It's been nine days since the NBA suspended its season in the wake of Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19. If you're anything like me, that was the moment when the threat of the virus went from worrisome to completely unprecedented. Wait, like all the games? ALL the games?? It quickly seemed that MLB would have no choice but to follow suit, which put the enormity of the life changes we were about to undergo into clear focus.
For many of us, this is the first extended stretch of our adult lives without sports to keep us company. I was a kid during the baseball strike in 1994-95, and still a teenager when sports were briefly suspended after 9/11; for me the lack of baseball is not a defining memory of either of those periods. I suspect that even if that isn't the case for others, the lack of competitive diversions will hit fans a lot harder this time. We're staring down the barrel of several months without the thing we watch, talk about, and read about every single day.
Of course, there's a great irony in the current lack of baseball and basketball and hockey and soccer and MMA and whatever other athletic activity you're missing at this moment in time. There's bad news every day, the future is unknowable, and we're all full of anxiety... it sure would be nice to watch Luis Robert right now!
Alas, MLB (and the other leagues) obviously made the correct decision in shuttering. Take one look at the dire situation in Italian hospitals and it's easy to see why we collectively need to take every precaution possible. But that doesn't change the fact there's an acute emptiness in the sportsy part of my brain... those grey cells are used to a lot of action.
So what do I think of life without sports? Well, it's certainly quieter. I was of course aware that I spend a lot of time watching sports, particularly baseball and basketball. But I don't think I had quite realized the pure volume (both amount of space AND degree of sound) that sports occupy in my life. Many of the podcasts I listen to have ground to a halt with nothing new to talk about. I haven't flipped on ESPN or the MLB Network or NBATV in days, even as background noise, because... why?
All that noise has been replaced with a combination of silence, music, and other forms of TV -- including a surprising amount of Reality TV, which honestly (and sadly) comes closest to fulfilling the thrill of sports. This has been a downgrade in my quality of life, but also a pretty big upgrade in my girlfriend's. Pros and cons.
Speaking of my girlfriend, she likes to remind me that all the sports teams I root for are terrible and bring me nothing but pain. She's not wrong. The White Sox haven't made the playoffs in 11 years. My NBA team, the Phoenix Suns, is in the midst of a comparatively mild 10 year drought. Prior to this season, their last four winning percentages were .280, .293, .256 and a league-worst .232 last year. College basketball is also big where I'm from, but my Arizona Wildcats haven't made the Final Four since 2001, a stretch that includes five extremely painful Elite Eight losses and five equally painful First Round exits. You get the idea.
Nevertheless, this sudden and extended lack of sports has reminded me what I love about them. The constancy. The routine of long season transitioning to long season. The comforting knowledge that when I'm done with work for the day I can almost always pop on a game. The many websites and analysts and writers who entertain me and enrich my knowledge, everyone from Jim Margalus to Charles Barkley. These are the things I miss most.
The next few months, maybe even the next few years, are probably going to mostly suck. Heck, the last few months and years have mostly sucked. There are a lot of reasons for that, but losing the comfort that sports bring to millions is going to compound any pain we're already feeling.
I give life without sports zero stars. I can't wait to talk about Luis Robert again.
