No baseball the toughest part of my COVID-19 spring

Ryan Zimmerman

“Baseball is like church. Many attend but few understand.”
-- WES WESTRUM

In many ways, I haven't been hurt at all by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It hasn't changed anything for us financially. I've been retired for more than 12 years, and our monthly income hasn't been affected at all except for the total value of our retirement yo-yoing with the market.

I used to go to the movies regularly, but I've only seen three in theaters since we moved to Georgia in 2010. I don't go to ballgames in person, either.

Indeed, the one way my life has really changed -- other than wearing a mask every time I go somewhere -- has been a spring without baseball to follow. For the last four or five years, I've paid for the MLB-TV season subscriptions so that I can watch ballgames whenever I want.

And no, I do not want to watch Korean baseball.

The last game I saw was Washington's wonderful come-from-behind victory in Game Seven of the World Series. If you want irony, how about the two teams I have followed since I was a teenager -- Washington baseball and Virginia basketball -- winning their first championships in my lifetime the same year.

And then both having their next seasons disrupted by the pandemic.

Sometimes life really sucks.

***

Short takes and random thoughts for a May weekend:

-- Donald Trump has been a disaster as president from Day One, but despite analysis that 90 percent of deaths could have been avoided had he not delayed in acting, he continues to insist he has done a wonderful job. Unbelievable.

-- Just finished watching George Takei's wonderful Broadway show "Allegiance," about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The entire cast was outstanding, but the amazing Lea Salonga stood out as always.

-- Every few years I go back and watch episodes of "The West Wing." Along with "Moonlighting," it's one of my two favorite TV series ever. There have been plenty of other good ones, but the one recent series that comes awfully close to making that list is "Madam Secretary."

-- An unnamed White House source put an interesting twist on the old saying about someone playing chess while their opponents play checkers. The source, no fan of Trump's, said that while some people are playing chess, Trump is eating the pieces.