MIKE STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – My guess is that when sports return, things are going to look a lot different than what they did a week ago.  Someone on my social media feed mused about fans having to get their temperature checked before being admitted to a game. I don’t think that’s entirely out of the question. I do think as far as professional sports is concerned, we are going to see them perform in empty buildings for a period of time before any fans will be allowed admittance.  

2 – It also wouldn’t shock me to see a professional sports world where fans aren’t allowed to attend at all and the only way to watch a game is by paying a ‘ticket price’ to view it on your interactive television.  How much that fee is purely speculative, but I suspect it wouldn’t be as much as watching in person but it’s going to be more than what you’d pay for NHL Centre Ice for an entire year. Teams would have to find ways to make up for the lost revenue at their respective venues somehow. 

3 – Human behaviour can be a fascinating study.  With all of this “social distancing” that is being practiced, you are going to find a larger than expected segment of the population that will become extremely protective of their personal space. Sports arenas and stadiums aren’t known for spacious seating. I know as a person who has never ever paid much attention to what goes on around me as far as the passing of germs, my eyes have been opened wide as far as things that thousands of people touch in a short period of time – debit machines, bathroom tap faucets, door handles, etc. or even that random person sitting next to you at a Rider game that you high five after a big play.  I think a lot of that is going to go away and be a thing of the past.

4 – I didn’t agree with how the minor hockey shutdowns were handled. In Manitoba, you have kids going to school this week and then they are being told to stay home. In Saskatchewan, social gatherings of more than 250 have been banned but they gave a several day buffer before it takes effect. Sunday night, the federal government held a press scrum and didn’t see any urgency to announce their plans right then and there, but rather they will do so on Monday.  Yet, minor hockey was closed decisively and instantly without any closure for kids knowing they had one more game or one last weekend before they had to call it a season.  To me, the hockey rink was one of the safest spots for people. If you have a child in hockey, you know that you aren’t able to leave the country for any period of time because hockey keeps you going several days a week for many months.  There is no time for a holiday somewhere. And, up until now the transmissions have all come from airport travel. Therefore, chances are extremely overwhelming that nobody inside a hockey rink with children on the ice has the virus.

5 – As of Sunday, the NBA is talking late June for possible restart.  NHL has been making rumblings of getting small groups together for practicing within the next two weeks, but I don’t see that as being realistic.  I think the season is done. Major League Baseball is already looking at May 25th as a start date, so it’ll be awhile before we see professional sports.  That brings us to the CFL, which isn’t slated to begin until June 11th but one has to think that could be in jeopardy too. And, the CFL isn’t a league that can have players play in an empty stadium.  It’s very gate driven.

6 – Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer should be everyone’s favorite baseball player.  The guy has a personality that forces you to pay attention to him and what he did on the weekend is nothing short of brilliant.  He held a sandlot wiffleball game with MLB and minor league players and he live streamed it with a link to a GoFundMe page where he raised $22,000 for stadium workers who aren’t millionaire athletes and are out of work because of this worldwide shutdown.  I didn’t see it because I wasn’t paying close enough attention to Bauer’s Twitter feed (and he couldn’t announce when the game was taking place because he couldn’t risk fans showing up), but my understanding is that every player wore a live mic as well.

7 – Bauer’s company is called Momentum and it was set up to help promote the personalities of baseball players, which he has criticized MLB for not doing well enough.  He’d be right on that and he has some other ideas in the offing that include players doing a live stream in between innings or if the player isn’t actually playing in the game.  Bauer is also the pitcher who made fun of the Houston Astros cheating scandal last week by divulging his pitches before throwing them during a spring training game. Pure gold. He does plan on ramping up the content on his YouTube channel during the shutdown and intends on offering daily updates on how players are handling the layoff.  He is also looking at showing fans the breakdown of certain at-bats and explaining his thought process when pitching.

8 – To further analyze just how much society has changed in recent years, it wasn’t all that long ago that media would say something like ‘flu bug is going through the dressing room’ and fans wouldn’t give it a second thought.  I think going forward you will just see games canceled if a team has a couple of players under the weather as people are being encouraged to self-isolate at any time if they don’t feel 100%. I think it was 2005 when the Yorkton Terriers lost to Portage in the ANAVET Cup and they had almost half the roster stricken with strep throat.  Nobody was concerned. In fact, I seem to recall there being accusations of that being an excuse for losing, which it wasn’t. One player was hooked up to IV until late afternoon and then headed to the rink and played. In 2009, my billet with the Yorkton Midget AAA team caught H1N1. In fact, over half a dozen players on the team got it.  Nothing was canceled. I’m just saying.

9 – One heartless soul said to me on the weekend that what’s happening isn’t all that bad. People are realizing that a lot of what makes them happy are things that are luxury items and we need to get back to the basics and discover that being at home with nobody around and nowhere to go is also fun. We shouldn’t need things like sports to fulfill our days because they aren’t necessity items. Of course that person probably doesn’t understand the importance of how do you pay for the necessities in life. Most of us work in industries and jobs that could be deemed luxuries (restaurants, clothing stores, recreation centres), but that’s a typical left wing thought of trying to guilt one into feeling bad for having worked hard at achieving success and wanting to go out and enjoy a nice meal once in a blue moon.

10 – My opinion on all of this has been extremely unpopular and I get it.  We are talking about human life in some instances. But, up until last week we have all been free to make our own choices and if you are telling me I have to pick between being a prisoner in my own home with no outside contact, with our economy crashing, and with many small business people suffering from anxiety and financial ruin versus just living life and letting nature take its course with people who get sick.  Then I’m picking letting nature take its course. I get most of you think I’m a heartless goon for saying so, but that’s how I feel. The panic is way worse than the coronavirus itself. People die from cancer, heart disease, suicide, car accidents, you name it every single day and we all just live our life normally until something gets us and ends our run on Earth. Sometimes the events are extremely tragic (9-11, Humboldt bus crash, airplane disasters, war, etc.) I feel this should be no different.  If you have ever had to deal with an elderly loved one being kept alive because of technology, then you might understand what I mean when I say a coronavirus is actually a blessing because passing away in a matter of days from that as opposed to being a vegetable for several years is a much better way to go.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)