By late Thursday afternoon the NCAA tournament was raging. Social media was aflame with March Madness and all throughout America, brackets were being scrutinized like eye-charts. Bars, restaurants, dens, even normally staid offices had come alive.
And on a TV in the deserted furniture section of a dying mall department store, an old man watched an exhibition game between the Phillies and Rays.
The tableau spoke volumes about aging Baby Boomers and the aging sport they cling to.
"Baseball is tired," Bryce Harper, the Nationals' 23-year-old superstar, said recently. "It's a tired sport."
Many would agree.