Lookin Forward to Resumed Pro Sports...If That Happens

I've enjoyed this Fourth of July weekend, but I'm getting a little tired of listening to sports talk or watching reruns of ancient games as substitutes for watching live major league sporting events.  Sure, there's still premier professional soccer going on in Europe and Mexico, and sometimes that's fun to watch...I got into yesterday's English Premier League match between Chelsea and Watford, peculiar in that although the Chelsea home stadium was empty of fans, they piped in recorded spectator noise to give the audio illusion that it was packed.  But not seeing anyone in the stands doesn't detract in the least from my enjoyment of a game...just bring it on!  On July 8th, America's Major League Soccer is planning to start action with all 26 league teams in a format similar to the World Cup...a few early matches followed by knockout elimination rounds until a champion is crowned.  But whether I follow them or not depends on whether I get to see their matches on TV.  Major League Baseball is supposedly going to begin a much-curtailed, 60-game regular season starting on July 23rd or 24th with games taking place at the various cities' home fields although they, too, will be empty of fans.  The National Basketball Association on July 30th is set to try and close its 2019-2020 season with some 22 teams playing for the final playoff lineup with the playoffs following...while everyone involved plays and resides within an isolation bubble at World Disney World near Orlando: good luck with that.  Similarly, the National Hockey League plans to hold its season-ending playoffs with the teams playing in centralized locations away from their home towns...both basketball and hockey will be playing to empty arenas.  And the National Football League plans to start its 2020 season on September 10th, although the number of scheduled preseason exhibition games has dwindled from four to two...and may be zero before we get there.  And there's no telling what will happen with college football, as decentralized as the sport is with certain conferences and states holding a relatively high degree of decision power here...

I like watching soccer, baseball, basketball, and football when the games count...even ice hockey when it's the Stanley Cup playoffs.  I don't want to see packed stadiums and arenas anytime soon, and some of the reports about different teams' players testing positive for COVID-19 don't sound encouraging.  The recent resurgence of coronavirus in many states...especially Texas, California, Arizona and my Florida...has thrown a monkey wrench into the various plans for reopening the different leagues.  As of now, they're still planning to resume play on the indicated dates, but we all know that things can drastically change over the course of just a few hours...