What’s to tell? Who looked good in baseball’s opening weekend? How we’re looking at an all-Catholic Final Four (Gonzaga, Marquette, Seton Hall and Villanova)? Steph Curry’s return?
Today’s Deep Thought: Remembering watching NYFD workers by the dozens rushing into the World Trade Center as both towers were burning and thinking, All those brave men are sacrificing their lives for a (mostly) lost cause. Can’t help but wonder about all the doctors and nurses and PA’s in New York City right now who are tempting a similar fate. Check out this story in the NYT.
Up Next? 3,000
On Thursday we predicted 2,000 deaths in the USA by month’s end. It looks as if we’ll be touching 3,000 by April 1. New York alone has topped 1,000 deaths. And April’s going to be a spectacularly grisly month here.
April, Come She Will
In what has become a pattern, the President made a statement downplaying the severity of the virus (“America needs to reopen by Easter”) and then was bombarded with information and warnings by the few people on his staff who don’t have dollar signs in their eyes. Now he’s advising Americans to shelter in place and chill out for the entire month of April. Which, sure, better late than never.
Full-Court Press
This month has been an extended lesson in the value of a free press and why an authoritarian such as Donald Trump (and his administration) despises it. If the only information we ever received was from the White House, you’d think that COVID-19 was “under control” and that nothing more needed to be done. Restaurants, bars and gyms, etc., would likely be open. You’d be hearing anecdotal stories from health-care workers you know, or friends or family who know them, that something was askew.
The tallies we receive daily on deaths and cases? Would not exist. The challenges that President Trump receives from the media, as he did yesterday, when he contradicts himself over statements he’d previously made? That wouldn’t happen. Yamiche Alcindor would be working at a gulag somewhere in central Nevada.
Makes you wonder how many people really have died in China. And Russia.
Procter & Gamble Is No Gamble
MH Capital bought shares of Procter & Gamble (PG) as soon as this outbreak became a reality and we saw tweets of individual shoppers trying to corner the market on toilet paper. A quick glance at just some of the products P&G, based in Cincinnati, makes: Charmin, Bounty, Cascade, Comet, Dawn, Downy and the Swiffer!
It’s built for these times, and Jefferies, whose CFO died this weekend due to COVID-19, just gave it an upgrade this morning. P&G sunk to $96 last Monday, the worst day for stocks in I believe forever (but certainly for this month), but it’s now up around $115 this morning. Keep cleaning, and keep cleaning up with PG.*
*A reminder that most of the time we don’t know what we’re talking about.
Cancel College Football?
Apparently last week ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, a respected and measured voice in college football (unless it comes to which schools should make the playoff, occasionally), said that he could not see the 2020 season happening under the current virus-related climate. Quoth Herbie to TMZ.com:
“I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I’ll be so surprised if that happens. Just because from what I understand, people that I listen to, you’re 12 to 18 months from a [coronavirus] vaccine. I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don’t know how you can do it with the optics of it.”
He’s right, of course (which reminds me: Any of you folks who pay attention to what Clay Travis says/tweets have any update on how he’s treating the virus now). But I imagine Herbie’s words were not welcome inside the Mickey Mouse Club and elsewhere. If college football were to deem it unsafe to play come September, how reckless would the NFL look if it went ahead and played (newsflash: I doubt Roger Goodell cares).
Another consideration: if there’s no 2020 season, I can see the NCAA allowing players to retain the year of eligibility, but also I can see players who want to exit to the NFL going. So there’s a chance we’ve seen Trevor Lawrence’s final game in Clemson orange. Moreover, do all schedules just get pushed by a year or do the game from 2020 just vanish into thin air? I’d assume the latter.
Also, if there is no 2020 NFL season, how would draft order be determined?
Well, this is just cruel, jdubs : I’ve been TRYING to purchase TP for 3 WEEKS & both grocery stores near me have had NONE when I’ve come into the stores & NO information on when I should show up to buy some. I’m still ok for about 3-5 weeks, but I will eventually run out if I can’t get more. I am LIVID how the grocery stores in my area are handling this lack of an ESSENTIAL ITEM.
And at this point, I am not thinking about when sports will re-commence. ALL I am thinking about now is NOT GETTING THE VIRUS. Please be careful, jdubs.
Also, I respect you decision about twitter but I miss your tweets. 🙁
And if ya’ll read of an “loud disturbance from undetermined origin” in a mid-Atlantic state, that’s probably just me screaming at the next TOILET PAPER COMMERCIAL ON MY TV! 😉
You have “3 to 5 weeks” of toilet paper? I think you may be part of the problem, Susie B?
I hope this is a lame attempt at a JOKE! I have not even SEEN toilet paper for sale in my stores in almost a month. I’m going thru the ONE package I’d bought at the end of Feb (before seeing how bad things would get) & realized on the 1st day that I saw ALL of the TP sold out that I should probably buy another package BEFORE it’s critical. As the weeks have gone by & NO INFO or assistance whatsoever from the stores, I realized that it will eventually BE CRITICAL if nothing changes at the stores!
Maybe YOU have access to all the TP you will need for the next 6 weeks or can easily get some but I have found NONE & the stores I have frequented for the past years (& must have spent at least $15-20K in all these years) are not helpful at all!
And no, I can’t go driving around, exposing myself to other stores of countless people in hope of buying some without knowing it will be there. Too risky! The stores SHOULD have put rationing into effect 3 weeks ago. And instead of mailing out their weekly AD circular, they SHOULD mail out a certificate to buy such essentials! One per household per week!
Susie B.,
This entire site is a lame attempt at a joke.
If there is no football (I’m in the group that sees no football happening), ESPN, Fox & CBS should run reruns on Saturdays that replay an entire day of CFB. Similar to “Coaches Room” or whatever they do on the NCG telecast can be done during a replay.
I’m not sure if the coaches would even agree, but imagine watching a replay of the Auburn-Alabama Kick-Six game with Verne, Danielson, Saban & Malzahn. Could even throw in (or substitute in) a player or two.