This has to be one of the best tweets in recent memory.
Daniel Thorson cut himself off from the world for 75 days as part of a Buddhist monastic community in March, spending that time in a cabin in the northwestern region of Vermont. He re-appeared on Twitter on May 23 with the following tweet:
“I’m back from 75 days in silence. Did I miss anything?”
Naw … not a thing, my good man. Life carried on as normal without a care in the world. You were better off where you were, in all honesty. Rip Van Winkle, anyone?
Anyway …
An audience of one until …
So La Liga, the top soccer league in Spain, returned to action on June 13, joining other leagues slowly coming back to life in the age of Covid-19. Like those other leagues, the stands are empty and no one is allowed in to watch.
Which begs the question: how in the hell did this guy manage to invade the pitch in a game between Barcelona and Majorca?
Kevin Sousa/NHL Images photo
I’m not kidding – some guy got into the stadium, got down onto the field and began running around. There was more confusion among everyone than anything else, including the play-by-play guy, but the one image that stuck out to me was seeing players back up and keep their physical distancing. I laughed – maybe I shouldn’t have but I did.
The only thing that would have made this all better would have been for stuffed animals to be a part of the crowd get-up, a la South Korea, and a Patrick Starfish animal got out of his seat and began to run around.
Loved the piped-in crowd noise, by the way.
And round and round they go
One league that may not come back at all is Major League Baseball and, like any good dispute involving labour, it’s all about money.
Depending on who you believe – and the first casualty in any negotiation, like in war, is the truth – there will be a reduced 2020 season with either players taking pay cuts or having prorated salaries with an expanded playoff format and extra money in the playoff pool for the players or something along those lines so long as teams commit to this and that while players balk at the idea and want this and that in return.
Nothing complicated at all, is there?
Here’s what I believe: the owners are on the hook for paying players what they’re owed under the terms of their contract but the players need to understand that with no revenue coming in the door, they won’t get anything. One hundred per cent of jack-crap is still jack-crap.
The prorated option is the one which makes the most sense. Players will still get their per-game salary while the owners won’t have to worry about paying a full salary but still understanding that you need to pay them based on what’s in front of them. It makes no sense to pay people for work they didn’t do yet it’s awfully tough for an owner to justify spending baseball revenue when there isn’t any.
The latest salvo came from Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s commissioner, who said on June 15 that he was “not confident” a 2020 season would happen, a complete about-face from his comments earlier on when he said a 2020 season was “100 per cent” happening.
I’m not holding my breath because that would be pointless at this point.
And finally …
Good Idea: David Ayres winning the National Hockey League’s Feel-Good Moment of the Year.
Bad Idea: David Ayres not winning the National Hockey League’s Feel-Good Moment of the Year every year.
Beyond any doubt, the now-legendary story of David Ayres was one which captured the hearts and minds of sports fans the world over. A Zamboni driver steps in to play goal for the Carolina Hurricanes on an emergency basis and ends up beating the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Was there any doubt his heroics wouldn’t win the National Hockey League’s Feel-Good Moment of the Year, as chosen by the fans? What else could they have chosen? It should have been the only moment on the ballot, akin to an election year in North Korea.
This is one moment where I hope he continues to cash in because the way our world is going right now, we need all the feel-good moments we can get.
Until next time, folks …