For now, anyway, Northeastern baseball teams have the advantage. But there is a lot of football left to play.

This weekend, time restarts. 

The baseball world reopens. 

For America, for us, a small sense of normalcy - the boys of summer - will return. 

For now, anyway. 

But in this current crisis, it's hard to imagine teams reopening camps safely in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia and other exploding COVID hot spots. The Yankees and Mets - along with other northeastern teams - face no overwhelming wave of infections... for now, anyway.

Yesterday, Hal Steinbrenner said he expects fans in the seats this year at Yankee games. That would be nice, a wonderful goal for which to strive. 

But here we are, three months in, and this thing is still beginning. Since the pandemic arrived, every day feels like a week, and the weeks feel like months. There is, as they say on Sundays, "a lot of football yet to play." We yearn for that first night with a Yankee game on YES, or John and Suzyn bantering in the car - that first incredible moment that vaults us back to a time that - frankly -  we might not in our lives revisit.

On this July 4th weekend, when the nation seems to be on fire, I say we lace our hands together - (after washing them) - and vow to never again take for granted the wonder of a pennant race, the jubilation of a victory, the splendor of a great play. They say only pitchers can throw a perfect game. That's not true. Every game is perfect. Let's never again forget this.

Stay safe this weekend. Have I mentioned lately that we are all in this together? Huh. Once again, I buried the lede.