And now we've hit Day 50...

• The Bundesliga is back on hold.  German government officials will discuss next week as to what plans for a return to soccer in the country they will accept, so May 9 is out.
• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis believes that not only can sports come back in June and July, it can be done with fans.   What fucking drugs are you on?  If it's June or July when fans can come back -- what, June or July of 2022???   
• And, from Keith Olbermann retweeting it, it looks like we may be days from a shooting situation with the Michigan government. Armed men have stormed the Michigan State Senate...

Directly above me, men with rifles yelling at us. Some of my colleagues who own bullet proof vests are wearing them. I have never appreciated our Sergeants-at-Arms more than today. #mileg pic.twitter.com/voOZpPYWOs

— Senator Dayna Polehanki (@SenPolehanki) April 30, 2020

It is damn well FAR PAST TIME to get these "FREEDUMB!" types under control, and if that means we have to set it off and basically decide to take these fuckers up on it, so be it. I think it's clear they want those they consider "unfit" killed, so it doesn't really matter to me whether it's the virus that kills me (at that point) or their guns. Fuck you guys.

• The New York Post is reporting that the NFL is considering moving some games to Saturdays if college football cannot relaunch this Fall.
• Oh, how are you going to pull THIS off, NASCAR?  NASCAR has announced an aggressive relaunch schedule which will start May 17 and, between Charlotte and Darlington, hold seven races in 11 days: 

1. A 400 mile Cup race at Darlington on the 17th
2. A 200 mile XFinity race at Darlington on the 19th.
3. A 500 kilometer Cup race at the Darlington ancient egg-shaped track on the 20th.
4. Then to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600 miler on the 24th.
5. 300 miles at Charlotte for XFinity on the 25th.
6. 200 miles at Charlotte for the Truck Series on the 26th.
7. And 500 kilometers at Concord (just outside Charlotte) for the Cup again on the 27th -- three days after they ran SIX HUNDRED MILES. 

Oh brother.  I mean, I get the idea.  You want to cater to your base and have an aggressive restart, especially if it becomes clear that the four major sports will not relaunch (or at least not soon, as Dr. Fauci now believes there will be no major sports in 2020).  But the caveat applies:  Any relaunch MUST NOT be scuttled with one positive.  Otherwise, you're wasting your time on an epic scale! 

• For the first time in it's history -- and an indication there will be no Little League baseball this year at all!! -- the Little League World Series was called off.
• NHL:  No word yet on 2019-20 completion, but there is word that the NHL is now considering starting the 2020-21 season in December.  Hoo boy.  Good luck on that one with the second wave.    
• Olbermann:

#Thurbercast No. 36 https://t.co/A3EFblBIhS

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) May 1, 2020

• Late story coming in:

Story filed to @espn: The NBA sent a memo Thursday night advising teams not to arrange COVID-19 tests for asymptomatic players and staff, league sources told ESPN.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) May 1, 2020

 "Joe", I think, has it right...

Season cancelled confirmed

— Joe (@Joe23521152) May 1, 2020

And football follows suit...

Few days ago, I posted that college sports was not going to like the development that Teshaun Hightower of Tulane was arrested as one of six men involved in a murder in Florida.

Well, football has it's own to worry about too... 

Jacksonville Jaguar Telvin Smith arrested today for repeated sexual encounters with a girl who is now 17.

Released on $50,003 bond, according to the ESPN report.

Second-degree felony, since he's now 29 (over 24) and the girl is 17 (16 or 17 applies in that statute).

Took last year off for his health and is now probably done.

