President Donald J. Trump sees off the USNS Comfort Saturday, March 28, 2020, as she departs Naval Air Station Norfolk Pier 8 in Norfolk, Virginia and sets sail for New York City. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

With the U.S. sports world turned upside down by the Wuhan coronavirus and the CDC’s social distancing rules, Americans took heart from some positive news about the potential return of live sporting events Monday and over the weekend. And from sources you might not expect.

It started with a retweet Fox News anchor Bret Baier shared on Monday morning about the PGA’s upcoming events:

Good news from Augusta — something to look forward to in November! https://t.co/xZkg3pd3CE

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) April 6, 2020

Then, about thirty minutes later, he followed it up with more happy, golf news:

More golf events to look forward to for the golfers out there. https://t.co/9y2VnhPTXv

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) April 6, 2020

PJ Media reporter Jeff Reynolds reported that President Donald Trump talked this weekend with sports officials about resuming play:

On Saturday, President Trump held a conference call with a dozen commissioners of the major American professional sports leagues. In the call, Trump said that he believes the NFL should start on time for the 2020-21 season. He also said he hopes to have fans back in arenas for live events by August or September.

https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1247350889364545536

Then, in response to a reporter’s question at Monday’s White House press conference on the call with sports officials and Monday’s golf news, Pres. Trump spoke at length about how important watching live sporting events is for Americans’ morale during the pandemic:

“I hope [the Masters] is rescheduled. I hope baseball can get to play a little bit. I hope basketball can maybe do their playoffs. Hey, I have no interests or anything, other than I want what’s good for the country. A lot of people are tired of looking at games that are five years old.

….

You get tired of looking at….old baseball games, and playoff games that took place 12 years ago. I don’t have much time to do that, frankly. But that’s what people are doing. They want to see sports. Sports are a great thing for this country.

….

I hope they can start with people in the stands. You know, we’re not going to be separated. There are seats. They have seats that are meant for people to sit next to each other. And when the virus is gone, people are going to be sitting next to each other.”

Near the end of the coronavirus press event, Dr. Anthony Fauci fielded a question about whether large sports or political events could go forward, short of a vaccine. He answered, in part, “I don’t think that you’re going to have to say that the country cannot get back to a real degree of normalcy until you absolutely have a safe and effective vaccine. That’s why it’s so important….to have an antibody test: so you can know what the penetrance is in society….We want to be able to contain [the virus].”