Saying Goodbye to Sports, for Now

Thomas Finch, Staff Writer

As the highly contagious Coronavirus or Covid-19 sweeps across the United States and the rest of the world, many events such as concerts and sporting events are starting to be canceled. The sports environment in America is collapsing as more and more leagues are canceling their seasons. 

Almost every single major sport in the United States has either been canceled, delayed, or suspended. The cancellation starts as low as Little League Baseball and all the way to major league sports. 

First we’ll start with baseball. Little League Baseball announced Thursday that their operations, practices, and games will be suspended indefinitely. Many high schools are canceling their spring sport programs for the first time ever. That means no high school sports this season. The NCAA has canceled the College World Series and the remainder of the college season. I can only imagine the disappointment and sadness these athletes feel, especially seniors, after finding out they will not be playing the sport they worked so hard for. Many seniors will never see the field again after this abrupt stop to their seasons. Major League Baseball announced Thursday afternoon that they have canceled the rest of Spring Training and have pushed back the start of the season from March 26 to at least April 9t but they expect to push the season back further and shorten the regular season.  

Another major sport to be cancelled is basketball. The NBA has already suspended the season indefinitely with talks of it not returning this year after several players were diagnosed with Covid-19. The NCAA cancelled their major March Madness tournament with all 32 teams not going to be playing the tournament at all.  

The NHL and MLS have also indefinitely suspended their season just like every other sport. It will be a while until every sport returns to normal and it leaves a big blank space in many sport fans’ lives right now, including my own.

With Covid-19 still spreading and as more events unfold, it is expected many states, if not the whole country, will go into a mandatory quarantine which would only push back the likelihood of sports starting again any time soon. Until this starts to die down, sports and everyday life as we know it, will continue to grind into an utter standstill.