In my own 'bubble': Bingeing on MLB opening, NBA restart

The Lakers' Anthony Davis, early in LA's win over the rival Clippers July 30. I don't prefer

his new 'do with the braids, but what do I know? (Photos by Ed Piper from TV monitor)

By Ed Piper

I might as well just say it: Ever since the (four-month-delayed) Major League Baseball season started last week (Thurs., July 23) and the NBA season, likewise suspended, "restarted" yesterday (Thurs., July 30), I have been amazed at my ability to watch game-after-game on TV on our couch--in the absence of any other meaningful activities at my disposal.

I have to add that I've been nursing two open blisters on the sole of my right foot, incurred during my granddaughter's seventh birthday a week and a half ago. (I thought I was 23 again, or at least 30, in maneuvering on the floor of her family's new backyard swimming pool while spraying my grandson and his friend with an effective water blaster. They got me back, two-on-one, and Grandpa took a hard beating--shots to the eyeballs and face. All in fun.)

Which means I have been making an effort to stay off that size-17 earthpad, and so binge-watched and scored five MLB games Fri., July 24 on the full Opening Day (eyed a sixth, but didn't score it). Yesterday's NBA reopening, with the Lakers' win over Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers following a Zion Williamson-New Orleans Pelicans contest in the league's "bubble" at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida, was another tasty treat--a mere doubleheader.

Meanwhile yesterday, I tested out a new point-and-shoot camera, taking shots of the TV screen in our living room, if you can believe it--of the Lakers' LeBron James, his sidekick this year Anthony Davis, and the two Clippers' superstars, Leonard from SDSU and Paul George (the latter, who was phenomenal on offense in a narrow two-point loss to the Lakers).

What has stood out:

--Breaking the boredom of the enforced four-month period of inactivity (I've been at home, not working, with the loss of opportunity to substitute-teach and cover La Jolla High's cancelled sports events), I have been amazed at my ability to watch (and keep score of in my scorebooks) five baseball games on TV in a single day.

I told my wife this sets new records for me. I used to think that scoring two baseball games at once on the radio was impressive. Five games in the book in one day, from noon to 9:30 at night or so, sets all sorts of personal records for desperation and the need for entertainment.

                                                           The Padres' Fernando Tatis, helping

                                                                                   lead SD to a 4-1 start.

                                                                       

                                                                              Tatis picked off in the Pads' July 29

                                                                              bottom-of-the-9th loss to the lowly

                                                                              Giants. Mike Yastrzemski, Carl's

                                                                              grandson, hit a three-run walk-off HR

                                                                              into McCovey Cove in San Francisco

                                                                              to win it.

                                                       Two-way star Shohei Otani, just before

                                                                    he clubbed an HR in an Angels win

                                                                    over Seattle July 29.

Prep sports: Something to look forward to

By Ed Piper

With the Dodgers starting their 2020 season Thurs., July 23--two days from this writing--and the hopeful Padres opening the next night, we have sports that we can watch on TV on the horizon after a long COVID-induced "winter".

All of which is a lead-in to another thought about the newly-announced CIF calendar for high school sports for the 2020-2021 school year.

Coach Kellen Delaney's Viking wrestlers are pegged into the "spring" sports season, with their first competition allowable on March 5, 2021. Wrestlers would have to wrap up section competition by June 4-5.

That means the annual Holtville tournament, which draws 400 wrestlers from multiple states, will not be held on its usual dates at the end of January.

"Holtville" is a term that lights up wrestling enthusiasts' eyes, and means an annual mountain to climb for Viking grapplers, who usually send 10 or so varsity and younger athletes to the Friday-Saturday overnight-stay tourney outside of El Centro.

No go for 2021. Like LeBron James said in an interview, "I answer '2020'" when he is asked about the season. All bets are off, routines are disrupted, annual tournaments will have to be moved to other dates if they are to come off in the approaching school year.

Holtville High will have to look for another date, between March 5 and the beginning of June, to hold its 2021 edition. Such things can be done in a novel situation. (Did you catch the use of "novel", as in "novel coronavirus"? My brain still works part of the time.)

