffective.  Wall Street crashed while Target and Costco cashed with our ambient anxiety. It is surreal but the 2009 swine flu infected 55 million people in the US and 11,000 lost their lives.  Startling numbers for sure and a national emergency was declared by Barack Obama on October 24, 2009.  There was no suspension of the NBA, the NHL, MLB or anything at that time and we survived and prospered. This disease may be more contagious and dangerous, but we will survive and prosper again.

At times of national stress, sports can be a wonderful elixir for our collective souls. Mike Piazza’s game winning homerun at the first baseball game in NY after 9/11 will always be historic as the Mets helped heal the city. We are now all sidelined together. The Yard will continue our emergency measures with binge watching allowed after 11:00 AM and Happy Hour commencement times relaxed until April 6.  We have also limited our coronavirus exposure from all media outlets with extreme prejudice.  What is the good news?  It just keeps getting spasmodically worse.  Check in on family and friends not CNN and MSNBC.  Meet your neighbors, at a safe distance or maybe just wave and shout “Hi, how are you?”

The next two weeks were to be the greatest sports time of our year.  Our tickets from Brother Tom were set for Opening Day with Clayton dueling Johnny Cueto and the dastardly Giants.  The Bruins were making a late run and had a good shot at making the Madness dance albeit without any real chance of a deep run.  The USC-UCLA basketball game on March 7 at the Galen Center was an outstanding prelude to the tournament.  The since shuttered dance was going to be one for the ages.  We will never know who the top seeds or eventual champion would be but there were so many great stories going into the tournament.  The disappointments for the seniors getting their last shot at creating their own magic moments.

One great story line going into the tournament was the Dayton Flyers .  They were one of the best basketball stories of the 2019-20 season.  The Flyers have been a perennial darling of the Atlantic 10 for many seasons.  But this year’s team had real championship pedigree.  Dayton would have most likely received a top regional seed.  The Flyers were 29-2 with their only two losses in overtime to Kansas and Colorado.  They went 18-0 in the competitive A-10.  Their big man, Obi Toppin was a nightly Sports Center clip with his 20 ppg and 8 boards.  There was more to the team than Obi, but he was a difference maker in every game, and he played every game.  The city of Dayton has been one of the hardest hit since the great recession.  Recently, there were the random murders of nine  Daytonians in the Entertainment district last year.  The Flyers were something that brought great pride, enthusiasm and healing to the region.  The Flyers were moving everyone’s needle until it all stopped.

The Seton Hall Pirates were another Yard darling this past season.  The Pirates play in the rugged Big East conference.  They had a steady diet of tough matchups with Creighton, Butler, and Villanova who joined the Pirates in the final top 25 rankings.  Myles Powell was the best guard in the Big East.  The Hall has not been that relevant since PJ Carlesimo before he was strangled by Latrell Sprewell.  Seton Hall was excited and poised to make a deep run.  Both schools were shocked and disappointed with the decision, but both knew it was the only decision. There were going to be lots of amazing moments in the coming weeks.  Now, I get to finish the last five seasons of Breaking Bad…instead.  Not the preferred course of action but I have heard that it is good.  God speed to the prospering and God bless us all.