Thinking out loud: Can reported plan to return to baseball actually work?

Thinking out loud…while wondering if I should wash my hands before scratching when no one is looking…

• We're in a time warp.  It must be 1975. 

• That's the only thing I can come up with.  I've been feeling like a kid again lately, itching to get outside…and I'm grounded.

• Best at this stage of the game to follow the philosophy of ex-Iowa, North Texas and SMU football coach and college Hall of Famer Hayden Fry, who was once asked about his game plan for an upcoming, tough opponent: "We'll take what the other team gives us.  We'll scratch where it itches."

• So this week, we'll scratch where it itches.  Try it.  You're stuck indoors.  No one is watching.

• Tweet of the Week I, from @RexChapman: "Allow me to say something that someone should say but won't: Sports should start again when it's safe and not a minute sooner."

• Baseball's single-site idea is intriguing, but I'm not sure I can see it work for the long haul. I mean, what happens when players want to go out and, you know…socialize?

• If you're telling me they won't do that, then I have swampland in Florida to pass along to you.

• The NBA and NHL have already kicked those single-site tires, and while no one can accurately predict what will happen at this stage…whatever happens is likely to occur without fans.

• And that includes the NFL, too.  The draft is still on the clock, less than two weeks away.

• All told, counting the pros, March Madness and college cancellations, more than $1 billion in ad spending has been lost.  And you don't think that will have an effect on coming back?

• West Virginia's Bob Huggins' had a great idea this week, I thought, when he told a Pittsburgh radio show we should have March Madness in September.

• If no college football, I heartily concur.  Let the seniors – if they haven't moved on – return to play.  Put the league regular season champs in the Dance and go with your best at-large candidates.  The buzz would certainly come back strong, even if the timing is weird. 

• It's not perfect, but it is making chicken salad out of chicken (bleep).  Let's scratch where it itches.

• Hearing and reading more and more this week that college football would seriously consider a move to the spring, in order to play in front of fans in stadiums.  Especially if schools continue with online learning and do not allow students back on campus.

• And when you consider the revenue lost to schools across the country if the season doesn't play (or start on time), destroying athletic and academic budgets – while eliminating opportunity for many, including in other sports – some coaches are beginning to come around to the idea. 

• Which also makes Huggins' idea to hoop in September interesting, at the least.  Trading Places.  We'll ask Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd how to do it.

• The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics offered up its' initiatives on name, image and likeness rules for student athletes this week.  Pay for play, in simplistic form.

• Among the suggestions to the NCAA – leagues, schools and employees cannot provide (set up deals) for their athletes to be compensated; commercial use of logos and trademarks cannot be used; and a new governing entity would decide what is fair-market value.

• A school sponsor could, in theory, invite an athlete to appear at a function, sign autographs or whatever for a fee – but without school trademarks and logos involved.  Competitors of school sponsors would also be allowed to pursue NIL deals with student athletes.

• Providence walk-on guard Tommy Dempsey and Bryant's 6-9 Patrick Harding entered the college transfer portal this week.  Dempsey's father is the head coach at Binghamton.

• Butler guard Khalif Battle has also decided to scratch where it itches, and transfer to Temple. The Bulldogs have a highly touted recruiting class coming in next season and they will be very, very young.

• St. John's picked up 6-8 grad transfer Arnaldo Toro from George Washington, adding badly needed size to the Red Storm front court for next year.  6-6 Duke transfer Alex O'Connell is moving to Creighton, while Jays' grad transfer Davion Mintz heads for Kentucky – and Seton Hall is getting Harvard grad transfer guard Bryce Aiken.

• The Pirates have replaced their all-Big East backcourt in Myles Powell and Quincy McKnight with two grad transfers – Aiken and Canisius' Takal Molson, who averaged about 17 points per game last season. 

• Didn't take ex-URI guard Tyrese Martin long to find a new home – he'll play for the coach that recruited him to Kingston, Danny Hurley, and go to UConn.  No surprise there.

• How good a year was this past one for the Big East?  Two of the national individual award winners – part of the "Naismith Starting Five" – were Seton Hall's Powell (Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year) and Villanova's Saddiq Bey (Julius Erving Small Forward).

• ESPN's Joe Lunardi published his 1st bracketology for 2021, or whenever the next season will be…with five Big East schools mentioned.  Both Villanova and Creighton were 1-seeds, which should tell you what they've got returning.  Xavier and UConn were 9-seeds, PC an 11.

