Read chapter 3 here
Photo by Retiring Guy
(Sport Bowl: Friday, 3/13/2090)
Friday, March 13
JoAnna is working from home today. Andy may soon be in a similar situation. The Dane County Board is planning to meet next Thursday, but only ‘essential items’ will be included on the agenda. (More on this later.)
And to think I could have chosen to serve as county board chair two months ago and now be in the middle of all this. Best ‘no’ answer I ever uttered when County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan asked me, “Is this something you want to do?” I expected there’d be some turbulence during the last weeks of the term, but nothing like this.
I haven’t read or otherwise learned how LeBron James reacted to this latest news, to which Andy alerted me via an 8:30 p.m. phone call yesterday. (Which in itself was concerning as he never calls that late in the evening.)
I do know that, a few days earlier, LeBron gave an explosive response to the idea that teams play their games in empty arenas.
“We play games without the fans? Nah, that’s impossible,” James said. “I ain’t playing if I ain’t got the fans in the crowd. That’s who I play for. I play for my teammates, and I play for the fans. That’s what it’s all about. So if I show up to an arena and there ain’t no fans in there, I ain’t playing. They can do what they want to do.”
No uncertain words, or so it sounded at first,
Then he did an Emily Litella -- “Never mind!” — walking back his comments.
Perhaps he took the follow-up news in stride, as the virus continues to spread exponentially.
Andy seemed to be a little shell-shocked during our conversation. This season held the tantalizing promise of a championship season for the Milwaukee Bucks, led by the charismatic Giannis Antetokounmpo. Now there’s the possibility of an asterisk, or worse, a blank space in the record book for the 2019-20 season.
Earlier in the day, the NCAA announced that all of the games in the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments would be played without fans present. Obviously they still need referees, scorekeepers, broadcasters, and sportswriters in attendance. How weird, though, for teams to play without crowd noise. And what a letdown for people who had purchased tickets before the coronavirus shit hit the fan and were looking forward to an extended weekend getaway, as JoAnna and I were eagerly anticipating three years ago.
Now there’s a possibility the tournaments will be cancelled. (The inevitable happened shortly after I wrote this.) As a result, fans of the Wisconsin Badgers men’s team, who finished the regular season with 8 straight wins, will be reduced to fantasizing about how deep their team might have gone in its bracket. Sportwise, the rest of March is ruined for Andy, as he is someone who lives and breathes sports during most of his waking hours.
April is not likely to provide any relief. I won’t be surprised if Major League Baseball delays the start of its regular season.
Actually, the news was announced just 32 minutes ago, as I learned with a quick Google search. And the rest of the spring training schedule is cancelled.
Well, there’s always disc golf, which Andy has been playing throughout the winter, whenever possible. He and a few friends participated in a Milwaukee tournament a couple of weekends ago.
Saturday, March 14
The world has changed so rapidly this week. As soon as one announcement is made, a qualifying or more definitive statement is released, such as with NCAA basketball. Conference tournament games to be played in empty arenas. No plans to cancel March Madness. NCAA tournament games to be played in empty arenas. Big 10 cancel its conference tournament after one day. (As did all other conferences.) March Madness cancelled.
Then a wide net is cast. All spring sports are put on hiatus.
As for public schools, rumors swirled earlier in the week that Madison and other district planned to extend their spring breaks. Yesterday Governor Evers announced that all schools, public and private, would close on Wednesday – or is it Thursday – through April 5, leaving open the possibility of an extension.
JoAnna worked from home yesterday, spending more of her time on conference calls – with the Governor and his staff and with the Department of Workforce Development leadership team. Not to mention numerous one-on-one phones calls. Based on the determination made by the Governor’s office, all closings will close starting Thursday, but the news release sent out by staff specified 5 p.m. on Wednesday, which resulted in the confusion you see illustrated in the above headline. JoAnna was incensed over this misstep. It’s troubling that Evers’ staff, collectively, appear more bumbling than competent.
“I am SO happy I’m retiring,” she reiterated. “In fact, I wish I could leave right now.”
“But that would look as though you’re just walking away at the wrong time,” I cautioned, even though I knew she was just blowing off steam.
Meanwhile, Andy has moved toward a restrictive, almost fearful response, giving the much-used phrase of late, “out of an abundance of caution”, a vigorous workout. He declined our invitation to join us for fish at the Sport Bowl yesterday evening. (Not nearly as busy as it usually is on a Friday, which allowed to practice proper social distancing.)
Three Covid cases were diagnosed in Sun Prairie yesterday, remotely affiliated with Andy’s workplace. Nonetheless, his company is going to offer employees the option of working remotely, a decision driven by the statewide school closings. I texted Andy a little while ago to get a sense of how he’s doing. Sounds like he plans to be a hermit today. He didn’t give me a flat-out ‘no’ when I invited him to dinner since JoAnna and I will probably cook out tonight.
His response: I know I don’t want to be a hermit but idk I still worry. It’s so hard to decide with so many conflicting reports.
Andy, I fear, is getting too much unfiltered information from social media and his group chat, in particular, which is a politically diverse group of UW-Milwaukee friends – lacrosse teammates, for the most part. One of the Trump fanboys in the group suggested that all of this will blow over by Monday.
“He must be watching a lot of Fox News,” I suggested to Andy when he shared this tidbit of nonsense with me.
Over by Monday? Yeah, right!
Read chapter 5 here
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