The fallout from COVID-19.

It's not all negative.

Mike Formica made certain of that.

Like countless other high school athletes, he was robbed of his spring season in 2020 when high school track fell by the wayside with every other scheduled sport of the season.

Formica didn't pout.

Then a junior, he re-focused on his senior year at Knoch — and his cross country season.

“As soon as our track season was canceled in the spring, I remember Mike telling me he was going to start getting ready for the fall cross country season now,” Knoch coach Wess Brahler said.

And why not?

When COVID-19 shot down the sporting world in March, baseball and softball players could no longer play. Golf courses and tennis courts had to close down for a while.

But runners could still run.

And Formica did.

He kept running all the way to the WPIAL Class AA championship this past week, winning that race on his 18th birthday.

Numerous runners did well in that championship meet, including the North Catholic girls, who won their first-ever Class AA team title.

Trojanettes coach Stacy Kopchak admitted she was never sure whether her team would even have a meet from week to week with the pandemic “hanging over all of our heads.”

But they got them all in.

Kudos to all of those cross country runners. The nature of the sport is to beat the course as well as each runner's previous personal-best.

The clock is an opponent that never goes away, yet fuels a runner's competitive fire.

No pandemic slowed these kids down.

Fix baseball, please

My brother put it best. These games are un-watchable.

And he was talking about the World Series and postseason play in general.

The pitching changes were laughable. The strikeout totals were hideous. The length of the games was agonizing.

And all of this involved Major League Baseball's best teams?

Commissioner Rob Manfred, you've got some serious work to do.

It's a hockey night ...

The Penguins won't be playing for a while — maybe not until February — but hockey will be back on the ice locally next week.

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League begins its 2020-21 season Monday. Butler, Seneca Valley, Mars, Freeport, and North Catholic all make their season debuts in the next few days.

Here's hoping they all get through the season with plenty of success — and no delays.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle