Pro sports are slowly returning.  Did you notice?  Did you watch any over the weekend?  Unfortunately, the “great escape” that watching the games has provided, it doesn’t do so any longer.  Intertwined are political statements and COVID-19 rules and precautions.  Such is 2020, but hopefully not much beyond.  We’ve got some nuggets on all of this below.

1.  Major League Baseball threw out the first pitch late last week and played hardball all weekend.  The Miami Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies in Philly yesterday to open the season 2-1.  Instead of flying home last night, the team plane remained grounded in Philly as four Marlins tested positive for “you know what.”  Jose Urena, Miami’s starting pitcher was one of them.  Updated: The Marlins positive tests now number 14 players and tonight’s home opener is canceled.
2. The NFL is playing its own version of hardball. Its final player protocol, expected to be released as early as today, has some harsh realities built-in.  Players were told on a conference call with NFLPA leadership that they could face discipline, including fines, for conduct detrimental to the team if they are found to have contracted COVID-19 through reckless activity away from the facility.   All of the details are here.
3.  We assume the NFL would not be happy if one of its players decided to act like NBA LA Clipper’s player Lou Williams. The NBA has placed him in 10-day quarantine after the guard was investigated by the league for what he did while on an excused absence from the Orlando, Florida, campus.  Williams was photographed by the rapper Jack Harlow at an Atlanta strip club. Harlow quickly deleted the post from his Instagram story and tweeted Friday, “That was an old pic of me and Lou. I was just reminiscing cuz I miss him.”  There is but one small problem with that story-in the photograph, Williams is holding a drink and wearing an NBA mask given out on the Orlando NBA bubble campus.
4. Williams admitted that he went to the Magic City strip club in Atlanta for a short time on Thursday, but said that there were no entertainers present while he was there.  Sure.   Don’t you go to a race track when no horses are running?  He records the first double-double of the NBA season before it even starts.  The only thing worse than a lie is a bad coverup.
5. The WNBA swung into action as well.  Like MLB they are playing their games sans fans.  Of course, the WNBA always plays their games without any fans, don’t they?  The Seattle Storm tipped off the 2020 WNBA season in Bradenton, Fla. with an 87-71 win over the New York Liberty.  Before the opener, both teams walked off of the court and “respectfully,” per the press release, stayed in their locker rooms during the playing of the National Anthem.  Respectfully, we wonder how a league significantly subsidized by the NBA, and with no fans in the stands, exists.  If a tree falls in the forest, well, nevermind.
6. Mike Ditka shared his thoughts on all of this kneeling and/or protesting around pro sports and the flag and the national anthem.  Iron Mike said, “If you can’t respect our National Anthem, get the hell out of our country.”  If Ditka were still relevant on the NFL scene as a coach or commentator he’d likely be fired for that statement in today’s cancel culture.  Free speech is quite costly these days, but we digress.
7. Charles Barkley, a big-time BBR favorite, shared a thought on who should vote for whom in the upcoming fall elections.  “Poor people have been voting for Democrats for 50 years and they are still poor,” Chuckster lamented.   Like Ditka, Barkley likes to keep things simple and to the point.
8. Swinging back to baseball, surely by now you’ve seen Dr. Anthony Fauci throwing (we use that word very loosely) out the first pitch Friday at the Washington Nationals game?  Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs got in the best of the digs.  He tweeted, “Fauci’s first pitch came closer to the plate than any of his COVID-19 predictions.”
9. And surely you’ve heard that the NFL team formerly known as the Redskins will, for now, be called the Washington Football Team.  Some on Twitter suggested “Washington Team Football,” or WTF for short.  Kids these days.
10.  Remember the guy that was going to be MLB’s first bigtime two-way player since Babe Ruth?  He was so good that he would bat on days that he wasn’t pitching, and pitch on days that he wasn’t batting.  That was 2018 sensation Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels.  In his first 2020 start, after 20 months on the shelf repairing an ulnar collateral ligament, Ohtani lasted 20 minutes and did not record a single out.  He did give up four singles while walking three batters though. Not to worry, it’s a long season.  Wait, no it’s not.

If you get an extra three minutes today, be sure to catch those Storm v. Liberty highlights.

If a tree……..