After the dust clears

West Virginia’s tourism officials did just that, and brought in a lot of traffic to places like Dolly Sods and the New River Gorge National River.

However, tourism is cyclical, which means businesses and state officials have to have plans B, C and D to deal with inevitable slow periods.

The pandemic is over. People in Baltimore, Washington, New York and elsewhere in the East might spend more money on indoor entertainment close to home.

They also might take flights to outdoor hot spots all over the country and the world.

West Virginia is still going to get a lot of tourists. Some who visited during the pandemic will like it enough to keep coming back, year after year. Others already knew this was a great place even before 2020.

If some of the tourism traffic evens out, that’s probably a good thing.

There were legitimate concerns for pristine places such as Dolly Sods Wilderness.

Too much pressure on a primitive-protected area can result in drastic countermeasures if the damage starts getting noticeable. This can result, for example, in human visitation to areas being curtailed by permits. Or some popular events might not get issued permits anymore.

Additionally, if the number of visitations wanes a little, that can be helpful in other ways.

West Virginia’s roads don’t always do well with too much traffic. And some of our businesses don’t have the room, or the staff, to keep up with teeming crowds. Frustration can result in visitors deciding they won’t be back.

It’ll all work out fine; the state will just have to be nimble enough to know when, and how, to change to address shifting tourism trends.

One of the best parts of West Virginia is the many different options to take in the amazing beauty.

Think it’s too crowded at Dolly Sods? Drive high up on the Highland Scenic Highway this spring, summer or fall (it’s closed in winter). Or head to Hendricks or Alpena, and check out the Otter Creek Wilderness.

Don’t like having to fight through foot traffic while climbing the 1 1/2 miles to the top of Seneca Rocks? Drive a little ways and take a hike on the North Fork Trail. There are some stunning views there, too, but without all the crowds.

Want to skip the traffic and fuss at the New River Gorge National River? Try a weekend getaway at Pipestem, or a long hike at the Kanawha State Forest.

Like Blackwater Falls, but don’t like the summertime and fall rush? Visit the amazing set of waterfalls at secluded Holly River State Park.

And so on.

West Virginia has an amazing amount of opportunities for locals and tourists to enjoy the outdoors.

Mountain State residents are lucky to be surrounded by so much unspoiled natural beauty.

And that’s true even just driving through the Mountain State. The views are remarkable when the land is covered with white snow or the greenery of summer. It’s amazing even when the leaves are off the trees and the underbrush is dead; that’s a chance to see some amazing sights behind there that we maybe missed before.

Major League Baseball is a tough sport to get too excited about.

First, some teams corner the market on talent by spending crazy amounts of money.

But even fans of a lot of those squads go away disappointed. A roster constructed to win during the regular season often doesn’t have what it takes to be a world champion.

There’s a reason the New York Yankees have 27 World Series trophies, but only about a fourth of those — seven — since 1977.

Baseball changed forever in 1969.

Before then, there were no divisions and no league playoffs. Instead, the regular-season champion for each league played in the World Series.

Starting in 1969, each league had two divisions. Those teams played each other for the league championship.

Today, there are three divisions in each league as well as wild card entrants, making for a much longer postseason.

Also by 1969, enough expansion teams had been added to substantially dilute the talent pool. And free agency, which arrived in the 1970s, changed baseball a lot.

The Yankees of old could win the regular season American League crown by always having the best players money could buy. All they had to do then was win the best-of-seven World Series, and they often had a clear talent advantage.

But after 1969, teams had to collect enough talent, and the right kind, to win in both the regular season and during multiple postseason series.

And now there are 30 teams, instead of the 16 in 1960. That’s about 350 extra players in the big leagues, which is why there aren’t any dynasties like the old-time Yankees.

That number of teams also is one reason why it’s so hard for some teams to even have a brief moment of postseason success.