GREENE COUNTY

Dear Diary,

It’s been just over a week since I covered a sports event. Suddenly I find online marble racing to be exciting.

In a quest to enjoy some form of competition, I’ve caught myself counting the number of cars I pass on my daily commute. Then I see whether I can beat that mark on the next day. … Only I make it so’s that I start out 33rd, and count up to 1, as if I’m picking off back markers through the field of the Indianapolis 500.

Now, my commuting days could be sent to Gasoline Alley.

It’s been raining like crazy outside, and I take some solace in realizing that if high school Spring sports were being played they’d be rained out, too.

My girlfriend lives in St. Louis, and so she and I were getting ourselves worked up into a frenzy while cheering for the St. Louis Battlehawks XFL football team to continue their winning ways.

Ka-Kah! Ka-KAH!

But the XFL and all the major sports leagues are shut down as well.

I’m looking forward to doing next week’s high school simulation baseball and softball games, not only because it will be a lot of fun, but because at least I’d be “covering” a sporting event again.

I have some ideas for sports stories, but I have no idea whether my three readers will enjoy them. I’d like to dig around the Greene County Historical Society to find out about the area’s best athletes from the past, but would anyone care? The county has had its share of amazing athletes. Their stories could possibly serve as motivation for generations to come, while enabling us older generations to enjoy reminiscing the days gone by.

Hmmm, I wonder who was better: Gary Bradds or Samari Curtis?

Maybe if I asked my readers to tell me how they’re coping with being stuck indoors after being told not to practice with their respective teams, they would. I think it could start a dialogue among athletes, and could maybe generate some healthy competition and sportsmanship off the playing field.

And while we while away our days eating bad junk food and watching Christmas movies, it would be nice to know from an area coach or two the proper way to do a push up, or to get some kind of workout advice from those with knowledge of working out, in order to keep us all from becoming bloated masses of goo during this down time.

Diary, I’m even mulling over the idea of creating some kind of a Hot Stove League, where I’d pose a question to the readers, something truly enlightening and important like “Which area high school team would snarf down the most hamburgers in a single sitting, and why?” And I’d have readers respond with their opinions on which school or team that would be.

I think Samari Curtis could out-eat Gary Bradds, by the way.

My simulation games will be fun, and I’m actually in discussion with the Cincinnati Reds and Major League Baseball in hopes of possibly getting them involved as well, but watching a game unfold on a game board just doesn’t quite compare to the joy of catching a REAL game and freezing outside at this time of year.

Hopefully, a good dose of warm weather will be enough to drive away the Coronavirus, and I’ll be able to have some semblance of a sports writer’s life again. And more importantly, here’s hoping that the athletes will be able to take to the fields again, and soon. Hopefully my readers will have lots of fun anecdotes and comments about what they’ve been doing during the Shut-In of 2020, as well.

(Hint! Hint! and Ka-Kah!!),

JB