(“The TEN” is not a top ten but ten items worth being included in “The TEN”)
1. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Monday that he is now not confident that there will be a 2020 baseball season due to a lack of dialogue with the players’ association.
2. Denver Nuggets Coach Michael Malone said he had the coronavirus in March but wasn’t told until months later and has now recovered from the virus.
3. Flintridge Prep has changed its nickname from “Rebels” to “Wolves” after school officials deemed Rebels to be a barrier to inclusion in the Flintridge Prep community.
4. The Raiders will host the 2021 Pro Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on January 31, 2021.
5. Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliot is among a handful of players on the Cowboys and the Houston Texans that have tested positive for COVID19 but are apparently asymptomatic.
6. “I do think we will have a season. Will it be abbreviated? I don’t know, that’s up to the guys who get paid the big bucks.” – Northview HC Marcel Perez.
7. On this day in 1994 LAPD chased former USC/NFL running back O.J. Simpson in his white Ford Bronco for an hour and a half before he finally gave up at his Brentwood home.
8. Tennis star Venus Williams turns 40 today.
9. Also on this day in 1992 the Philadelphia 76ers traded forward Charles Barkley to the Phoenix Suns for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang.
10. “If God’s so great why didn’t he give you a better jump shot?” -Charles Barkley to Lakers forward and devout Christian AC Green during a game.
@SGV
I agree with you. I am a coach and educator in the SGV and I don’t see how we can protect the kids that we coach from Covid 19. Dr. F is right the NBA and NFL needs to be played in a bubble and high school sports can’t play in a bubble. As for politics, there is a lot of blame to go around. You can make the argument that this administrations did a great job, but the numbers done lie. Over 2mil cases and over 120,000 dead in the US, not good when other countries already eradicated this virus. Like a bad coach this administration got exposed and there approval rating is down which it should be if you do a bad job!!!!
@ RAMS FAN: Closing things down was exactly the right thing to do.
The business and school closures were economically and socially painful measures; I know first-hand because I got furloughed from two jobs. But, close contact with others in the face of a deadly pandemic had to be prevented as much as possible.
We’ve lost more than 115,000 lives to the virus so far, even with the closures, face masks, and social distancing. If we had done nothing, the death toll would almost certainly be a lot closer to half a million by now.
Having a robust economy and getting back to our normal activities would be great. Let’s do all that we can safely do at any given time. But, in my view, we have to put human lives first.
@ Grim Reaper: But, isn’t it better to be “woke” than “not woke?” I’d certainly rather know the truth than not know it.
Many Americans now know that millions of their fellow citizens receive harsher treatment than themselves, and that race is often one of the main factors involved. It should be abundantly clear by now that we as a country have fallen far short of our ideals of liberty and equal justice for all.
I think “Wolves” is a great mascot name. Flintridge Prep now has something in common with Van Nuys High School, if it didn’t already.
Thank God for real-time videos which can be quickly uploaded onto the internet. Anyone with a smartphone can potentially open a window to displays of bigotry as well as official misconduct. It’s a lot harder to cover things up now.
OK, here are some facts that have a bearing on high school sports, including football:
As of today (June 19), Los Angeles County has had nearly 80,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and a resulting death toll of more than 3,000. In addition, the county has reported more than 1,400 new cases in the past day alone.
Based on recent events, it’s starting to look as if we may have one gigantic wave of the coronavirus in the U.S.; perhaps the only question will be whether it tapers off or worsens by late fall. If the virus is still raging by that time and overlaps a common flu strain, then watch out.
The way things go will depend a lot on our good judgment and cooperation in protecting everyone’s health. A more favorable outcome will also require lots of coronavirus testing and the timely development and distribution of safe and effective treatments. Having one or more vaccines by the end of this year is likely to be wishful thinking, but we can always hope.
If things work out relatively well, I can envision a full slate of high school football games, but the season could run from January through March. Opening night has already been delayed, and I believe we may only be at the end of the beginning as far as the virus is concerned.
A bit of an overlap with baseball and softball, anyone? Basketball might be out of the question due to that sport’s confinement to indoor facilities.
We’d be doing extremely well if we can even start school on time, and sports will be a secondary consideration by comparison.