Day 49

• It now appears that a substantial number of English Premier League players do NOT want to come back anytime soon.  This would not only be a blow to the 2019-2020 season, but, frankly, any real hope of a substantial 2020-2021 season either.  
• Belgium has joined France and the Netherlands in calling off the remainder of the 2019-2020 season.
• One of the results of Fanatics' "All In Challenge" is in:  Tom Brady's auction netted $800,000 for the relief charities.  It included dinner or a workout and tickets to Brady's first game in Tampa Bay.
• Other results:  Peyton Manning gave away golf and dinner for 10 for $525,000.
• The Rolls-Royce Phantom of Meek Mill got $320,000.
• Magic Johnson auctioned off courtside seats and a game of HORSE for $220,000.
• The Corvette that Eli Manning won for being MVP of Super Bowl XLV went for $120,000.
• The Challenge has raised over $24,000,000 for COVID-19 relief charities, and continues with over 200 items still up for grabs.

• The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown has rescheduled this year's inductions for next July.  Perhaps an indication we are about to get no baseball -- and there are more and more people believing this is the conclusion.  
• It appears as if LeBron James is putting together a national high-school commencement event.  May 16th, on all the networks plus social media, James is going to produce a commercial-free event with celebrity commencement addresses and probably performances, etc. 
• No Olbermann tonight -- Keith took a night off for his health and his schedule.

Day 48

• Beginning to appear like they're going to at least try to relaunch NASCAR in time for Memorial Day Weekend.  Good luck, you'll need it.  
• The number of professional wrestlers turning to Twitch for another revenue stream is continuing to increase.  Let's see:  Paige, Evil Uno of AEW's Dark Order, Drew Gulak, Leva Bates (probably relaunching an old channel), Xavier Woods personally (ditto -- instead of just UpUpDownDown)...  And the vast majority of it is video-game stuff. 
• Some rumblings in England that they'd like to get the Premier League restarted -- current restrictions will be re-evaluated in about a week.
• Some other soccer updates:

1. Serie A will try to let teams begin to train May 18th.
2. The Bundesliga has all but said any 2020 games at all in Germany will be fanless.  There is thought, however, they may be about 10 days from trying games behind closed doors to complete this season (some see that as completely laughable).
3. France, on the other hand, has called off their season too -- as the Netherlands already has.
4. The MLS is suspended until at least early June. 

• Governor Newsom has begun to float a California schools plan to relaunch the 2019-20 school year -- in July! 
• Three of the major anime conventions in the country -- Fanime (with the Bay Area now under Stay At Home through May 31), Anime Expo (the largest NA convention, called off two weeks ago) and Otakon (the convention center in Washington, DC scheduled to use it will become a COVID-19 field hospital) -- have all been cancelled.
• The head of the Tokyo Organizing Committee told an event in Japan today that if the Olympic Games could not be held in Tokyo in 2021, they would not be held in Tokyo at all. Yeah, good luck. 
• Bashaud Breeland of Kansas City is in jail -- possession of marijuana or hashish, no license to drive, and open container violations.  Probably will be suspended for the marijuana.  
• Tonight's Olbermann:

Simply put, #Thurbercast No. 35 is just as much a great live view of a terrific sunset as it is me reading from Chapter 5 of “The Years With Ross.”

But...I did my besthttps://t.co/PtF8XzMfj1

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) April 29, 2020

The LAST THING college sports needed right now...

Tulane's Teshaun Hightower is in jail this morning, facing murder charges as one of six men involved in a murder in Stockbridge, GA earlier this month.

His attorney claims not only that Teshaun did not fire the gun (his brother did), but that it was in self-defense, according to Mark Schlabach of ESPN.

Hightower decided to enter the NBA Draft this year (at least testing the waters), but he was not projected to be taken by many drafts.  He was, however, Tulane's leading scorer.

Day 47

Last night's Olbermann:

Back live tonight at 8 PM EDT with #Thurbercast No. 34: more reading aloud of “The Years With Ross” - his book on the founding and founder of The @NewYorker. Here’s the latest episode from last night:https://t.co/0nP111jDZi

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) April 27, 2020

• If there is NASCAR this year, Matt Kenseth is coming out of retirement because of the firing of Kyle Larson.
• The NBA has now moved back the facilities date to May 8, and realizes that might not cover all the teams. 
• 2K has (thankfully) cancelled WWE 2K21.

