COLUMN: Surviving a sport-less world

     Now that we are going on close to four weeks with no live sports, does anyone remember the last live sporting event you watched? I think my last event was the Illinois-Iowa basketball game that found the Fighting Illini defeating the Hawkeyes 78-76. That happened March 8.

     Or, maybe it was the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, which occurred that same day. Although I believe the basketball game was on after the wrestling tournament.

     So, after four weeks, quite a few big events have been cancelled or postponed. The biggest one so far was probably the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. For me, two events stand out. The Big Ten Basketball Tournament and the NCAA Wrestling Championships. Opening day for Major League Baseball also didn’t happen.

     The Kentucky Derby will happen September 5 instead of May 2. The 2020 Wimbledon championship is also cancelled. I am more surprised officials from the All England Club did not postpone their event.

     Another event that we will miss, this upcoming weekend, will be the 2020 Masters Tournament. For now, the NBA and NHL have suspended play in hopes of completing their seasons. NASCAR is also on hiatus.

     And I better mention the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan. Thankfully they postponed the Summer Games until 2021. I better also mention the cancellation of the Drake Relays.

     Here are my questions to you. What event did you miss the most of all I’ve listed? Or did I miss listing an event that you really missed? I have my most missed event narrowed down to two. The NCAA Wrestling Tournament and opening day of the MLB season. I’m going with wrestling here.

     First off, baseball should happen at some point. The wrestling tournament had too many Hawkeye things going for it. They were destined to win it. Favored to win it as well. Secondly, this was going to be Spencer Lee’s third title, setting him up to be just the fifth four timer, joining Pat Smith (Oklahoma State), Cale Sanderson (Iowa State), Kyle Dake (Cornell) and Logan Stieber (Ohio State).

     That list needs a Hawkeye wrestler on it!

     How about high school athletics? Right now, we should be in the middle of track, golf and soccer seasons. Will there be a summer sports season here in Iowa? I feel for the kids that are Seniors, whose careers may come to an end without any closure, rewards or championships.

     If school does start back up this year, how do you start the spring seasons and not interfere with the summer seasons? Do you run them both at the same time, forcing kids to make a choice? Or do you run two shortened seasons so they do not conflict too much and extend those into late July?

     Let’s hope that’s a decision that we have to make in another month. That would mean some normalness to life has returned.