Well, had enough yet?
Donāt look at the score.
Recommended Videos
How bad did it get?
Like nothing before.
B.C. (Before Coronavirus)
The Setup
An omen, maybe. Hard to say.
The drumbeat starts on New Yearās Day.
The calendar flips, one quick turn
And then weāre mourning David Stern.
Wild-card Patriots thrown off course.
New England, Brady mull divorce.
A perfect Cajun title run --
Joe Burrow 's cooking; Clemsonās done.
Astros punished, sign-stealing scheme.
Hinch and GM are dumped by team.
No need to wait. Oh, yes, thereās more --
Cora, Beltran are out the door.
Conor McGregorās in the cage,
Fighting again, all fists and rage.
Jeter ās up ā¦ for the Hall of Fame.
Just one voter omits his name.
Then in the California hills
The fog rolls in, the heart soon chills.
A chopperās down: shock, disbelief ā
Kobe, daughter and waves of grief.
LeBron, on court, gives heartfelt shout,
A declaration: āMamba out.ā
Sports still reeling by Super Bowl,
Where Patrick Mahomes takes control.
Chiefs rally with alarming speed --
At last a crown for Andy Reid.
Down Under, Novak has his way,
Bulks up his Grand Slam resume.
Pete Rose makes yet another plea:
The Astros were much worse than me.
Auto race scrapped, Chinese Grand Prix.
Whirlwindās coming we donāt yet see.
Tyson Fury reclaims the throne,
Pummeling Wilder to the bone.
Daytona ends in flames and fear
And Hamlin winning like last year.
Staples Center fills to the hilt
For Kobe at the house he built.
A.C. (After Coronavirus)
The Shutdown
Rudy Gobert is feeling well
But lost his sense of taste and smell.
High-fives banished by NBA,
Fans in Europe are kept away.
Olympic angst: Delay? Abort?
Indecision, a medal sport.
We then look up and turn around --
The house is burning to the ground.
The NBA shuts down its game.
In college sports itās much the same.
March Madness hangs on hope and prayer
But itās soon gone, beyond repair:
The games not played, the crowds not heard,
The shots not made, the dreams deferred.
No bracket busters, office pools.
Coronavirus sets the rules.
The NHL, with ample cause,
Decides to put the league on āpause.ā
Spring training stops. Itās getting rough.
The Ides of March throws nasty stuff.
Masters forced to run for cover --
A revision like no other.
Kentucky Derby scratched for May;
French Open topples on same day.
Indy 500, down the hatch.
Same with Wimbledon ā game, set, match.
Tokyoās off, the Olympics done.
The torch is passed to ā21.
Sports keep falling like dominoes,
And no one cares about the āStros.
Amid the chaos, doubts and fears
Tom Brady joins the Buccaneers
The Substitutions
Fans are desperate, start to show it --
End of the world as we know it.
They donāt feel fine. They want some juice.
Hey, thereās soccer in Belarus.
Need some action to get it on?
Then bet on baseball in Taiwan.
Try some arm wrestling on TV.
Ax throwing, maybe? Spelling bee?
Filling the void till hoops restarts
Is Jordanās āLast Danceā (in 10 parts).
Virtual sports help get us back
And NASCAR has the inside track.
Make-believe spin, make-believe crash.
Whatās real? Kyle Larson ās racist trash.
Live and remote! NFL draft.
The league shows off its high-tech craft
Managing this odd displacement --
Roger Goodell in his basement.
Big cable draw, golfās got the goods:
Peyton, Brady, Mickelson, Woods.
Baseball? Just negotiations,
Insults, tweets and accusations.
Comeback plans for Fourth of July
Go stale like month-old apple pie.
The Struggle
Part I
Death on a Minnesota street
Turns up the volume, spikes the heat.
A time to march, a time to seethe:
Black Lives Matter and āI canāt breathe.ā
āWe want justice,ā says Eric Reid,
Brought with all deliberate speed.
āEnough,ā says Jordan, on new ground,
āPained ā¦ plain angryā and now unbound.
Lisa Leslieās online decree:
If not āoutraged,ā donāt follow me.
Osaka is, no need to ask.
Come the Open, it's on her mask.
NASCAR moves to another lane,
Bans Dixieās flag -- a blight, a stain.
Bubba Wallace, all strength and pride,
Has drivers walking by his side.
A reckoning, and none too soon --
Even Goodell changes his tune.