I've watched parts of a couple of "MLS is Back" tournament soccer games on TV this past week. I'm not a knowledgeable "futbol" viewer, having never played it as a youth (AYSO was just bringing in youth soccer when I was a teen), with only three games lifetime played. (A defender half my height kicked my foot in a men's league game, possibly breaking it. I walked off after the game, handing the size-14 cleats my buddy, Phil Whalen, the AYSO commissioner, had loaned me, and told him, "No more.")

But when you have a sport on TV, why not look in? The offerings have been sparse. Now they will increase, as MLB, the NBA, the NHL, and other leagues go into fanless games in empty stadiums.

Back to high school and the local scene, how about Gary Frank's baseball team and the Lions Tournament? Last spring, Lions was scheduled April 6, 7, and 8, with La Jolla hosting Foothills Christian, Escondido, and Broomfield, Colorado, respectively. (All was postponed March 13, then cancelled subsequently.)

With baseball given a March 19-June 19 window in 2021 (I'm looking at the CIF Southern Section's dates--I don't have access to San Diego Section's calendar yet), Frank and his next edition could play similar dates in the Lions Tourney next spring. The annual Alumni Game won't happen on the weekend of February 15, obviously, with the season start telescoped to mid-March. But there are ways to deal with all of this.

The great part is that we finally have a tentative plan to look forward to, while keeping our fingers crossed that the COVID situation will ease up.

New CIF schedule: Chewing further

By Ed Piper

I've been in a long hibernation from writing, if you haven't noticed. I really wasn't attracted to the idea of hashing over and over this new event, that new disappointment leading to postponement, then cancellation of spring sports for La Jolla High and every other high school in the state.

But for the moment, I'm popping my head up to look at the new, tentative (the operative word during the coronavirus) calendar for sports in school year 2020-2021 by CIF. (See previous entry.)

Eyeing CIF Southern Section's calendar, put out today, I see that football will be able to open official practice Dec. 14 and play its first games Jan. 8, 2021. (That's if COVID allows it.)

So, here in Vikingland, Coach Tyler Roach could be looking at a "summer" program in the fall, with opportunities for new freshmen coming in, as well as upperclassmen returners, to lift weights and bulk up as only gridiron athletes do. One coach quoted in media remarked on the advantage this could be for newcoming players. Why not draw out the positives from a tough situation?

Imagine Homecoming, normally during October, in February. Wow. This could turn out to be a really unique year, one that team members--and their classmates--will remember vividly forever.

Max Smith and cohort, featured in the state Division 3 final last season, have the chance to recoup the year and return with a vengeance after over 12 months off. Those are stories I would tell to my great grandchildren, one of which I may have pretty soon. (Alexis, a former cheerleader at LJHS, and her hubby may have family expansion in the coming year.)

I'm writing in a vacuum, because I haven't talked with any of the coaches or student athletes at La Jolla High since classes were postponed way back on March 13. It has been a long, grueling haul. My outlook on life is much better than it was back at the end of March, which was pretty discouraged.

My lifeline to local media was cut when my editor at the La Jolla Village News informed me at the end of the first week of no classes that my contributions would not be needed until further notice. I kind of swore off all writing, what with games cancelled and nothing to report except cancellations. Not my cup of tea.

I have enjoyed some of the articles in local media about athletes having to make do with the situation, but I haven't pursued any myself.

If--a big if--we can get any kind of sports in during this school year, we could have a lot of fun with sports overlapping, tons of games and matches being held. Comments were made in this morning's reports that athletes will be encouraged, even helped to participate in multiple sports at the same time.  I think of the Vikings' multi-sport athletes, like kicker/defender Devin Bale--he could catch a pass in between kicking field goals for Roach, then right after that go over to the Vikings' soccer team's game and play a match the next night.

Soccer in CIF Southern Section will be able to hold opening games Feb. 27, so if the San Diego Section adopts a similar schedule, the senior kicker could be in week 9 of the football season playing in a crunch-time game that helps determine the league title and playoff participation.

