I am going stir-crazy without my sports!

[lovin' EP]

Are you guys missing your sports as much as I am missing my Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves?

Linda

[drjohncarpenter]

Are you guys missing your sports as much as I am missing my Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves?

Linda

.

CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Memphis Zoo animals, administrators miss customers as pandemic causes financial difficulties

By Chris Luther | April 24, 2020 at 7:50 PM

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The COVID-19 pandemic is creating a financial burden on the Memphis zoo as they continue to care for their animals without a large portion of their revenue to support them.

It’s not just zookeepers and employees at the Memphis Zoo who realize how strange it is that the zoo is completely empty because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The animals are realizing that their fans are gone.

Meanwhile, Memphis Zoo administrators say they have a large financial problem on their hands.

For weeks there haven’t been any crowds to shower them with attention and the animals are noticing.

“They’re missing people!” said Nick Harmeier, chief marketing officer for the Memphis Zoo.

Harmeier says administrators miss people too.

https://www.wmcactionnews5.com/2020/04/24/memphis-zoo-animals-administrators-miss-customers-pandemic-causes-financial-difficulties/

[londonflash]

Are you guys missing your sports as much as I am missing my Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves?

Linda

Hi Linda,

Definitely! In England, the cricket season should be starting now and, like most of the world, there's been no football for over a month. No Premier League (although I'm an Everton fan so wouldn't cry if they cancelled the season) or Champions League. And no F1 for me to fall asleep to after Sunday lunch.

My wife is happy though.

It has to be done, though, and I think we may be heading towards the return of sport in the summer although, like so much surrounding this virus, who knows?

Hope you're keeping safe.

Regards,

Andrew

[Walter Hale 4]

I miss the Olympics and Wimbledon both cancelled. Wimbly would have been Federer's last shot of winning the title. I can't see him playing there aged 39 next year.

[Rob]

I am missing baseball season very much. I have been reduced to watching an old game occasionally on Fox Sports.

Linda, you are one of few who are welcome in my Elvis room. We'll have milk and cookies and watch videos of Elvis in Atlanta.

[r&b]

My Yankees! I need baseball

[pmp]

For some people it's an even worse scenario. Take Alfie Hewett. Born with a congenital heart defect and also suffering from a rare hip condition, he is twice a winner of the US Open tennis in the singles wheelchair event, and also a winner of the French Open. He also has three Wimbledon doubles titles and three US Open doubles titles to his name, and that's without mentioning silver medals in both singles and doubles at the Rio olympics in 2016.

Last year, he was told by the International Tennis Federation that changes to the rules meant he would not be allowed to compete after 2020 because he can walk short distances. And now, his final year of competition, including another shot at Olympic gold, has been taken away because of Coronavirus, and it's likely that, at 22, he has played his last professional match.

For most elite sportspeople in Britain the Covid-19 lockdown is a temporary, if painful, episode. For Britain’s three-time wheelchair tennis grand-slam event champion and Paralympic silver medallist Alfie Hewett, coronavirus brings added anguish.

Mercifully for one born with a congenital heart defect that required surgery at six months, and a victim of rare hip abnormality Perthes Disease, Hewett’s physical health is not at issue. The torment is, however, real.

Following revisions to the wheelchair tennis classifications made by the International Tennis Federation and approved by the International Paralympic Committee last year, Hewett was advised that 2020 would be his last season in a sport that has shaped his life.

His ability to walk, though severely impaired, took him outside the new regulations. At 22 years old you can imagine the sense of devastation evinced, a situation compounded by a lethal pandemic that has already seen Wimbledon wiped from the calendar and the Olympic Games postponed.

The French Open has been rescheduled for September and the US Open hangs on to its 24 August start date for now, but neither can be confident of surviving. The hope is that those who qualified for the Tokyo Olympics will still be able to compete in 2021, but that has still to be confirmed by the ITF. So Hewett waits while what remains of his astonishing career is suspended in a state of wicked uncertainty.

