We reach what is a pretty quiet week in sports very year, albeit this year we do have the NBA Finals and the WNBA All-Star Game to add on to the MLB All-Star Break. That being said, busy is good, given the relative quiet we had in our industry last summer, even with bubbles and wubbles. I was reminded of the great value sports has this week not by the pomp of the Home Run Derby, (although try finding anyone in any industry who does his job with more joy than Pete Alonso) but by this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed by Bob Greene, talking about the smell of a new glove. Little simple, pleasures are back…some reminded thoughts…
A few years ago on Sunday morning as I was going to get bagels I heard New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan on “Ed Randall’s Talking Baseball” show on WFAN in New York talking about how the simplest of actions with his father, playing catch after work, were some of his brightest memories. Often times in big time sports and promotions it is the simple ideas that get lost as not glitzy or glammery enough, but with the right platform, can be the most effective. Dolan’s thoughts that morning spurred one of those ideas.
Rear view of a mid adult father throwing a tennis ball to his son and his friend. They are having fun and playing a game.
I was once approached by a colleague, Lance Laifer, to see if there was a way to create awareness for an anti-Malaria campaign he had organized and do it through sport. The idea was simple, take a nerf basketball hoop and pass it around with a ball through Madison Square Garden, letting each person in the arena dunk the ball, and with each dunk a dollar would be donated to charity. At some point it was going to become a logistical nightmare, setting the world’s largest dunk record, but the event worked. It got exposure for the charity, and as the ball and hoop were passed around the lower seats, several NBA officials and even some players took notice. One was Dikembe Mutombo, who used the idea and the platform to continue to grow his own initiative to eradicate malaria in his native Congo by purchasing bedding nets. The link between the basketball net and the mosquito net was simple, and eventually led Laifer’s group to an association with the NBA, national exposure and fundraising, and a leadership position which has helped eradicate the problem of mosquito-born malaria in Congo and other parts of Africa. All from a simple, cost efficient plan to dunk a nerf basketball. But timing, part passion, part simplicity helped a small idea contribute in a big way.
So now back to playing catch. Last week as we were driving around our Bergen County community, we saw scores of families, all in small groups, playing catch, riding bikes, kicking around a soccer ball. They were keeping their distance, but they were together in very small groups, as designated. There were even two girls playing, yes hopscotch, with their mom as two boys across the street played street hockey. And we have seen scores of others talking about puzzles and board games, all trying to stay busy and active away from the large scale youth sports activities they would have been involved with on aspiring Sunday.
A simple act connects fans of all ages in a communal and promotable activity that links young and old, boy and girl, dad and son, mom and daughter. Timeless, simple, easy. We always see football being passed around parking lots during tailgating, and we have seen MLB start to organize events around events like a simple game of catch, on a large scale. If the simple act of dunking a nerf hoop literally helped to change lives, then a simple game of catch or a pass in either version of football could as well.
It has helped to ease the anxiety, get kids active and less antsy, keep them away from large groups and provide a release as we work through these challenging times. Those are the good thoughts and actions that I think, and hope will come out of these challenging times. We are tested, but when we are we can look inward and see the brightness on the darkest days. Have hope, and find the time to still enjoy the little things that get lost in our very busy lives.
Stay safe, stay smart, stay busy, and most importantly, take care of those around you.
