KLMNO
SPORTS
THURSDAy, MARCH 19 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS re D
population was infected.
The 1919 season began
April 23, just one week later than
the year before, when the first
spanish flu cases barely had
reached America. The Phillies’
home opener that day drew an
estimated 12,000 to the Baker
Bowl.
epidemiologists might not call
this apples to apples. But this
broad general time frame — from
the start of a baseball shutdown
because of a pandemic to the
game’s return just 7^1 / 2 months
later — is one of the few flu facts
that give me a thimble of
encouragement and patience
these days.
our job right now is to
minimize the casualties, and
canceling sports events is a basic
element. But until proved
otherwise, I’m taking the
position (for my emotional
health) that the science of 2020
can beat the medicine of 1918 by
quite a bit when it comes to
restoring a semblance of normal
daily life. Baseball will be back.
For now, the season has been
pushed back at least eight weeks,
see boswell on d2Time frames
matter these days.
They give an
outline to our
pandemic
problems, help us
endure and cope,
but also give us a
realization that
better days — e ven best days —
are ahead, though right now they
are seen only dimly.
In March 1918, the first cases
of spanish flu appeared in the
United states, carried by troops
returning from World War I in
europe. Baseball’s opening Day
was April 16. As the pandemic,
which killed 50 million,
including 675,000 in this
country, got worse, Major League
Baseball cut a month off its
season, ending the World series
on sept. 11.
Maybe just by luck, MLB beat
the exponential explosion of the
spanish flu by just a few weeks.
In Philadelphia, after a big
sept. 28 parade that was not
canceled, the virus erupted
exponentially. In a six-week
period, 12,000 in Philadelphia
died. In all, a third of the world’s
Baseball survived Spanish flu
and will get through this, too
Thomas
Boswell
The Ta mpa Bay
Buccaneers have
resided on t he
bottom rung o f
nFL r elevance for
nearly their entire
existence. It i s a franchise born
into Creamsicle-hued f ailure that
has g rasped for sustained
competence e ver s ince. T hey won
the s uper Bowl i n the 2002
season, b ut they have n ot won a
playoff game since while c ycling
through s ix c oaches. The
Buccaneers have m ade t he
postseason just twice in that span
and n ot since 2 007. T hey play in
the t hird-largest c ity in Florida.
one o f the f ranchise’s s ignatures
is the pirate ship inside t heir
stadium.
And now their quarterback is
To m Brady, t he most
accomplished professional
football player o f all time, maybe
the m ost glamorous athlete on
the p lanet. This is n ot Johnny
Unitas i n a Chargers u niform. I t is
Beyoncé s elling out sheboygan.
The initial daze of TB to TB h as
not w orn off. A t some p oint
reality w ill s ink in and — i n the
hopeful event global
circumstances allow f or it —
football will begin. Brady
restarting h is career a fter two
decades w ith the new england
Patriots unleashes a fusillade o f
fascinating issues, questions and
possibilities. Ta mpa Bay is
scheduled t o host the super Bowl
next year, and so B rady’s p rimary
goal will be to m ake the
Buccaneers — y up, the B ucs — t he
first team t o play a super Bowl in
its h ome stadium.
Will Brady r eally m ake the
Buccaneers a contender? I t
should not be taken as a matter of
fact. Brady helmed a lousy o ffense
in new england l ast season, and
while t he w eapons a round him
were somewhere b etween below-
average and u nacceptable, he w as
not b lameless. He w ill be 43 next
season, u ncharted t erritory that
makes projection a n impossible
task no m atter how pliable h e
may be or how few nightshade
vegetables he consumes. He
remains a jitterbug in the p ocket,
agile a nd able to buy time, but h is
dearth of mobility s tands in
contrast to the w ay t he position is
headed.
Bill Belichick j ust allowed him
to walk out of the building. That
see brAdy on d3
Win or lose,
Bucs reach
relevance
with Brady
On
the NFL
ADAM
KILGORE
BY JESSE DOUGHERTYThe players arrived at t he f acili-
ty in Florida on saturday, right
around 7 a.m., with the sun still
rising and a workout ahead. They
poured milk on t heir cereal, m ixed
fruit into yogurt and ate eggs, and
in that way, nothing was different
at the Washington nationals’ mi-
nor league camp. But the players
were soon told to gather in the
facility’s cafeteria, and they knew
what was coming.
They w ere going home.
“You’re not shocked, because
you had heard the rumors, but we
were definitely scared,” said one
player who was in the meeting.
“We now have no clue when
our next paycheck is going to
come.”
Baseball’s response t o the n ovel
coronavirus pandemic is still
evolving. First, Major League
Baseball limited who could be in
the clubhouse, removing media
and any nonessential personnel.
next, it canceled the remaining
exhibition games and delayed the
start of the regular season by at
least t wo w eeks. T hen, on Friday, a
joint memo from MLB and the
MLB Players Association gave
see mInors on d2Minor leaguers gripped by economic uncertainty
JulIo corteZ/AssocIAteD press
cardinals minor leaguers, above, will reportedly continue to be paid, but other players are in limbo.PRO FOOTBALL
the redskins sign safety
sean Davis, a former star
at maret and maryland. D2
IN RETROSPECT
to m Brady is only latest
sports legend to find a new
team late in his career. D3
JAson connolly/Agence FrAnce-presse/getty ImAges
Athletes are shown in 201 6 working out at the u.s. olympic Training center in colorado springs. 2020 olympic hopefuls are unable to train there.altogether in response to a direc-
tive from Colorado Gov. Jared Po-
lis ( D), w ho ordered t his week that
all gyms, restaurants, bars and
many other public places must
close to slow the spread of the
virus.
Athletes were sent a message
via a Te am UsA communication
app Tuesday informing them that
the state’s health department had
instructed olympic officials to
close their training facilities right
away, including the pool, velo-
drome, gyms and strength and
see olympIcs on d4BY RICK MAESEAround 200 athletes training
for the Tokyo olympics and Para-
lympics were sent scrambling for
new training facilities Wednesday
after two U.s. olympic training
sites were largely shut down in
response to escalating concerns
surrounding the coronavirus out-
break.
Just two days after the U.s.
olympic and Paralympic Commit-
tee announced new measures for
its training center in Colorado
springs, the site now has to closeU.S. Olympic training centers close,
sending Tokyo hopefuls scrambling
Paralympic Committee closed its
training facilities and sent
athletes home, their preparation
— like their lives — in complete
upheaval.
You know what’s
counterproductive? Forcefully
claiming that the olympics will
be contested on schedule and
unhindered in a world that is in
complete and utter crisis.
Perhaps, in the near term, that
serves Japan, which desperately
wants to stage the Games to
boost both its economy and its
see sVrlugA on d4The International
olympic
Committee
claimed Tuesday
that it is “fully
committed to the
olympic Games
To kyo 2020, and
with more than
four months to go before the
Games there is no need for any
drastic decisions at this stage;
and any speculation at this
moment would be
counterproductive.” on
Wednesday, the U.s. olympic andIOC’s tone-deaf stance on the Games
leaves the a thletes without a voice
Barry
Svrluga‘Full steam’ ahead. Really?