“I’ve been keeping on a physical programme, watching matches and keeping that tennis brain active,” he says. “It is a strange period. As things stand, my career will have to finish at the end of the year. With this pandemic going on there is obviously a bigger picture. I just hope they will allow me and the other athletes affected to compete in the Games next year.”

Hewett first took to his wheelchair after being diagnosed with Perthes Disease, a condition that inhibits blood flow from the pelvis to the hip joint, at six years old. Successful treatment, which involves immediate wheelchair use to protect against load bearing on the legs, depends on early diagnosis. As a football-mad kid, Hewett ignored the early signs and played on with negative consequences in adulthood. Though walking is possible, Hewett is not mobile in the conventional sense and nowhere near athletic in any meaningful way while upright.

“I want to carry on competing for the foreseeable future, not just an extra year,” he says. “Obviously the ITF have a lot on their plate deciding what happens with Olympic qualification, classification, rankings, points systems, etc. Questions have been asked from my side whether this is going to be my final year. It is still unknown.”

Over and above the Olympic situation, there is a sense of injustice around the treatment of Hewett, and others similarly affected, for whom the able-bodied game is not an option. “It’s not fair,” he says. “I was allowed into the sport when I was eight or nine. There were certain rules and guidelines then. I have played for 13 years. I have had an unbelievable career. I’m proud of where I have got. There has been a lot of sacrifice and hard work. I wanted to get to the top and make it a full-time living. Just as I reach that point, these guidelines have come in and it has affected where I stand.”

What should be an uplifting story about a boy overcoming not one, but two chronic health conditions to carve his place in the world through wheelchair sport has turned into a political mess. Not only is Hewett denied a future, his achievements, which include two US Opens and a French Open singles title and five major doubles titles, plus two Paralympic silvers, might be construed by those of a cynical disposition as tainted.

“The decision makes you out to be a fraud almost,” Hewett says. “If you look at the top 10 there is such a range of disabilities, and everyone beats everyone. If it was clear that my disability was giving me an advantage and I was sweeping up left, right and centre you could argue maybe it wasn’t fair. But the truth is I have no advantage over other players. In a wheelchair my legs aren’t being used.”

Hewett’s account of his condition shines a harsh light on the rules changes. “Perthes varies from person to person,” he says. “The severity from the beginning depends on circumstances. As a six or seven year-old you don’t want to be told you can’t run around and play football. I loved playing football. I must have been undiagnosed for eight months to a year. My parents and friends thought I was whinging about a couple of bad slide tackles. But being on my feet and still running around was making the condition a lot worse. It just got to a point where I was in absolute agony. I collapsed. I couldn’t put any weight through my leg. An ambulance came and I was rushed to hospital. I came out of that in a wheelchair and my life changed from that moment.”

Understandably, Hewett is frustrated at the ruling. “They don’t understand what I’ve had to go through. I have had to come through a lot of adversity. I never dreamed of being a wheelchair tennis player when I was three of four years old. I wanted to be a footballer, then life throws this monster at you. I had to overcome that and all the mental and social struggles that go with it. I found disability sport. I played wheelchair basketball and tennis and created a job for myself. To make a living from a wheelchair sport is rare. We are so lucky in what wheelchair tennis has to offer and now it is being snatched out of my hand through no fault of my own.”

Hewett’s powerful testimony begs the question why the authorities cannot refine the regulations still further to create a category that would allow similarly affected athletes to continue in the sport. “I know what I felt when I first got in that chair. It gave me a new purpose in life. I would hate for a seven-year-old with Perthes today, or another disability, to be denied that opportunity because their condition no longer fits the criteria. It turned my life around. It has been one hell of a ride. That’s where it gets to me, the idea that it might prevent others from doing what I did. It’s not right.”

https://inews.co.uk/sport/tennis/alfie-hewett-wheelchair-tennis-interview-2549262

[brian]

I watch the NFL and the NBA mostly. I don't like that the rest of the NBA season might be cancelled and the NFL season might not happen at all. I follow the Cowboys and the 49ers in the NFL. I want to see how the Cowboys are going to do after such a disappointing season and a new coach. The 49ers should've won the Superbowl and I want to see how well they do this year. I'm hopeful that that will happen and that I'll get to see how that all unfolds. I'm not sure how I feel about the new NFL playoff rules. Baseball's pacing is slow I like the faster pace of basketball and football. During the NBA season before it was suspended it looked like the Lakers or the Clippers were going to win the championship and I'm not a fan of either team but I would've watched the NBA finals. Maybe they can still finish their season and then start next season later than usual.

