September 10, 2020

 

Because we had three of our TNT greenies scheduled to leave the bubble over the weekend we scheduled one last full squad whiffle ball game at twelve sharp for pictures and the game.  So I get there at 11:45am and am all alone.  Straight up noon, I’m still alone amongst the lizards and sunshine bearing down on COVID field.  Around 12:15pm guys start showing up, one by one, until all the TNT greenies are present.  I fight like hell to contain my animosity regarding tardiness.  Am I the only guy that gives a shit about this?  Am I the oddball in this equation?

 

Anyway, we warm up and we take a wonderful group picture of all us. Dennis is going to take the imagery of our group photo and put together a montage that truly exemplifies our experiences at COVID Field.  He is pretty adept at photo manipulation and all of us are look like tough ballers but in reality we are a bunch of tired television guys that are counting our days until we can get home to our families.

 

We have an extremely competitive game with seven players on each side.  My team is up three to one with one out and two strikes on the opposing player in the bottom of the seventh when the skies explode once again with a torrential downpour.  Every one of us scrambled for shelter under the walkways that adorn each casita building and wait out the rain.  I found it incredible how fast the rain came in and how fast it left.  We only had to wait about fifteen minutes before we were back out to finish what we started.  The next two batters went down quickly and victory was ours for our last full squad whiffle ball game of the 2020 NBA Restart.

 

Running a business from two thousand miles away is not easy for anyone. Don’t get me wrong, I have a very capable staff along with great management, but there are areas of responsibility that fall upon me and it is up to only me to get those items taken care of.  It seemed like today was the day I was contacted to take care of many of those items.  There were problems with the oven, an issue with the drain pipes, the grease trap needed to be cleaned, and employees that thought the government was taking too much from their paychecks.  I spent most of my afternoon taking care of each issue and made sure they were resolved before I boarded the bus for the late game of the Rockets taking on the Lakers.

 

When we arrived at the Arena and checked in with our director, we found that Danuel House of the Rockets had been suspended for violation of NBA protocol as it relates to contact with unauthorized personnel. Apparently Danuel, married and father of three small children, had one of the COVID test personnel in his room for several hours.  It only takes a few minutes to get a COVID test and they usually aren’t performed at three in the morning. I’m pretty sure you know where I am going with this but with him out of the lineup he let his team down, he threatened the safety of the bubble, and Houston went down easily to the Lakers.  They are on their last breath as the Rockets are one loss away from returning home to their families.  I don’t think House had that on his mind during his escapade.