@Rams: It may not be my truths giving you a headache but something else. Can you taste that crow your eating?
@SGV Please stop, your whining is giving me a headache. Stop listening to MSNBC and CNN. Dr Fauci, Dr. Birx most of the experts are saying open up, keep some social distancing intact and be especially careful with Grandma. If you don’t want your boy to play football that’s fine. But life MUST resume to some form of normalcy. Locking down everyone in the entire country was the stupidest thing ever done. Locking it down a second time will be the second stupidest thing and result is wide scale mass revolution. It won’t be Trump’s fault, it never has been. If the experts, the NFL, the NBA, the MLB, the CIF, the NHL are all listening to their experts, and feel safe opening up with some common sense safe guards in place maybe you are the one being unrealistic like I said before. Increased testing means increased positives. Everyone knew that would happen. They also said a second wave would come in the fall with the next flu season. This is a normal yearly pattern. But CNN and the rest of the MSM needed this year to be different. Why? It’s an election year and guess who is running for President again? Play ball, but take simple precautions with your Grandma.
SGV
Are you old or a bleeding heart? In the U.S. As of today, 2.25 million cases, 700,000 have recovered. 120,000 deaths. there are 360 million people in the U.S, that means that .00625 % have been infected. With-in those numerically small amount of cases .05333 % have died. Less than a total of 130 deaths have occurred to student aged people 14-24. about 100,000 deaths so far this year are to people 50 and older. As a matter of fact, approximately 85,000 deaths happen to seniors 65 and older. An arguable point is that in most cases, what does not kill us, as a species makes us stronger in the long run. Maybe thats why antibiotics are getting bacterial strains that we can’t cure because mommy talked the doctors into prescriptions that would not work against a virus.
Look there are over 480,000 deaths every year that are caused by people who still use tobacco products. Thats 1,319 people a day that pass away. Thats been everyday and more in the past. 33% are from 2nd hand smoke. Is it a choice to smoke? Yes, but not for the family members who get sick and die later in life. Is that social plague accepted? Yes. Is it a choice to go out in public and party? Sure it is. Even though, those who do know they could get sick, and or bring home the virus to their older parents, or grandparents, they still make the choices to do so.
If this was an Ebola/Anthrax situation, the government would isolate those folks, help a few that can survive, and let the others die to stop the spread of the disease in its tracks. I am being a bit cynical, but think this out; $750,000,000,000, that’s 750 Billion Dollars are in the Medicare Budget. Instead of paying for all these long term illnesses that old people get to keep them alive, is it smarter to put a plague on the older folks? A Geriatric Genocide. Here is some Darwinism and Dickens to answer your own questions. Darwin’s “Survival of the fittest” and Dickens’ Scrooge, …”If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. So, please go to your petri dishes, exchange flying spit, bring it home, and lets play football!
Your item above about Flintridge changing its name is incorrect. only a couple of letters but it is important
Flintridge Prep has changed its nickname from “Rebels” to “Wokes” after school officials deemed Rebels to be a barrier to inclusion in the Flintridge Prep community.
I agree with you SGV, I know it sucks for everyone involved in sports right now, at any level, but this is the world we are in at the moment. I coached football/baseball at the youth and high school level for 20+years, and I feel for the kids who were just starting to fall in love with sports. Be smart out there, the virus is still around.
Third-world countries such as India are being hit hard economically by this shutdown. Ditto for China and a host of others. The best estimate is that 260 MILLION may die of starvation because of the economic situation, which is more deaths than the worst-case scenario for COVID19.
How about leaving the political crap at the door. This is a sports site.
From T. Peterson: Amen!
Here we are on June 17 and we just had the biggest number of infections yet. 2000 in and around the SGV yesterday. Why are these clowns still talking about trying to fit in baseball and football and basketball. CIF also is behaving like Trump and Pence. “Oh the kids will be okay, they aren’t dying.” What about grandma? We clearly will have to lock down again soon.
The Whittier Union High School District schools (La Serna, Santa Fe, Cal, Whittier and Pioneer) along with El Rancho will start “conditioning” June 29.
Amat, Alemany and Chaminade and a few other private schools are on the field starting today. Damien is on the field on Monday.