THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The sounds of staying at home

It used to be the sounds of the ice cream truck were what got everybody flying out of the house at once.

These days, everyone has memorized the sound of the mail truck.

Want to catch up on the latest in the neighborhood, those of us following our stay-home orders during this coronavirus pandemic?

Wait a moment or two until the mail person rolls on to the next set of mailboxes or two (you don’t want to appear to be THAT anxious), then casually stroll out to the mailbox.

You’ll no doubt spot a neighbor or two or three doing the same thing, and you can find out what’s happened since the last time the mail came.

One neighbor mentioned that he could only watch so many 30- or 40-year-old baseball games.

I didn’t think I would agree with him, but I could see his point. However, by watching those games, you are reminded of some things that were true then, and you may have forgotten about since.

Like the fact the Mariners were once a competitive baseball team.

That bunch from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s was pretty good, even after the likes of Randy Johnson, Junior and A-Rod were allowed to drift away.

Everybody remembers Ken Griffey Jr. scoring the winning run to beat the Yankees in the 1995 AL Division Series.

But only a diehard M’s fan could recall who scored the winning run when Seattle beat the Chicago White Sox (who were good once, too) in the 2000 ALDS.

Rickey Henderson, of course.

THE OFFICIAL end of the spring high school sports season in Idaho on Friday, like Lake City athletic director Jim Winger said the other day, was more of closure than anything else.

As much as we hoped the Idaho High School Activities Association could find a way to maybe get us back for a few regular-season games, then districts and state, with each passing day — listening to the grim news of the world — that appeared less and less likely.

Now, at least, we know for sure — though that probably doesn’t make high school athletes, particularly seniors, feel any better.

If things were “normal” right now, we would be just two weeks away from starting those state-qualifying tournaments, and three weeks away from state tournament week.

Several track meets were on the schedule for Saturday, including the prestigious Pasco Invitational.

Of course, I had to look at a calendar to see what part of April we were in — it used to be that you knew what month and week it was just by the sports schedule, both local and national.

Now, it’s just a day, like any other day ...

With that in mind, all that’s left, at least for the time being, is to work from home, get up and move around every now and then, and hope all this works out.

One thing I’ve noticed — we sure have a lot of dogs in our neighborhood. I don’t know about us humans, but dogs should be in terrific shape if and when we go back to work. Looking out my living room window, there seems to be an endless parade of dogs walking down our street — attached to their humans, of course.

But not chasing after an ice cream truck.

I WONDER what Donna Summer would have thought about the 10-part documentary on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls which debuts tonight on ESPN.

You may remember Summer, a disco singer who died in 2012 at age 63, released a single called “Last Dance” in 1978, and it was part of the soundtrack for “Thank God It’s Friday.”

Phil Jackson dubbed the ’97-’98 Bulls season, the last with him as coach and with MJ, Scottie Pippen and others on the roster, the season Chicago completed its run of six NBA titles in eight seasons, as “The Last Dance.”

Like hairlines, memories fade over time.

What I remember about those Bulls teams is they tried to play an athletic, free-flowing brand of basketball — but were stuck in an Eastern Conference where most of the teams preferred to play crushball.

Plays that would go to video review these days, and possibly result in a Flagrant 1 or Flagrant 2 foul, were just “play on” in those days.

The “Bad Boys,” the Detroit Pistons, used that physical style of play to win back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and ’90, roughing up MJ and the Bulls along the way.

But that wasn’t totally their fault. That was just the way the game was allowed to be played in those days. The Pistons had the talent to win without doing that, but lesser teams were able to get away with aggressive play on defense that sometimes bordered on assault.

The Eastern Conference finals were often bloodbaths. The Bulls had to be somewhat relieved when they reached the Finals, because they would face a Western Conference team that wasn’t going to try to goon it up with them.

Those Finals games were fun to watch.

The Warriors are just as fun to watch these days, but also benefit from a kinder, gentler style of play in the NBA. Some of those carefree drives to the basket might not be made if the player knew 1) he might end up on his back in the third row; or 2) he might suffer a head wound.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.