Is COVID19 a Sports Lovers Paradise?

Now, obviously, the pandemic across the world has been a terrible, terrible thing. I hope that nothing ever comes across our world that is this significant ever again. Can we guarantee that? No, but we can learn from this experience that we have had in the past few months on how to make things better in the future assuming that a similar situation occurs. However with all of that being said, quarantine life began very differently than what it has become in the past couple of weeks.

In the first week or two, we had all these different stories come about with major cancellations of not just certain sporting events, but entire leagues. The first major cancellation that I had heard about was Serie A, the first league in Italian soccer. I watched multiple Serie A games that weekend with zero fans in attendance and I figured that sporting events in the United States were soon to go. Sure enough, just a few days later, people were talking about the Thunder game that was getting cancelled right before Tip-Off. Day after day different leagues were cancelled, and more and more players came down with the virus. We saw the NBA, NHL, MLB, and all of collegiate competition be cancelled day after day in the United States. Sports, and essentially everything that we knew in our daily lives, disappeared.

(a very quite Juventus goal celebration as they beat #3 on the table Internazionale to take the lead of the table from Lazio.)

Of course there were multiple days of confusion and shock. We didn't understand how sports just went away, especially in the great month of March. The month which is generally the most exciting, for college and professional basketball near the post season, as well as professional hockey, golf begins in March, and the majority of collegiate spring sports begin conference play in the month of March. The first few days felt like forever. We tuned into SVP to watch him pay tribute to many collegiate seniors who had to say farewell to the game they loved as a competitor. All of those tributes were very touching, but it just wasn't watching live sports.

As the time in quarantine has progressed, I personally have started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've seen replays of games that I watched live as a young kid that I probably would have never seen again. I have watched some of the great moments of college basketball history that were much before my time (I still hate Christian Laettner). I have even seen countless instagram challenges that I hope never return to anyones timeline. I have watched multiple rounds from past golf tournaments. I have watched just about every "One Shining Moment" recap of the NCAA post season tournament that YouTube offers. I have seen nearly every highlight in the past couple years for the Celtics, Nuggets, Patriots, Red Sox, and Oklahoma State athletics. It has been very exciting to watch these recaps and something that I wouldn't have if live sports was still an option.

For me, someone who loves to gamble, the thing that has helped me get through this long stretch the most has been betting with some of my buddies on "The Cat Cave Derby". If you are either a bettor, a sports lover, someone who loves comedy, or even someone who loves a day at the horse track, and haven't been tuning in everyday at 6:57pm ET, you have been missing out. The Cat Cave Derby has had 23 total races, and consists of the same four horses each day. It is both figuratively and literally an ELECTRIC race day in, and day out. I look forward to this daily race as much as I look forward to watching the Pokes on Saturdays, Patriots on Sundays, and the Nuggets and Celtics on weeknights. Although we aren't betting big money on the races, I really can say that I have grown to love the race. My personal favorite horse (that I am the self proclaimed owner of) is named "Carmella's Dream". She isn't just a beautiful horse, but she is a competitor. She is the most titled horse with the most first place finishes, and I have been in love with her since race number 2 or 3 (she does have the same name as one of my former pets... it was love at first sight).The other horses are named Kenny Rogers (he is an all white horse who resembles the hairstyle and facial hair of the late country star), Frederico, and Spiral Ham. Carmella's Dream officially became the perfect horse for me today as Blogger, Big Cat, from Barstool Sports released a shirt with an Italian Flag themed saddle on the horse, how majestic (and perfect fitting) is that for this Italian kid who just wants to bet on sports?

If you haven't seen a Cat Cave Derby Race, you can check out today's race here: https://twitter.com/BarstoolBigCat/status/1248022085219172353?s=20

Coach Mike Gundy had a teleconference on Tuesday about the COVID19 pandemic, and what it holds for the 2020-21 college football season. Essentially, Gundy is wanting to get things underway sooner rather than later. I am not here to defend Gundy, but what he is saying isn't wrong. There is a small light at the end of the tunnel with what Gundy was saying. He, just like all of the other athletes and coaches, want sports back soon, Gundy just had enough balls to say it. Whether or not you love the man with the mullet, we all want sports back, and a couple of days ago we got some rough dates that blew up my personal timeline:

The PGA announced that Augusta National will host the annual Masters Tournament November 12-15th. Hearing this date that is a short seven months away isn't what I wanted, but it did bring me major excitement knowing that golf will be back. I don't care if it's the same weekend as Alabama versus Georgia, I want to look at the pretty green grass, and the super pink flowers on the screen while I watch some men swing their clubs to put on a green jacket. That is what I want, to wake up Sunday morning hungover from some Cowboy Football (and Alabama v Georgia) to watch four hours of the last round of the Master's Tournament. This blog post was really just supposed to show my excitement for the masters and the light at the end of the tunnel that we are starting to see with more and more leagues setting very very rough dates to bring sports back, but it turned into a review of what my sports and gambling addiction has come to in a time of need. I hope that all of you tune in for some good horse racing and have a good remainder of your quarantine (however long that may be).