Just spoke with Kyle via satellite phone. It’s the only way to contact him while he’s holed up in his bomb shelter in Bucks County.

He’s worried about the Coronavirus, but has so far avoided infection because he bought all of the wet wipes and Lysol within a 25-mile radius of Doylestown. He got out in front of this thing and will survive.

Meantime, they’re closing down events all around the world. The Sixers Youth Foundation Gala was set for today, but has been postponed, according to the PR staff:

STATEMENT ON POSTPONEMENT OF SIXERS YOUTH FOUNDATION GALA

Out of an abundance of caution, the Sixers Youth Foundation Gala scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed. The Gala will be rescheduled at a later date.

During this period of increased focus on public health due to COVID-19, teams and players across professional sports have been advised by leagues and public health officials to exercise caution with high fives, handshakes, and other personal interactions to best protect the health and well-being of all.

As such, the decision to postpone was made to ensure we can preserve and deliver sometime in the future an intimate event where attendees can expect to interact with our athletes with photos, autographs and personal conversations.

To continue to raise funds to support important youth programming across the Greater Philadelphia Area, the Sixers Youth Foundation Gala silent auction will proceed as planned through Wednesday. Fans can bid on one-of-a-kind items by clicking HERE. All proceeds benefit youth in the Greater Philadelphia Area.

We look forward to hosting the Gala in the near future and appreciate the understanding of all those scheduled to attend.

Over in Japan, the start of their baseball season is postponed.

Via Craig Calcaterra at NBC Sports:

NPB officials said they were unsure when the season might start, but commissioner Atsushi Saito said it could be some time in April. He said, however, “I personally believe that we have no choice but to postpone at this stage.”

NPB had been playing its spring training games without fans because of the virus. The Korean Baseball Organization had cancelled many spring training games itself. Yesterday it was reported that Rob Manfred would be having a conference call today with all MLB owners about the outbreak, but that the league expects the season to proceed as planned.

Italian soccer has been played in empty stadiums, and now that’s extending to other spots in Europe as well:

https://twitter.com/AFP_Sport/status/1236965171375063042

Bummer.

And here’s something more relevant to the actual country we live in, a California-related cancellation via Adam Zagoria at Forbes:

The prestigious Indian Wells tennis tournament announced Sunday it was canceling the tournament, becoming the first major pro sports event in America to cancel in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Often called “the fifth major,” the dual ATP-WTA event generally features the biggest names outside of the four Grand Slam events, and its center court is the second-largest tennis arena in the world. The event — set to run March 9-22 — was poised to hand out more than $15 million in prize money.

There will be more cancellations and postponements. No problemo. We’re just being cautious here and making sure we take this threat seriously and do what’s necessary to avoid a disaster.

That doesn’t mean you need to build your own suburban nuclear bunker, but just use common sense. Warsh your hands, cover your mouth, don’t get on a train to New York if you don’t have to, and blah blah blah.