Monday, January 26, 2009

Sports Doldrums

Even the most hardcore sports fan would recognize a few down times for sports, where there is seemingly nothing to get excited about. One of these times is about to begin.

Post Superbowl - March Madness and Post NBA finals to NFL opening day.
I would argue to extend both of these, especially this year, because I really don't care about a Steelers/Cardinals Superbowl and the NBA playoffs just take an eternity. So for me it is A.) When the Packers are finished through the start of March Madness and B.) the end of Wimbledon to NFL Kickoff. I'll take a quick look at the pros and cons of these periods.

A.) There is an obvious let down when the Packers are finished, but I will usually watch the NFL playoffs regardless. February is the worst month. It is saved by college basketball conference play and European football (soccer). January and February are actually the busiest months in England. But unfortunately, Sportcenter is full of NBA and NHL?? highlights. NCAA b-ball is great, but who can really get excited about a Michigan State-Northwestern or Georgetown-Depaul matchup. It's too inconsitant to follow.
And I understand most Americans don't enjoy soccer, but it is great - See future post for more on this.
Feburary is tough, though, because you know what is coming next. March Madness and Baseball opening day. Probably the best time for sports.

B.) July, nothing but baseball and golf. Man, good thing the days are long and the weather is nice. If you are really hurting, the NFL preseaon starts in August, but that may even be more boring to watch on TV than baseball.
The good thing about the summer, though, is that your team could possibly play 29-30 games a month, so there is never really a day where there is nothing to watch. But in a 162 season, no single game really matters. And once every four years is the glory of the World Cup to save the summer.

So, taking everything into account- active sports, TV watching, live watching, fantasy sports, Shaq, your teams- let me know which period you think is worse as a sports fan. Or possibly, you love them all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Post-Superbowl through beginning of March Madness is the worst. The weather sucks, so there is nothing else to do. Right now I'm watching Australian Open tennis, the one tournament only hardcore tennis junkies (DMars) can get into with any passion. The NBA is bad/meaningless, college B-ball is in conference play, which doesn't matter since good teams make the tournament, bad teams don't, and small conference champs get in on conf. tourney alone. Hockey? Not good unless you're there.

Anonymous said...

i agree with post suberbowl - march madness. if baseball is on, I can survive, but now it's just waiting for pitchers and catchers to report

Tony Brown said...

Valid points, but I'll have to go with July as worse. I would have a much better change of a random college basketball game being good than a random baseball game. Fantasy baseball makes it close, but July is worse.

jUNKIE said...

I'm going with July. I can't really stand watching baseball, other than maybe the playoffs when I jump on one of my perenial bandwagons (other than the Brewers I like to cheer for the White Sox because I hate the Cubs and maybe the Phillies). I love college basketball, even pre-march madness, so I have no problem with the post superbowl "let down". I would actually prefer to watch some random mid-major mid season college basketball game than most NFL regular season games. I also am probably the only person other than Brendan O'Connell and Sergio Piraino who actually enjoys the NBA so I have no problem watching regular NBA games. Also, why does hockey get the respect it does in this country? Why is hockey on Fox Sports? Hockey sucks and this is coming from someone who used to have UW Hockey season tickets. I'll stop rambling now because I'm starting to sound like Tony Brown.