• The Musketeers will definitely take a hit from this point, however, with all-Big East forward Naji Marshall declaring for the NBA Draft and signing with an agent.  He's gone-ski from Cincy.

• Several reports this week say the vote on immediate eligibility for first-time transfers will not come until June.  And may not take effect until 2021-22.  To be determined, but that could put the kibosh on some optimism for both PC and URI.

• Tweet of the Week II, from @mikelonergan after watching HBO's 'The Scheme': "Not only should Will Wade, Sean Miller, Rick Pitino and several others be out of coaching, they should be in jail! The NCAA is a complete joke…it is easy to be a 'good coach' when you are cheating your ass off and buying players."

• Lonergan is a former George Washington coach, fired in 2016 for alleged verbal and physical abuse of players.  So, there's that.

• Not for nuthin', but it just seems as if smaller schools may be better suited to weather any coronavirus fallout from losing games or cutting programs.  The big schools could lose hundreds of millions of dollars, which will cripple some athletic departments. 

• Smaller schools are already used to 'doing without,' or at least doing with less.  They'll likely adapt better…and more quickly than their bigger brothers.

• Case in point – some schools, like Michigan State and Indiana State this week, have already cancelled their entire summer camp programs for the year.  Wisconsin has told their spring seniors, 'see ya.'  Others are undoubtedly considering the same but holding out hope for any revenue-generating ideas to still occur.

• Former Brown athletic director David Roach, who has been AD at Fordham since 2012 and also served at Colgate from '04-'12, has announced his retirement.  Roach was AD at Brown from 1990-2004 and spent many years as a swimming coach at both Brown and at Tennessee.

• I don't mean to brag or anything, but I finished my 14-day-while-in-quarantine diet in three-and-a-half hours.  Is that good?

• The RIIL spring sports schedule was released this week, with games potentially beginning no earlier than May 11 and ending by June 27.  If, of course, conditions allow.  Can't say they're not swinging away at life's curveballs, for sure.

• No surprise that the British Open was cancelled and that the three other major golf tournaments were moved to the fall. 

• But if we actually have football at the normal time, that will be some log jam on the calendar September-through-November for sports fans.  Right now, we have nothing.  In the fall we'll have maybe EVERYTHING, and of course we'll want all of it.

• "Hi.  My name is (your name here).  I'm a sports addict."  SA (Sports Anonymous) groups will be the new therapeutic industry trend.

• The US Senior Open scheduled for Newport, hosted by Ed Cooley and Rodney Harrison, was also cancelled by the USGA.  A lot of volunteer hours were already put in to make it a great show for golf and fans in the region.  Hope the golf gods look favorably upon Newport CC in the next few years.

• Meanwhile, the good stories also keep rolling in, too.  Athletes are out doing good for their fellow man and communities – like the Celtics' Jayson Tatum among others, raising money for food banks near his home in St. Louis. The NFL draft will also raise funds for the NFL Foundation, primarily supporting Covid-19 related charities.

• So sorry to hear of Al Kaline's passing this week, at age 85.  I had "Mr. Tiger's" old Wilson-model glove growing up in the '60's and early '70's, with his autograph stamped right into the ever-soft and deep pocket.  No matter I was primarily an infielder with an outfielders' glove.  I loved my Kaline. 

• Tom Dempsey's passing this week (due to complications from Covid-19) also struck an emotional chord.  I recall his booting the then-record 63 yarder for the Saints in 1970 against the Lions as an amazing accomplishment – which it was.  Especially since he had only half of his right foot to kick with due to a birth defect. 

• Gillette Stadium is hosting blood drives through May, beginning April 13th.  If you would like to give during this urgent time of need, hit up gillettestadium.com/kraft-family-blood-center/ and make an appointment.

• Something I never thought I would ever see, happened this week – the back page of the New York Post with the headline "Thank You Pats."  Whoa.

• Mildly surprised the NFL all-decade team for the 2010's was as 'patriated' with Patriots as it was.  You know, there IS (or at least was) a bias against New England in other parts of the country, don't you?

• Eight players in all were selected, including kicker Stephen Gostkowski.  You know, that bum the team let go a couple of weeks ago?  Just sayin.'

• Did TB12 'throw away' a chance to be "Boston's Most Beloved" athlete of all time, just to play an extra year or two in Tampa?

• He told Howard Stern this week that he also knew at the beginning of last season that "it was my last year."  He scratched where it itched.  Coulda saved us a lot of angst and grief over the past few weeks, Tom.  I'll be sending you a copy of my therapists' bill.

