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Traditionally, there are a couple of days on the calendar every year (the 24-hour periods before and after the MLB All-Star Game) where no major sports have any contests scheduled and fans are forced to wander around aimlessly asking themselves what the fuck they’re supposed to do before settling for lumberjack competitions and cornball tournaments on ESPN2.
As of earlier this week, we could take solace in knowing we had a few months to prepare for those dreaded times, but I regret to inform you that it appears they’re on the verge of coming much, much earlier than anticipated and potentially lasting for longer than we ever could have fathomed.
Despite the best (and, at times, not so great) efforts to keep COVID-19 contained, the world has largely failed to combat the untreatable strain of coronavirus that originated in China before deciding to travel the globe on airplanes and cruise ships on its way to infecting 133,000 people (and counting) and claiming the lives of almost 5,000 of those patients in 125 countries so far.
Over the past couple of months, a sizeable chunk of the population wrote off the panic concerning a potential global pandemic but those people were forced to eat their words earlier this week when the World Health Organization confirmed it’s exactly that.
Now, shit is getting real at a seemingly exponential pace as officials everywhere institute policies to promote public safety and the sports world has been absolutely rocked, as the NBA suspended its season on Wednesday and the NHL decided to do the same on Thursday afternoon.
Following that announcement, all eyes turned to Major League Baseball, and after consulting with owners during a conference call on Thursday, the league announced it will be canceling the remainder of spring training and delaying the start of the regular season by at least two weeks.
Statement from Major League Baseball: pic.twitter.com/0bWS5VTRPu
— MLB (@MLB) March 12, 2020
I can’t even imagine how fucking amped the Houston Astros must be right now.