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Cue up Kool & The Gang, let celebrations start again

The PGA Tour became the latest sports league to resume activities this weekend, but plenty of us are still feeling a big void in our lives. Sports aren’t essential to living as we have all learned the past few months, but they do bring a lot of meaning and happiness to a lot of people’s lives. I write this as not only a sports writer who depends on events taking place to make a living, but as a fan of watching sports my entire life. Regardless of where you stand on the safety aspects of everything, the coronavirus pandemic has not only killed thousands, it has disrupted the ...

Young kids, parents of athletes have had to miss out on so much

Personally, I have not missed pro sports. Having the NCAA Tournament canceled was a huge bummer, because I’m a college hoops junkie. It’s certainly very sad that so, so many high school athletes had their seasons taken away, especially seniors. I’m proud that the Mirror has found a way to honor so many of those athletes in our area with feature stories over the past few months. Still, there are two other things which haven’t received a great deal of attention that sadden me about the sports shutdown. One involves young kids, while the other centers around parents of ...

Majors impacted Turchetta’s football career

Tom Turchetta hadn’t seen Johnny Majors in 10 years, but they lived near each other in Tennessee, would talk occasionally and had planned to arrange lunch sooner than later. Instead, Turchetta received a message last Wednesday from Majors’ wife, Mary Lynn, that the coach had passed away. His last season was 1996 at Pitt — Turchetta was on the staff, one of his five years with the Panthers — but Majors still led an active life. “I would touch base with him once every couple months since we all left Pittsburgh, just to see how he was doing and staying in touch,” ...

Shut up and dribble? No. Time to listen

A column is normally a spot for pontificating, to speak bluntly on the issues of the day and receive a gamut of feedback, from effusive praise to slanderous insults. Not this time. Now’s the time for those of us in the privileged class to listen, really listen to what African-Americans and people of color around the world are expressing in the wake of George Floyd’s brutal, senseless death. Their fear. Their frustration. Their anguish. Shut up and dribble? No way. Now’s the time to hear from some of the athletes. And if some of their most poignant words can change ...

For comfort and cost reasons, watching on TV much better

Pause … let me take a minute for a bathroom break. Hang on, what did the announcer just say? Let me rewind. WOW! What a play!!! Let me see that again in slo-mo five times from every single angle. “Daddy, can you come play with me for a bit?” “Sure. I’ll pause the game and come back to it in a little while.” Alright, pause again … snack time! I love my TV. The technology allows me to watch whatever I want to watch, whenever I want to watch it and exactly how I want to watch it. Including pretty much every major sporting event in the entire country. Right ...

There’s nothing like the experience of being in stadium on game day

Before I get into all the reasons attending a live sports event is better than watching it on television, please remember that my co-worker is arguing that you should voluntarily stay cooped up in your house where most of you have been trapped for months. If that isn’t the biggest argument to get outside and enjoy sports and life in person once it is allowed, I don’t know what is. Personally, my two favorite professional sports to watch in person are college football and Major League Baseball. I am a Penn State football season ticket holder and have traveled around the country to ...