Prep sports: New CIF calendar

By Ed Piper

Diego Solis finishing football for La Jolla at the beginning of April 2021, with his Vikings basketball teammates Christian Gamboa and Max Raulston already playing official games in March.

My mind started to work over the possibilities, upon reading the state CIF office's announcement this morning (July 20) that, as expected, fall high school sports will be postponed until at least December, and probably into January 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

CIF, the prep sports organization, is going to allow student athletes to play for their club teams as well as school teams, a break from the rule established a couple of years ago to limit the chaos that was wrought upon both school teams and those independent of educational institutions.

That freedom will allow folks like Nathaniel Gates, who has gone on from LJHS to Stanford to play volleyball there--if the 6'8" star middle were still in high school--to compete both ways simultaneously. Thus, the better for college prospects.

Such a situation will present itself because for the 2020-2021 school year only, CIF is grouping all three sports seasons (fall, winter, and spring) into only two divisions--fall and spring. Those athletes like Gates in volleyball, and several of our male and female soccer players, among others, won't have to decide between club or school team, and can play for both at the same time if they choose.

This doesn't present itself quite the same way in basketball, which is governed by AAU teams in the non-school category. Solis, mentioned above, plays for school teams only--football and basketball. But he and football/basketball teammate Luke Brunette will be faced with "doubling" decisions as well: Will they play both sports, which schools may try to help them do if they so desire? (Issues of flexibility on practice/game schedule conflicts will come up, but more importantly self-care and protection from injury will exist--not even to mention COVID-19 exposure dangers).

Folks, the pandemic is real, despite what pandemic deniers are saying. The coronavirus is not just the flu, and it is not just going to go away if the media stops reporting the now-140,000 deaths in the U.S.

The virus wins out. By that, I mean it's like having severe back trouble (which I've had and have). You can make all the plans you want, but the stabbing pains in your back will actually determine which, if any, of those plans come to fruition.

By analogy, the novel coronavirus. CIF and the coaches and administration at La Jolla High can make all the contingency plans they want, but, as they know well, none of that is realized unless the pandemic allows it.

The way I look at it, as a retired public school teacher now substitute-teaching (but not presently substitute-teaching, because campuses are closed), the school year 2020-2021 is already a make-it-up-as-you-go proposition. We don't know if students will be able to return to classrooms in fall 2020, with distance learning already announced by San Diego City Schools for the start of classes.

Then, in view of the surging numbers of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, we'll have to wait and see if the spring semester will be more of the same as this past spring: distance learning only, or, hopefully, some if not all students returning to classrooms at least part of the semester.

What's kind of fun, to break the monotony and discouragement of the COVID restrictions now going into their fifth month since Friday the 13th, March 13 when the announcement was made that classes were suspended, is to think of the possible scenarios of sports and athletes following CIF's announcement this morning.

Basketball and baseball are going to go on at the same time in March-May 2021. I'm picturing the wheels moving in Viking head baseball coach Gary Frank's mind: Luke Brunette plays first base and pitches. He's a three-sport guy.

Imagine the old days when LJHS boys volleyball coach Dave Jones ran both the boys and the girls programs. The new CIF calendar plots both sports at the same time, January-March 2021. How do you coach both? Who gets the practice floor at what time in finite athletic facilities? Wow, what a scheduling challenge.

Girls and boys soccer are both made "spring" sports this coming school year only. Imagine coaches who run both teams at some schools. Both genders of tennis were put in the spring group, as well. Golf, ditto. Aaron Quesnell, Vikings golf coach for both programs, what are you thinking? And his assistant coach, Christie Quinn, same deal.

Amanda Combs Warford coaching field hockey stays in the "fall" category (Jan.-March 2021), while Kitty Cullen and Sam Farrell coaching girls soccer are somewhat separated in the "spring" season of sports (March-May)--though some athletes play both sports.

I hadn't even thought of water polo. Both girls and boys teams were plopped in the "fall" sports season, so Tom Atwell and Amy Jennings will have to work out practice and game scheduling.