For the New York Yankees fans, today was supposed to be the start of the 2020 baseball season in Baltimore. The stands are clean, the grass is mowed, and vendors are ready with their hot dogs and chicken wings, but there is one thing missing on this opening day. The crack of the bat is nowhere to be heard.
This is the time of the year that we are bombarded with sports; after all, it’s the time for the college basketball sweet 16, March Madness, and the start of the baseball season for fans across the country. But this is a different time, a time not experienced in our lifetimes. There is no sports of any kind, no school, no non-essential shopping, and one-third of the county has been ordered to stay at home.
March Madness has taken on a new meaning for most of us, it’s the madness of being paranoid about touching anything outside of the home, the madness of staying at a safe distance from others, the madness of being scared that you will get this scary coronavirus. Then the second set of madnesses creeps in. If I do get sick will there be a hospital bed for me if I need one? Will there be a nurse and doctor to care for me? All these worries make us realize the missing the crack of the bat from that Aaron Judge home run is insignificant compared to what we face.
After being closed in with family members for a week or two, we are beginning to realize this is not a vacation, it’s a quarantine where we can’t socialize, we can look out the window at the parking lot, trash container or scenic view, but we can’t venture out and get away from 24/7 coronavirus news coverage and updates. We can’t watch our New York Yankees, and we suffer from cabin fever. We are even forgetting if today is Wednesday or Thursday.
Possibly the biggest concern on our minds is how long this quarantine or self-quarantine will last, another week, two weeks, a month or more? Maybe we wonder if we will have a job once all this is over. But low and behold, this will end my friends, maybe later than sooner, but it will end and we will get back to our normal daily lives, maybe not unharmed, or untouched, but we will get through it together.
We are in a war, not against an overseas foe, but a world-wide virus pandemic. This war like any war brings out the best in Americans. We step up in so many ways to help our fellow man. Doctors and nurses come out of retirement to argument existing medical professionals, college students out of school, act as baby sitters for ever tiring health care workers. Civic organizations step up to feed the young that are missing school lunches. Many employers step up to pay workers as long as they can while not working, and neighbors help neighbors.
That is the beauty of America when in crisis. Other than the price gouger, most Americans do the right thing, whether its social distancing or caring for those that need care. The best way to look at this undeniable crisis is to imagine a rainbow. We are working our way up that rainbow and it will reach it’s worst at the top, but then ultimately we will start to slide down the other side of the rainbow. At the bottom, this rainbow may not have a pot of gold, but it will be a return to normalcy.
There is no playbook for all of this. Although many sports, including the Olympics, may be canceled or postponed, baseball due to the length of the season will most likely start in some form or fashion. It won’t be a 162 game season, but the boys of summer will eventually take to the field and the New York Yankees and other teams will battle it out for a World Series title. Keep the faith my Yankee friends and take care of each other.