Appreciating sports’ healing powers ... especially in these times

The greatest thing about sports is the unexpected presentation of opportunities.

From soft curve balls waiting to be clubbed, to fumbles ricocheting violently in favorable directions, to superstars springing into free agency, everything can change in a hurry.

Due to virus concerns, the sports world itself is facing one of those situations. While chances are high that few positives could seep from a shutdown of all spectator events, it doesn’t mean sports and sports fans cannot emerge from the crisis without some improvements, intentional or otherwise. The list of possibilities: • The renewed appreciation of baseball and its potential to restore order.

For reasons extending from general impatience of sports fans to overpriced tickets, baseball has been trending toward a significance crisis.

But when sports resumes, and it will, baseball will be in a perfect spot to benefit. By then, sports fans who had been in both literal and figurative lock down will be desperate for something fresh. Not only will an outdoor sport in the spring provide quick therapy, but baseball will return at a point where regular hockey and basketball customers will have some leftover ticket-budget money to spend.

Nor would it be the first time baseball provided more than entertainment. During World War II, when so much else in the nation was subjected to restrictions, president Franklin D. Roosevelt insisted that baseball continue for the good of the people and, by extension, the war effort.

When sports were put on hold following the September 11 attacks of 2001, baseball again surfaced as a healing agent. The first game after the disaster was nationally televised from New York, with Mike Piazza of the Mets slugging a walk-off home run. In Boston, of all places, Red Sox fans took to singing, “New York, New York,” as a tribute to their rival city’s lost heroes. And the video of president George W. Bush, obviously protected by a bullet-proof vest under his Fire Department of New York jacket, defiantly tossing out the first pitch before the World Series remains an iconic reminder of the healing powers of the national pastime.

At a time when it is that pastime that could use a boost, the opportunity is there for that healing to work both ways.

• The recognition of the charm and value of shorter NHL and NBA seasons.

The NBA is muddied by such an unwieldy schedule that the most recognizable performers are emboldened, and too often encouraged, to big-time customers by skipping work even when healthy. At some point, the only solution will be fewer regularseason games.

Already there had been chatter about reducing the number of scheduled NBA events, with the addition of more playoff spots or an in-season tournament helping to recover the lost revenue.

Because of labor issues, both the NBA and NHL have enjoyed shorter regular seasons in the past. The NHL once even lost an entire season. Though the compact regular seasons were captivating, there was too much money involved for that to ever become a trend.

But the opportunity to revisit the concept of the 65-to-70-game winter-sports schedule has resurfaced. This time, the leagues will have plenty of time to consider making it permanent and to find inventive ways to make it work.

• The overdue end of the contrived post-game handshake line.

It is a relatively new tradition basically confined to colleges and high schools, and it has been idiotic from its inception.

With a new awareness of the risks of any handshakes possibly forever altering the way people interact, it’s a good time wave goodbye to a failed idea.

The notion of players and coaches who’d just spent two hours in often bitter competition being made to act like best friends only opens the potential for conflict. The handshake sham is destined, then, to routinely provide the exact result it was designed to avoid.

In the NBA, most coaches just nod to each other from 94 feet away after games, while the players tend to walk quietly toward the locker room.

The grown-ups who tried to make the handshake-line common in everything from the Final Four to a youth soccer game have been presented with a save-face escape route from a crumbling experiment.

• A reminder to appreciate sports as they are occurring.

As this particular crisis hit at a critical point in the college basketball season, begin there.

For many reasons, highest among them short attention spans and on that list a chronic national urge to gamble on anything, too many sports fans have been conditioned to believe that there annually will be only 67 college basketball games worth watching.

On the contrary, holiday tournaments, longstanding rivalry games, conference races and nightly displays of individual athletic excellence are worth savoring even without the manufactured stimulus of a wrinkled bracket sheet that not even the most sophisticated expert ever can come close to solving.

The virus crisis should carry a reminder that it’s best to enjoy something while it is happening, and not wait for some other time to pay attention.

• The inspiration to enjoy more participatory athletic activities.

With no sporting events to attend or to even watch on TV, there will be more time to hike, jog, bicycle, fish or exercise … and perhaps to gain a better appreciation for such activities and those who enjoy them. Who knows? Maybe a virus crisis could, in that back-door way, spread a little better health. Will all of that happen? No chance. Will some? Good chance. The opportunities, at least, are there. It’s the best of what sports can provide.

Jack McCaffery Columnist