MAC ON SPORTS: ‘MARCH MADNESS’ TAKES ON A DIFFERENT MEANING

J. Thomas McNamara

     Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse in the sports world, it did, with last Friday’s announcement that the Master’s golf tournament was being moved. Augusta National postponed the Masters, another massive hit to the spring sports calendar from the COVID-19 that already is responsible for the loss of March Madness and the delay of opening day baseball. Those are in addition to cancellation of the professional basketball and professional hockey and soccer seasons until further notice.

     No date has been set for the Master’s to be played. It’s called March Madness, but the madness took on a whole different meaning last week when the coronavirus 19 shut down indefinitely the entire sports world–preps, college, professional basketball, professional baseball, professional soccer and professional hockey.

     As the dean of the Decatur sports media, who has been writing about sports here since 1957, including the last 44 as Decatur Tribune sports editor, I, too, have mixed feelings about what just occurred within a 72-hour period last Tuesday through Thursday. By the way the Decatur Tribune called attention to the potential of this happening in last week’s Irish Stew where this writer cited what was happening elsewhere in the country where games were played without fans in the stands in reaction to the virus, and that some conferences were cancelling their tournament games.

(Read entire article in this week’s print edition of the Decatur Tribune.