Simon and Garfunkel wrote a song and recorded their hit titled “The Sound of Silence” 60 years ago.
That song is the theme song of every sportswriter and broadcaster in America this week.
We are in the midst of a week unlike any other on the sports calendar.
Question: Why is it different?
Answer: This is the week where the fewest sporting events are going on of any week on the calendar.
Major League Baseball is on its All-Star Break, and so are the minor league teams like the Tin Caps and South Bend Cubs.
Hockey is enjoying its summer, and the NBA is also on summer vacation.
The big international soccer tournaments wrapped up last weekend,
Locally, high schools are doing some summer conditioning and prep, but they don’t start officially practicing until August 5.
And college football teams are participating in their conference media days, but they still have a few weeks until practices start.
To be real, the only league that has any game action going on right now is the WNBA…which is great, by the way. That league played four games yesterday, and they were scheduled so that none of them were being played at the same time. It gave us the opportunity to see eight of the WNBA’s 12 teams in action on the same day.
Is having a week in the summer where there is literally nothing going on in sports the worse thing in the world? Not at all.
But for people who are information-based people like I am, it makes for a significant challenge. There have been many years where I struggled to find enough to write about for the paper during All-Star Break Week.
Truth is, there is an opportunity to seize the spotlight for a few days.
We know, because the ratings tell us so, that fewer and fewer people are watching or paying any attention to baseball’s Mid-Summer Classic, and they change the rules of Home Run Derby every year to try to get more eyeballs on Monday’s festivities…but it is what it is.
So, who could help draw attention to their sport by adjusting their calendar a little?
The most obvious sport that could benefit from this open week on the sports calendar is the NBA.
The NBA should move its draft to this week. If they had their draft on Monday night, they could sign their players to contracts by Wednesday and then start the summer league over the weekend. It wouldn’t hurt any player’s development and it would give teams plenty of time to watch their new acquisitions and form a vision of how to meld them into the plan for the start of the season.
It would also give the teams that played deep in the playoffs, especially the two teams that made it to The Finals, a few extra weeks to catch their breath and turn their focus toward the next season.
Who else?
Why wouldn’t baseball move its draft to Wednesday and Thursday of this week?
These two days are the only two days from April to October when no MLB teams play games.
Front offices will have two days to focus on their team’s future needs while not worrying about new injuries and the need to toggle players from their Triple-A team to the big club.
Football players are reporting to their team facilities this week and next, but by this point in the summer we are tired of wondering and speculating and we are ready for teams to line up against each other and get after it.
But we still have a while to wait for that.
And high school kids give enough of their summers—I would never suggest the IHSAA trying to manufacture something this week to scratch our itch.
That also will start soon enough.
No, this week is reserved for skiing and having serious discussions in our local lakes with bluegills and crappies, using red worms and bee moths as “mediators”. Or maybe just strolling around a lake on a pontoon with family and friends.
Maybe you’d prefer to hit the links and chase the little white ball around. It’s a great week to meet friends at the first tee to do just that.
Or maybe pluck some veggies or corn from your garden or pick blueberries at an area farm.
Whatever it is, go do that!
And enjoy the sound of silence, because baseball comes back Friday, and it all ramps up from there.