• Although, our sports radio stations should be thanking you for their very professional lives.  It wasn't so much "sports radio" around here as it was "Brady radio" 24/7.

• HBO's Hard Knocks says they're going to focus on two teams this summer – the Rams and the Chargers, both sharing a new stadium in LA.  YAWN.

• Honored to be asked to serve on the nominating committee again this year for the Patriots Hall of Fame, with a panel of 21 veteran reporters, broadcasters and know-it-alls.  We'll meet next week to begin the process, but suffice to say Richard Seymour should be a Gronk spike choice, no? 

• The way I see it, there are two eras in Patriots' history – pre-TB/BB, and TB/BB.  We begin Era Three whenever we can play again. 

• Who's missing from the 1960-2000 time frame that should be in there?  I'll beat the drum again, slowly, for Bill Parcells, Mosi Tatupu and Pete Brock.  Anyone with me?

• His career was noteworthy.  He won a championship with the Celtics.  His numbers are comparable to other greats.  So why does Kevin Garnett not feel like a hall of famer?  Would he be if he didn't win his title in Boston?

• I remember taking former Friar coach Pete Gillen to the airport after an interview we did one day, and in the middle of our conversation he blurted out, 'do you think I should recruit Kevin Garnett?' 

• Um, sure coach.  He went straight from high school to the NBA, as we know.  But Pete thought because no one else was recruiting him, maybe he should.  Guess that was an itch left unscratched.

• Kudos as well to Eddie Sutton and Kim Mulkey, two coaches I had the privilege to cover and follow for many years – Kim going back to her days as a player at Louisiana Tech when I attended and broadcast for Texas, and Coach Sutton (who also coached at Creighton) for his time spent at Arkansas. 

• And to Bentley's Barbara Stevens, who has won more than a thousand games and a national title in her 43 years coaching at Bentley, Clark and UMass.  Well deserved, and well past time.

• While we're on the subject of HOFers, time to relive the Tim Duncan story, too – and how he nearly became a Friar.  Yes, he was recruited by Rick Barnes to come to Providence.  Yes, he was offered.  Yes, he was denied the chance to attend – because PC had no available scholarships and they did not, at the time, over-recruit student athletes.

• I don't know.  In hindsight, ya' think the powers-that-be at the time kinda whiffed on that one?

• ICYMI, John Henry put his Liverpool FC employees on leave this week.  Then because of the public outrage, they reversed course.  I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or be very afraid.

• Per the Boston Globe this week – the 69 fulltime employees between the Pawsox, the Portland SeaDogs and the Lowell Spinners (the Boston minor league affiliates) are all keeping their jobs for now – and the SeaDogs have told their part-time workers they'll be compensated for missed games, too.

• Keep in mind – a month of cancelled games will result in about a 16% reduction in annual gross revenue, on average, for most minor league teams.  No fans, no income.  And for some, out of the 160 total minor league clubs in this country…no more team.

• The Pawsox' swan-song season at McCoy continues its' fade to black before it can begin.  Minor League Baseball says they won't play without fans.  It's entirely possible Pawtucket may have already seen its' last game.

• Hey Edward in East Providence – weep not for Wimbledon's "loss."  They reportedly paid $2 million per year over the past 17 years for pandemic insurance.  $34 million total.  For this year's cancellation, they'll receive $141 million from the policy.  That's doin' some bidness.

• Tweet of the Week III, from @amicohoops: "1918 Toronto wins Stanley Cup, 1919 Stanley Cup cancelled; 1993 Toronto wins World Series, 1994 World Series cancelled; 2019 Toronto wins NBA Finals, 2020 …"

• If President Trump is really smaht, he'll make certain Dr. Anthony Fauci is present at ALL news briefings.  Makes it must see TV.  Otherwise, meh.

• Esports betting?  Really?  We are a desperate and sordid lot, aren't we?

• Stealing from the Globe's Dan McGowan: "Wrestlemania would have been far more entertaining if someone suplexed Gronk."

• While out on one of my "let's get some fresh air" walks this week, I managed to do a week's worth of cardio in about 30 seconds after plowing into a spider web.

• And then I scratched where it itched.

• Interested in having your questions on local Rhode Island sports (and yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics, whenever they play again) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? Send 'em to me! It's your chance to "think out loud," so send your questions, comments and local stories to jrooke@weei.com. We'll share mailbag comments/Facebook posts/Tweets right here! Follow me on Twitter, @JRbroadcaster…and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke ...

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