It’s only 58 days until the start of the high school football season on Aug. 21, and thus the start of a new sports year.

Fifty-eight days. Fifty. Eight.

That’s almost two months. It’ll be here before you know it, but it’s also a lot of time to kill for a sports fan when there’s not a lot going on other than the day-to-day grind of the Major League Baseball season.

So, what are the best ways to pass the time?

Well, you can head over to Trustmark Park and watch 28 Mississippi Braves games. They have six homestands between now and Aug. 21, including one against Pensacola that starts tonight. Minor league baseball is always a good time, as long as you can stand the warm evenings, tickets are cheap and good seats are almost always available.

You can read 58 editions of the award-winning Vicksburg Post sports section. Please? Sports writers have to eat, you know. Not every place has free food in the press box.

You can put together a sports movie marathon. There’s got to be 58 of those worth watching. Start with “The Longest Yard” — the awesome 1974 original with Burt Reynolds, not the Adam Sandler remake — and continue chronologically from there.

Heck, the entire “Rocky” saga can burn up a couple of nights.

Go cut the grass. It probably needs it. Then go swimming. You probably need it. Just remember to shower in between. The people around you will need it.

Dive deep into the European sports scene. With Wimbledon, the Tour de France, the British Open and soccer plugging the gaps until NFL and college football training camps start, we might as well all eat croissants and speak with horrible fake accents for the entire month of July.

Did I mention reading 58 editions of the superb and award-winning Vicksburg Post sports section?

Become “Obnoxious Fantasy Football Guy Who Ponders His League’s Draft” at the office. I think I saw some magazines on the rack in March. I love fantasy football as much as the next sports nerd, but do people actually buy those? At least wait until July or August, when players have actually changed teams and reported to camp.

Watch some golf on TV, or better yet, play some golf. The Warren County Championship is Aug. 1 and 2 at Clear Creek. There’s still time to sharpen your game. You don’t even have to be good to compete and have fun.

Boil in the heat and humidity while watching your kids play sports. There are a ton of youth baseball and tennis tournaments to fill the time, not to mention swim meets, golf tournaments, softball tournaments, etc.

Send us a story tip at sports@vicksburgpost.com. Those award-winning story ideas have to come from somewhere, and we could use a little help over the next few weeks. We’ll take as many as we can get.

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Ernest Bowker is a sports writer. He can be reached at 601-619-7120, or via email at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com