I can't speak for everybody, but from my perspective, if Major League Baseball was indeed hellbent on locking out the players upon the expiration of the current CBA, this particular winter was the best possible time to do it.
Over here, we have the kid who's two days older than the work stoppage. Were spring training able to proceed as schedule, I'd have to be figuring out how to juggle Cactus League games with feedings, diaper changes and crying jags for reasons unrelated to those. Instead, I can divide my attention both neatly and properly.
It also happened to be an Olympic winter, which, when combined with multiple Canadian championships around it, means there's a solid month and a half of televised curling.
So there you go: If you're a new parent and love curling, the lockout is gliding by.
I can't help you with the former, but if you want to get into the latter, the Tim Hortons Brier (Canadian men's championship) is a great follow-up to the Olympics. It started on Friday and runs through March 13, so it's a good lead-up to March Madness, which will provide a welcome distraction during the back half of the month. The Brier's field is basically as deep as an Olympic competition, and since ESPN 3 carries TSN's broadcast, it's a dedicated broadcasting crew that doesn't cut away in the middle of ends like NBC's coverage did.
And if you have the ability to try the sport, I'd recommend doing so, because I found it a lot easier to connect with games on TV after gaining an understanding of mechanics, even if their strategy and shot-making remains out of reach.
Just a nasty piece of business pic.twitter.com/ITl846SmxQ
— John Cullen (@cullenoncurling) March 5, 2022
Curling isn't the easiest thing to find in a lot of areas, and I never sought it out myself. I only got into curling because of a coworker who invited me to an open house at Albany's club. It was free to try and cheap to join for a half-season, which ended right before Opening Day, and I felt enough progress to try a league. This video on GQ's YouTube channel is the best representation I've seen for how quickly one can start getting a general idea of how to slide and throw.
And then I kept curling, because the sport fit me perfectly. The season ran from mid-October through late March, so the White Sox never overlapped. The level of competition scratched an itch for physical achievement, but in a fashion that's more laid-back than pick-up basketball, and more reliable fun than golf. I figured I was done playing in tournaments after high school, so it's cool to find a sport that's forgiving enough to pick up in adulthood, but organized enough to take teams on the road to bonspiels throughout the year, including ones that livestream the games and openly second-guess me.
— Jim Margalus 🥌 (@SoxMachine) August 13, 2021
It's also how I met my wife. The aforementioned child? He literally would not exist without curling.
So while MLB is sidelining itself for months on end, I'm directing a lot of my bandwidth back into curling. A bar with three sheets opened in Nashville this past fall, so I picked up part-time work as an instructor, then joined a league as soon as they were established. If the lockout drags on, I'll have additional hours to redirect. Would I prefer the White Sox to be playing meaningless games on webstreams right now? To quote Hawk Harrelson, "Yes. Hell yes." But as long as MLB owners are content to spite faces, it's nice to be able to transfer love to another sport that actually gives something in return.