Tonight's Olbermann:

Chapter 4 of “The Years With Ross” in tonight’s 34th #Thurbercast https://t.co/53DD8afoBF

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) April 28, 2020

• The Simulated Sports Network is back.  Took about a week and a half off after Social Distancing Super Bowl IX.  That 2007 Roster season was won by the Giants, defeating the Cowboys in the NFC title game and then the Colts (who beat the Patriots for the AFC title game) 24-21 IN OVERTIME.
• The channel is now doing something interesting.  Overnights, they are doing a Tecmo Super Bowl 2006 Roster season toward Social Distancing Super Bowl X.  During the days, they will show a 165 game simulated season of Super Baseball Simulator 1.000.
• And a periodic good word for MLBotBall, the continuing fundraising event for Meals on Wheels, starring a bunch of volunteer announcers taking the entire 162 game schedule of the 2020 MLB regular season and playing them on Twitch.
• In the season:

1. AL East:  Yankees are 2 up on the Rays.
2. AL Central:  Twins are 22-7 and 4 1/2 up on the Indians.
3. AL Worst:  Oakland, at least, has gone on a winning streak to get to 18-12, but that's 5 full games up in the division now.
4. NL East:  Nationals are a game and a half up on the Braves.
5. NL Central:  Cubs have the best record in BotBall at 22-6, 4 1/2 up on the Reds.
6. NL West:  Diamondbacks are 3 up on the Dodgers.

Day 46

• Bad news is that moron Snoop Dogg made the finals of the celebrity Madden event on ESPN.  Good news is he lost to Marquise Brown of the Baltimore Ravens.
• How the fuck can that pot-induced idiot even know where the On-Switch is on a gaming console?

----

Ahem...

• As ESPN continues to show e-sports of various kinds (they added some "regular-season" The Show: Players League yesterday -- the playoffs, involving 8 players (and no league differentiation -- quarters and semis best of 3, finals best of 5) are next weekend), here's a squinting look right now (as of does math last Tuesday) of current projections -- other than the NFL, which still wants to hold a season on schedule this Fall...

1. NBA:  Not looking good.  Probably looking minimum June at this point -- experts believe you need at least 2-4 weeks to start preparing the players again.  The NBA did, however, state that, where allowed, facilities would be able to reopen to the players starting April 24th.
2. NHL:  Kinda the same.  There is a league quarantine which is scheduled to lift this week (but probably won't).  I think it's becoming apparent that the best-case scenario might be scrapping this season and starting anew on a next season at some point, even to the point where the best-case scenario might be a 2019-2021 season, where things don't start up again until very late 2020 or early 2021!  
3. MLB: Three weeks ago, there was talk of an early May restart to Spring Training in Arizona. Estimate of Opening Day would be somewhere in the area of June 16th... and frankly, I think the only chance you have of a 2020 MLB season is without fans and, at best, a half season starting around what would be the All-Star Break.
4. MMA:  May 9, in Florida.
5. Tennis:  Current date is July 13th for real play.  An e-sports tournament for COVID-19 charities will be held this week.
6. European Soccer:  Netherlands is done.  Italy is thinking of a reopening starting now, so Serie A could POSSIBLY return.  Some word that the Champions League will become, effectively, a 2019-2021 tournament.
7. PGA:  First scheduled tournament is the Charles Schwab in Texas in June.  Probably a good trial run on that is the scheduled golf telethon of Brady/Mickelson vs. Woods/Manning Memorial Day Weekend.  First of the three majors would be the PGA in San Francisco in early August.
8. Triple Crown:  All three races have been at least postponed.  Kentucky Derby is now scheduled for Labor Day Weekend Saturday.
9. NASCAR:  They're saying May 24th.
10. Indy 500:  August 23rd.
11. Tour de France:  Late August to late September
12. Aussie Rules:  Announcement coming in about two weeks.