What a thrill it would be these days to have even one of our major sports teams in action. We’d glom on to the games like ants on a dropped ice cream cone, wouldn’t we?
But if you had to pick — if you could have one sport to watch during the coronavirus shutdown, regardless of when that sport traditionally falls on the calendar — which would you go with?
I posed that question, and a few others, on Twitter for a new weekly “Polling Place” column that, for now, will take the place of “This You Gotta See,” the glimpse at the week to come in sports television that usually appears on Page 3 of the Chicago Sun-Times’ Sports Saturday edition.
“Baseball and hockey are tied [for me],” @ChiSox_History commented.
“The hockey number changes if the Blackhawks were a playoff team,” @ChiTownSports wrote.
“I’d most like to have the Premier League and Champions League leading into Euro 2020,” piped in @Dave8481.
There’s always a soccer-head in the bunch, isn’t there? Alas, the choices given were limited to baseball, basketball, football and hockey.
And the largest chunk of voters went — not surprisingly — with the “other” football. You know, the kind played with shoulder pads, utter disregard for personal safety and, far too often in Chicago, anyway, a quarterback who routinely makes his team’s fans apoplectic.
And speaking of quarterbacks …
Poll No. 1: If the #Bears have to ride or die with Mitch Trubisky or Nick Foles in 2020, assuming there’s a season, who’s your guy?
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) March 27, 2020
Upshot: If you’ve been taking a really long nap, guess what? It seems Foles turned into John Elway — or at least Jay Cutler — while you were out. Oh, wait, this isn’t actually about Foles at all, is it?
Poll No. 2: How well was (is) #Cubs manager David Ross’ plan to have Kris Bryant lead off going to work?
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) March 27, 2020
Upshot: “The best of a bad situation” would’ve made a truly awful, though fitting, motto for the 2020 Cubs, who hadn’t made any obvious key additions to a team that fell far short of expectations in 2019. On the other hand, “The Best of a Bad Situation” sounds like a far better song than “Go Cubs Go.”
Poll No. 3: Is Rick Renteria the right manager to lead the #WhiteSox to the top of the AL Central?
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) March 27, 2020
Upshot: Too soon to tell? Pick a side, pal. Actually, it’s probably the most reasonable answer given this is the first time in Renteria’s career he’s expected to win. Or as @HolyWatts put it: “If he stops disregarding sabermetrics and stops choosing to bunt at the most ridiculous times, he might have my vote.”
Poll No. 4: If you could have only one of these sports to watch, which would it be?
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) March 27, 2020
Upshot: One suspects that if Chicago had an NBA team, there would’ve been a lot more votes for basketball. But we kid the Bulls, right? If they were the only one of our teams playing right now, we’d glom on to their games like ants on a dropped ice … oops, already said that.