Reality overcomes fantasy

Fantasy baseball enthusiasts are reeling today after Major League Baseball has joined other leagues in halting the 2020 season for at least four weeks due to the national emergency caused by the coronavirus. The earliest the season can start is April 9th.

In a period of less than 24 hours, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League suspended their seasons. The NCAA followed suit by canceling the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, including the men’s Final Four in Atlanta.

What are sports fans going to do with this extended layoff? What follows is what I will call the “Sports Fans” survival kit. Follow these five steps to not only survive, but thrive during the period when you have no fantasy or reality sports to fill your time.

(1) Reintroduce yourself to your wife, children, brother(s), sister(s) and coworkers. The latter assumes you will still be going into your office. If you’re working from home, get some face time with them, or call them on your smart phone (which is suddenly still).

(2) Read a book, or two. There are some good ones that have been written in the past few centuries. The Bible is the oldest book in the world, dating back to the Gutenberg Bible, which was initially published in 1454, according to the Guinness Book of World records.

(3) Engage in binge-watching, the practice of watching your favorite television shows for an extended  time span. In a survey conducted by Netflix, people defined binge-watching as “watching between two and three episodes of the same TV show in one sitting.”

(4) If the weather is decent, try getting some exercise. I know this is a radical idea, but you don’t have to hit the gym every day to benefit. A recent study published by Mayo Clinic revealed that just a daily, brisk walk can add up to 15 years to your life.

(5) Turn off the computer, television and smart phone, and sit down in a quiet place to contemplate what you want to be when you grow up. If you’re already grown up, reflect on your life. What would you like to do, or change, in your time left above ground?

I am confident these five steps will help you become a better person during the days ahead when all of the sports stadiums will be empty and crowds silenced across the country. I’ll be back in touch with you when things return to normal. Keep the faith.