Obscure sports rule in outbreak

Wild, wacky at-home games quickly becoming new norm

PHILADELPHIA — Welcome to the Marble Universe, where the rushing of glass balls down race tracks, around sandy beach corners or getting thumped by fidget spinners has suddenly become as captivating as any dunk contest.

Losing your marbles looking for sports to watch during the coronavirus pandemic?

Get in on Marble Madness! No bracket needed.

Wild and wacky games straight out of the halcyon days of “Wide World of Sports” are in vogue as boredom seeps in and new forms of entertainment are in demand.

With all real sports on hiatus, fans are finding pinch-hit pastimes to pass the time, like, say, marble racing, whose videos — more viral than virus — have attracted celebrity fans and erupted into a social media sports sensation.

Some loafers sit on adjacent window sills and play catch, kick around the soccer ball and even bust out ping pong paddles. Broadcaster Josh Lewin has called the play-by-play of his routine chores, such as stacking soup (”a double stack of Minestrone! Double stack! We haven’t seen that one since mid-July!”). Golfer Matthias Schwab started a #StayAtHomeChallenge and posted videos of him using his clubs to drive a roll of toilet paper out the window. Fore! Charmin coming through! Wonder where all the TP went at your Costco? Odds are, athletes are using them as props in social media videos. A handful of tennis players swiped right for their love of toilet paper hacky sack and kept tally of consecutive bounces off one racket. Strange games, indeed. The list goes on of the quirky and curious ways athletes and amateurs have passed the time waiting for LeBron James and the rest of sports to get off the bench.

The curious can catch up Sunday when ESPN brings back the “Dodgeball” inspired sports channel ESPN8: The Ocho. (That’s ESPN 2 on your cable dial). Some of the best of Jelle’s 2019 Marble Runs will be featured. So will the 2007 World Sport Stacking Championships, 2019 Death Diving World Championship, and the Stupid Robot Fighting League. Hey, it beats another day of classic games that already fill space on the DVR.

The Olympics are in doubt, but the gold medal for creativity during the lull goes to the crew behind the marble racing craze. The videos from the brothers who run Jelle’s Marble Runs have been around for about a decade but exploded in popularity this week on Twitter. The secret is out — yes, the marbles are out of the bag — and the Jelle’s Marble Runs YouTube channel added about 26,000 subscribers in one day in the wake of one racing video.

Greg Woods has a degree in neuroscience from Drake and went to medical school for a couple of years before he got a master of public health in community and behavioral health at Iowa. He now works for the Alzheimer’s Association and hosts a weekly neuroscience local radio show.

Woods is less Bill Nye and more Joe Buck when he calls the action for Jelle’s Marble Runs for hundreds of races. Woods watched on Reddit a marble race — held in the sandhills of the Netherlands, naturally — and wondered what it would be like if someone added commentary. He took out a stick microphone, recorded himself, posted the video on Reddit, and Jelle reached out asking if Woods would like to become the voice of marble racing.

Four years later, that’s Woods welcoming viewers to the latest game with a call of, “Let’s roll!”

Jelle, based in Nijmegen, Netherlands, films the race and sends it to Woods to lay down commentary. Marble fans have scored soundtracks to races and choirs have recorded team chants.

The most popular videos boast between 1 and 2.5 million views, some from celebrities that became enveloped in Marble Mania.

Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz tweeted, “Edge of my seat. Need that comet merch” to a marble race video. Jabrill Peppers, of the NFL’s Giants, also rooted for Comet, the sensational big blue marble that never runs out of gas. “dk how but that light blue marble cheating.”

The celebration and commiseration for the nearly 700,000 YouTube subscribers and countless more who watch on Reddit and social media is as passionate as the wildest Cameron Crazies or Cheeseheads.

“People get attached to these marbles and they build the storylines and they weave this together through all the competition,” Woods said.