The NCAA Final Four was supposed to be this weekend. Monday was supposed to be the start of Masters Week. The Red Sox were supposed to have their home opener on Thursday.
But as we sit here at the beginning of April, none of those things are happening.
With the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down life as we know it over the past few weeks, sports have been one of the many pleasantries that have gone by the wayside. Every league in every major sport has shut down operations for the most part, and even less popular sports like mixed martial arts, NASCAR, and horse racing have followed suit. The Tokyo Olympics have already been rescheduled for 2021, and Wimbledon had its championship canceled for the first time since World War II.
So what on Earth are sports fans supposed to do?
Now, let’s get this out of the way right off the bat — I understand that this is a trivial matter in the grand scheme of things. In no way am I trying to diminish the impact coronavirus has had on our communities and our way of life. But at the same time, many people use sports as an escape from day-to-day life, and it can’t be argued that it can be incredibly entertaining for those invested.
So with no live sports left on TV for now, sports fans such as myself have been trying to find ways to adapt. Luckily, there’s plenty going on if you care to look.
One of the great things that several TV stations have been doing is showing old broadcasts of classic games from around sports. ESPN has been running series of games such as “best no-hitters” or “best buzzer-beaters,” while Golf Channel has been running the 2019 broadcasts of the tournaments the PGA Tour would normally be playing each week.
But if you’re like me, a sports fan who isn’t biased in what he or she watches, then YouTube is the place for you.
In just the past week on YouTube, I’ve watched Tiger Woods’ phenomenal performance in the 1997 Masters, the 2004 ALCS between the Red Sox and Yankees, the 1996 NBA Finals between Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and Gary Payton’s Seattle Supersonics, and every single Super Bowl win the Patriots have had over the past 20 years. What I’m talking about here are full-game broadcasts as they appeared on television. Yes, that means four-plus hour baseball games and golf tournaments.
As someone who’s a bit on the younger side — I was 10 years old when the Patriots shocked the St. Louis Rams back in 2001 — it’s been incredible going back and watching these games now. Obviously it’s tough to get as emotionally invested in some games when you know the outcome, but you could just as easily look up some random NBA game between Jordan’s Bulls and Shaq’s Lakers in the mid-’90s and watch it like you’ve never seen it before. I may or may not have done that a few times.
You pick up some pretty cool tidbits when you watch these games from back then, and that particularly struck me when I was watching the 2004 ALCS. First of all, the production value of those television broadcasts, especially in Games 4 through 7, was otherworldly. Just the shots of the various faces in the crowd and the way they were able to build the tension, it was incredible. I definitely didn’t appreciate that aspect of things as a 13-year-old baseball fanatic. Other things that struck me were how little confidence many had in Terry Francona’s managing decisions and the fact that Tony Clark — who is currently the Executive Director of the MLB Players Union — played first base for the Yankees during that series.
If you’re a diehard football guy, the NFL YouTube page has pretty much every Super Bowl in history available to watch. If you’re a golfer like me, The Masters has its own channel with every Masters final round broadcast, in full, going back to 1968. Every sport, no matter how obscure, has a home on YouTube.
Of course, there’s no substitute for live sports. The suspense and thrill of not knowing what’s going to happen next is one of the biggest draws of being a sports fan. But for now, while we all wait things out, maybe go back and watch some old games. You might be surprised at how much you’ll enjoy it.
Mike Alongi can be reached at [email protected].