We need, he says, to listen, feel.
The players now are free to kneel.
Missing from this good intention?
Kaepernickās name, not a mention.
Whatās in a name? Hereās something new:
āRedskinsā under āthorough review.ā
Has Snyder found his moral core?
His sponsors simply said, No more.
New name? You gotta laugh or scream:
For now, āWashington Football Team.ā
By yearās end, wanting to do right,
Cleveland Indians see the light.
The Startup
Part I
A kick, a smack, a well-placed knee --
Sports returns with the UFC.
Golf in Texas: Field is rested,
Fans are barred, swabbed players tested.
The Belmontās empty, out of place
And Tiz the Law rules shortened race.
NBA joins Disneyās bubble,
Makes a wish to wall off trouble.
NHL restores some order,
Puts two hubs north of the border.
Baseballās back and the sport retools:
Sixty-game season, beer league rules.
Cardboard fans (all gimmick and lark)
Donāt buy hot dogs, donāt pay to park.
Soon all goes wrong -- COVIDās winning,
Marlins pounded in first inning.
Cardinals, poof! Wide infection --
Vanished, gone, witness protection.
Jumbled schedule, ghastly mess.
Who plays where is anyoneās guess.
PGA? Morikawa ās here.
Brooks Koepka canāt win every year.
Sports giveth; sports taketh away.
College footballās the price to pay,
The risks too daunting to confront --
Big Ten, Pac-12 decide to punt.
Weeks later, pressured, in a bind,
Both leagues reverse: Uh, never mind.
At Indy, Sato wins once more.
The silence drowns the enginesā roar.
The Struggle
Part II
Now Kenosha commands the stage --
Days of anguish and nights of rage.
The Bucks refuse to take the court --
A ripple then waves of support.
The NBA, of course, goes first.
Others follow as bubbles burst.
Floyd and Arbery; Taylor, Blake.
How much longer? What does it take?
Doc Rivers asks, on being Black:
Why wonāt my country love me back?
The Startup
Part II
Sports pauses with a mournful heart:
Brock, Thompson, Seaver ā¦ days apart.
Baffert's Derby, Authentic scores,
With protests outside Churchillās doors.
Blue Jays sing, āOh, give me a home,ā
Landing where the Buffalo roam.
So much sports now, to say the least:
April famine, September feast.
NFL season starts anew.
Players link arms, fans promptly boo.
Open tennis: Thiem ās startling show;
Golfās Open, likewise, DeChambeau.
Tour de France, Sloveniaās day.
Stanley Cup bubble, Tampa Bay.
Defying odds, even reason,
Baseball makes it through its season,
Leaving summer and into fall --
Bob Gibson ās time, October ball.
Patriots-Chiefs, virus attack --
Cam Newton canāt avoid this sack.
Whole teams are benched, blow after blow.
Tennessee Titans? Whereād they go?
A Preakness filly makes some noise --
Swiss Skydiver outruns the boys.
WNBA stands tall.
Seattle Storm can play some ball.
Iga Swiatek? Whatād you say?
Just like Nadal she wins on clay.
LeBron, Lakers, own Disneyās gym,
Sense Kobeās there, above the rim.
The Dodgers, Kershaw expiate
The ghosts of 1988
As baseball puts its year to rest
With Justin Turner ās COVID test.
The White Sox bring La Russa back
(Their deal fell through for Connie Mack).
Chase Elliott takes NASCARās jewel,
Family bloodlines filled with fuel.
The Marlins smash that old boysā gang.
Glass ceilings shatter with Kim Ng.
Dustin Johnson outplays them all --
Green jacket just the style for fall.
Both lightning and the lightning rod,
Maradona, the Hand of God.
College basketballās set to play --
Mangled schedules, disarray.
Steelers rolling but, yes, thereās flaw.
Niners banished by county law.
Across the week more games are strewn,
Even on Wednesday afternoon.
Through it all, a truth emerges:
Games go on while COVID surges
And records fall, that much is clear --
Consider Tara VanDerveer.
Now set, the college playoff queue:
Tide-Irish, Clemson-OSU.
Then look whoās back? The NBA.
Seems you were here the other day.
But who can tell? Itās all a blur:
The games they played, the way we were.
The Summation
Letās see this out, get to the end,
And who knows whatās around the bend?
But weāll toast, of course, donāt think twice --
Take a deep breath and roll the dice.