Ponderous thoughts I was pondering ...

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while on the road back from my third COVID-19 test:

** Some of you have texted or emailed me to ask where the heck my podcasts have been lately. It's a good question.

The answer? I've been busy! 

It's been a joy to be calling as many basketball and hockey games as I've been calling for local cable systems, and even more important in this new age of live-streaming. I said at the very beginning of the pandemic that the EEA and other state agencies should look at media members as "essential" workers where involvement in high school sports are concerned, because with severe restrictions being placed upon fan attendance, those of us in the broadcast/cablecast and print industries would have to be entrusted with the responsibility of bringing these games to their fans in a different manner than to which we've been accustomed.

Alex Salachi (left), Tom Faria and yours truly.

Personally, I've very proud to work for North TV (which handles the King Philip games) and Mansfield Cable Access (the home of the Hornets), because both organizations take this seriously. There is a standard of production and announcing values to uphold, and at least in the latter department, I'd like to think that I and my announcing partners -- Alex Salachi, Glen Farley and Tom Faria -- uphold that standard. 

Hey, I'm not Jim Nantz or Al Michaels. I know that. But at age 67, I like to think that I can improve and become better at something I wanted to do my whole life, and I'm loving the opportunity to do it. And I take it seriously because as I watch those athletes on the courts, wearing masks and adapting to rules changes that sometimes make no sense, and they keep playing and not complaining about the circumstances that have altered the skills they learned as tykes and have used all their young lives, well, I feel as if I owe them my best effort as well.

This has been a very demanding season for all parties concerned. This past weekend, for instance, the Mansfield boys and girls teams added games on short notice to fill the gap caused by a COVID-caused interruption in their schedule. Not only does this put a strain on the athletic director, coaches and athletes, it also forced the good folks at Mansfield Cable Access to adjust its plans on the fly in order to accommodate the request to put both games live on cable.

It was accomplished without a hitch. These are good people doing their jobs well.

Glen Farley, left, joins me in the football booth.

So as for the podcasts, I'm hoping to get an episode of The Owner's Box After Dark (the video podcast on YouTube) up by the end of the week. Even though those are usually just me in front of the microphone for the most part, it takes the good part of a day to produce one because of all the editing they require (including insertions of video or still photos and graphics, and of course, those wonderfully bizarre Japanese commercials). 

The audio podcast, The Owner's Box, now has some new technology available to it, making it easier for me to conduct telephone interviews without the added complication of setting up video. I'll still do some of those to cross over to the video podcast, but you can expect some interesting interviews once the schedule calms down a little.

And that's hard to predict, because I've already had four planned telecasts changed by postponements. Also, Peter Gay at North TV heard the positive response and added four more basketball games to our planned agenda to televise three of KP's five Sunday hoop doubleheaders. Now we've got all five.

So don't worry -- the podcasts are just on pause for the time being. They will return with a happy vengeance shortly.

** You may also be wondering why I, as a person with a demonstrated interest in the state of American politics, have not commented about any of it here -- either the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, or as we thankfully approach the end of Donald J. Trump's failed presidency.

I'll tell you why. The Jan. 6 attack upon our Constitution reached into my heart and ripped at the core of my belief in what America is, as opposed to what it has become. I had a game to call that night, and after a full day of watching something not seen in this country since the 1800s, it took everything I had for me and Alex Salachi to go behind the microphones and present a call of a high school basketball game as if nothing had happened earlier in the day.

I was alive when JFK was assassinated, and Bobby Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King. I watched the planes fly into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001. And I recall the despair I felt on all of those terrible days. And now, I will remember the day before my 67th birthday the same way.

I pray to God that we avoid anything of the sort tomorrow when Joe Biden becomes our 46th president. I know everything won't be healed in just one day, but I applaud the efforts of law enforcement to root out and punish the instigators of the attack on the Capitol -- and now that we have professionals in charge of the country again after four years of Amateur Night, maybe America will get its second wind and restore its status as a shining city on a hill.

And that's all I want to say about it today. I have another game to do.

** You know what would be an incredible irony? If Tom Brady leads the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl in their own home stadium and then they lose to the Buffalo Bills, the team that Brady tormented worse than any other over two decades with the Patriots.

** Thanks for reading, folks. As I said, I'll get some new podcasts up here before too long. In the meantime, please watch our games and above all else, stay healthy and safe. And when the sun comes up tomorrow and the world changes a little, say a prayer to whatever deity sustains you that we can find our way as a nation again. Peace.