[YDKM]

Its driving me crazy... zero snooker and all my other sports i cannot do.... all that is left is "limited walks" and lawnmowing!

[pmp]

Its driving me crazy... zero snooker and all my other sports i cannot do.... all that is left is "limited walks" and lawnmowing!

I was due to be at the snooker a week ago - although I have to admit I've found it rather difficult to get involved in this season. Not sure why.

[lovin' EP]

Thanks, everyone, for your replies. I thought it might help ease the pain if we just shared our misery together.

Elvisly,

Linda

[YDKM]

Its driving me crazy... zero snooker and all my other sports i cannot do.... all that is left is "limited walks" and lawnmowing!

I was due to be at the snooker a week ago - although I have to admit I've found it rather difficult to get involved in this season. Not sure why.

Yeah well (normally) i attend 3 days matches @ sheffield and my friend just told me its now "on" in August.. but i just told him to get a refund... August in the UK is way,WAY to soon for any tight spectatuer sport!

[Walter Hale 4]

Are you guys missing your sports as much as I am missing my Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves?

Linda

Hi LINDA, Are any of the cable TV operators there re-playing those (or any other) teams (and other sports) famous wins?
I know that here they're re-playing some aussie football games each friday and saturday prime time until the Australia Football League season can re-start , maybe june.

[YDKM]

Snooker is back on british tv as from june first; but they will be tested and locked in players at milton keynes and televised but no spectateurs.

[londonflash]

Bundesliga back on and the Premier League is returning in a few weeks, both behind closed doors. Cricket and F1 returning soon as well, it is hoped.

[YDKM]

In Australia indoor swimming pools open up june 13th!

[SteamrollerBlues]

Missing my Red Sox a lot as well. Been rewatching old playoff games via NESN, and scouring YouTube for Jason Varitek highlights...

[YDKM]

Got back to swimming today.....amazingly only other people far away were a group of 70's "disco" Airobics class!

[Walter Hale 4]

The AFL Football is Back with a Bang (since March 22) with my team the Port Adelaide MAGPIES taking on their cross town rivals Adelaide CROWS. Only 2000 spectators are allowed entry to the game because of social distancing measures.
I have big expectations for the Port Adelaide boys in 2020!

[Walter Hale 4]

UPDATE -

Game is over with a huge win to the Port Adelaide MAGPIES by a margin of 75points. They've send a warning to the rest of the AFL national Football sides, thats another 16 teams, they're set the standard against what their rivals must catch and match in order to challenge them. GO POWA -AAAAAAR !!!!

[Gamma Master]

They replayed the 1966 football World Cup final last weekend, brilliant bit of football! (annoying commentary throughout however, kinda reminds me of the "fans' comments" from EIC in retrospect)

"They think it's all over, it is now!"

[YDKM]

I watched that 66' final myself back in THE DAY!

[Rob]

The way the baseball players are acting now makes me not give a damn whether they play this year or not. It's no longer a game. It's all about that almighty $.

Baseball used to be known as "America's favorite pastime." That's long gone...and greed destroyed it.

[Gamma Master]

The way the baseball players are acting now makes me not give a damn whether they play this year or not. It's no longer a game. It's all about that almighty $.

Baseball used to be known as "America's favorite pastime." That's long gone...and greed destroyed it.

Sounds a lot like football (or 'soccer' as some may insist on calling it ) the money just sucks a lot of the life out of it in my opinion, makes it more like a battle between multi-million pound businesses more than an actual game of sport, grassroots sports is 1000x better than the televised stuff

[YDKM]

I am currently thoroughly enjoying the world 2020 snooker championship ( even without an audience)