MrWonderful

Patrick McEnroe tests positive for the virus.

There's really nothing new in this, but I have him on my top 50 list for a reason. With that history of drug abuse, the history of health problems, and as frail as he's been for a while, I think he's a solid under-the-radar bet. Plus his son, Patrick O'Neal (who is a Los Angeles-area sports reporter), has been unafraid recently to say how much he loves his dad and there was that article in the LA Times last year about the gym they opened together (they recently had to close it down due to the coronavirus outbreak). I don't know, it just feels like Patrick doesn't want the world to forget his father, and maybe that's because he doesn't have much time left. Maybe I'm misreading that but I just have a hunch. I also failed to mention that Patrick has campaigned this year on Twitter to get his father a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He says his father doesn't care one bit but that he's the one that cares about it. Could be that he wants his dad to get that recognition while he's still alive.

NFL reporter Mike Freeman tweeted that former standout offensive lineman Tony Boselli (who was oft-injured, so save those jokes!) has been hospitalized with the 'rona in the Jacksonville area. Says he was initially in the ICU and that he's doing better but is still receiving treatment.

New York Knicks owner James Dolan tests positive. The Knicks say he is experiencing "little to no symptoms."

Former MLB baseball player Jim Edmonds is hospitalized with COVID-like symptoms and underwent a test, so we might have to add him to the list. He's only 49 years of age.

Succumbing to the pressure!

ESPN/ABC basketball analyst Doris Burke--a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Famer--revealed she tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. She had her test on March 17 and received the results on Wednesday, 8 days later. Apparently she was feeling very fatigued on March 11 (the last game she worked) and then was feeling so bad for three days that she could barely get out of bed. Says she's thankful that she's feeling much better now.

I'm about to go to sleep in California (it's almost 4AM here) and I just saw this, holy crap!

NBA star Karl-Anthony Towns posted an emotional Instagram message in which he says his mother is in a medically-induced coma as she battles coronavirus. OK, so his mom isn't directly notable, but still.

Four-time Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally has died at the age of 81 due to complications caused by COVID-19. He also had COPD and was a lung cancer survivor.

In due time.

Dead. The AP has the story up. Says he died of "natural causes" while in hospice care. Of course, he had bladder cancer in 2018, and then Radar Online reported he was dying in May of 2019. Also becomes my fifth hit of the year. RIP.

Three members of the Philadelphia 76ers organization have tested positive, though we don't know who. Two L.A. Lakers have tested positive, though we still don't know who. We do know that Boston Celtics player Marcus Smart has contracted the virus, as he just announced on social media.

Including Kevin Durant.

I better act fast and pick April 9!

I'm not even convinced that Trump will agree to actually do the debates, especially if he thinks he will win or is ahead in the polls. The question was asked a few posts ago as to who seems to have the upper hand, and right now, according to the betting odds I've seen, it's a dead-heat. Both Trump and Biden are listed at -105 right now. It's crazy, on the eve of the South Carolina primary (when Biden appeared to look cooked and when Bernie Sanders was the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination), Trump's odds to win re-election swelled to -220, the best they had ever been. Within a week, after Biden's momentum from winning in South Carolina and then dominating on Super Tuesday, Trump's odds came back down to -150, still a solid favorite but not nearly as much. And now, a couple of weeks later, we're at an even battle. Of course, this coronavirus crisis and the resulting economic downturn are unexpected things. It did look like the U.S. had a good chance to suffer a recession, but now we might be talking about something much more drastic. But if it turns out that very few people die and if we (America) gets through this relatively well, Trump could get a boost. Of course, if the opposite happens and if a decent portion of our elderly population dies, it could be an absolute Biden landslide. I thought Trump was going to win easily a couple of weeks ago, but there are some signs that Biden has a solid chance. After the moderate wing of the Democratic Party clearly coalesced around him, voter turnout in the primaries was way up compared to 2016, and it wasn't Sanders turning out voters, it was Biden. He's doing significantly better than Hillary Clinton did four years ago in key voting blocs. But, again, this pandemic has the potential to throw a wrench into everything.

Yeah the whole thing seemed like touch and go late last year, and although he's no longer hospitalized, I don't think he's exactly in the clear. Still think this was a good pick, and he will be on my 2021 list (if he's still with us) barring a notable change in his condition.

Good on the committee for getting this hit. I had never heard of who or what Genesis P-Orridge was until I looked it up just now.

I'm not going to pretend that he's at his full capability, but Biden has a better chance to win the general election than Sanders does. It doesn't even matter what I personally prefer, I'm just saying that the American people would not elect Sanders in a general election, even against a deeply unpopular president like Trump. Since it's not a popular vote contest here (laughably), for voters in the states that matter here, they will consider some of Bernie's stances and previous statements as more anti-American than, well, anything that Trump has said or does. It's sad but I absolutely believe that to be true. When it appeared that Sanders was the clear Democratic frontrunner two weeks ago, Trump's betting odds swelled to -220, a high for him. A couple of days after Super Tuesday last week, Trump's odds dropped back down to -160. At this moment, they are back down to -115, almost even-money again, as Biden has surged to -1000 to win the Democratic nomination. Yeah, the Dow suffered a drop and people are panicking over coronavirus, but the Biden surge and Trump's precipitous odds drop in a week are related.

Carter just endorsed Bernie Sanders. Showing once again that he is not good at presidential politics!

She would be the dream for those who want to see Trump defeated (just because she's as close to universally-liked by Democrats as you're going to find), but unless it's completely on the hush-hush, there's no indication that she would agree to it. That said, she is 25-to-1 on a betting site I saw. Amy Klobuchar (+250), Kamala Harris (+350), and Stacey Abrams (+500) were the three favorites I saw, with Elizabeth Warren at 12-to-1.

Woodward.

^ He certainly is. Looks more gaunt than Trebek, I would even argue.

For her sake, I hope it's the latter. If it does happen to be the worst possible news, she's probably still a good bet to survive the year. But there's a chance that she would make an excellent pick for 2021, especially in formats that reward more points for youthful people. To add to that, she did begin her Feb. 25 tweet (that I referenced earlier) by saying that she "had good & bad news today." So it's certainly plausible that the "good news" could be that the doctors think it's benign and that she has a good shot at recovery. Also today, she retweeted a tweet from ace football reporter Adam Schefter. In the tweet, Schefter references a post from Kelly Stafford, the wife of Matthew Stafford, who underwent a 12-hour surgery last year to remove a brain tumor. Kelly Stafford announced that she and Matthew are expecting their fourth child. So perhaps it's Britt's way of telling the world that this isn't a death sentence. Again, for her sake, I hope so. Also reminds me of a 7-minute feature I saw on last night's SportsCenter, where NBA player Jrue Holiday and his wife Lauren were profiled. Lauren Holiday, for those who don't know, used to be a star player on the U.S. women's national soccer team. While pregnant with their first child in 2016, it was discovered that she had a brain tumor, a meningioma. The child was delivered a few weeks early and everything is OK with their daughter now. Lauren underwent the surgery a few weeks after giving birth. And while she's doing reasonably well now, the ordeal was considered life-threatening at the time, and she'll never be the previous version of herself. She still has some bad days.

Having surgery to remove a brain tumor isn't necessarily a death sentence, but I don't think I need to tell y'all how serious it is. And in a Feb. 25 tweet where she talks about making your check-ups, she says to get an MRI early and that "it could have saved me." I don't know about you, but that specific phrasing sounds rather ominous.