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Was it as good for you as it was for me?
You mean you didn’t feel that? You just missed one of the best weeks of sports of the year! This was really important to me! Did you not get my Save the Date?
Just to make sure this doesn’t happen again, here are the 5 best sports weeks of the year.
5) The Last Week of October
This week features the World Series in all of its three-and-a-half hours per game glory. Interest and ratings for baseball may be slowly eroding, but that’s because nothing happens quickly in the MLB. David Ortiz retired 2 years ago and he still may be plodding around the bases from his last home run. Regardless, three of the last four World Series have gone 7 games and two have ended with champions that we hadn’t seen 100 years.
Also in the last week of October, we get the beginning of the NBA season. We’re also a third of the way through the NFL and NCAA football seasons, where fans can really see which teams are the real deal or a raw deal, so betting seems like less of a crapshoot. Those pair well with apple cider and Halloween, the best holiday for wearing a jersey to the office and calling it a costume.
4) Thanksgiving Week
The week that often means a return home to see friends and family is also an epic week of American sports. This is the only week where there should be NFL on a Thursday, as Thanksgiving games are an exit strategy for when your cousin brings up what the “lame-stream media isn’t telling us.”
Along with the NFL’s turkey tripleheader, sports blesses us with college hoops tournaments in Maui, Atlantis, New York City, Brooklyn, and Las Vegas. In many cases this is the first time big hoops programs will stray from their early season cupcake diet.
And if that is not enough, we get classic college football rivalry games like the Iron Bowl, Michigan/Ohio State, Notre Dame/USC, and major in-state rivalries in South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Utah, and more.
Also you are most apt to play a game of football amongst friends this week, which will either lead to memories of personal glory days, or strained muscles, inevitably leading to more acceptable couch time. This is a win, win, win of a week.
3) Second Week of January
Make no mistake about it, this is a week for football. Monday night brings us the college football championship game, which in the last 3 years, have all come down to the last minute or overtime. East coasters—don’t schedule any early meetings that Tuesday morning, because for once, that inevitable post-midnight bedtime will be totally worth it.
Add in a slate of four NFL playoff games on Saturday and Sunday to end the week, and Now That’s What I Call Ass-Imprints in the Couch, Volume 7.
2) Third week of March
The second best sports week of the year, features the absolute best sports day of the year, the first Thursday of March Madness. This week is dominated by college basketball-watching and excuse-making to friends and family as to why they come in second to said basketball watching.
We are talking four channels of non-stop college hoops, from Thursday until Sunday, from noon to midnight. Speaking of which, I just went six to midnight. There are the games, the pools, the Cinderellas, the Goliaths, the 96 year-old nuns, and those great moments when you realize the sun has been down for hours but you didn’t realize because buffalo wings are an all day activity.
This week may also have some NBA, NHL, MLS, and Frozen Four happening, but nothing else really matters. Oh and did you know Impractical Jokers was back for another season?
1) Last Week of March/First Week of April
This is the aforementioned week you just completely whiffed on. The best, most wide ranging week of sports on planet Earth.
First, we get the culmination of the NCAA tournament. Next, there is the finals of the women’s NCAA tournament, which was not-so-sneaky way better than the men’s this year, and constantly improving, as the field catches up to UCONN.
Maybe you are an alien (or worse, one of those moral high ground NCAA abstainers) and need more. Well this week also gives us baseball’s opening day, a Norman Rockwellian holiday and the only day where every team is still in the chase. These first few games are awesome for finding out which names need to be memorized, and which teams’ big moves were a waste. (Right now if you are not aware of Shohei Otani, you need to make a lifestyle change!)
And then there is the Masters, which is like Christmas and the Super Bowl all rolled into one, for white people. The Masters is the ceremonial beginning of golf season and the tournament that matters the most. As the only golf major that doesn’t change courses every year, golf fans know each twist and turn of Augusta National, and can recite the charming concession stand prices like it is their neighborhood spot. This weekend’s Masters featured a showdown between a heavy set white guy, a clean-cut white guy, and a white guy in bright orange pants! It was awesome!
Amazing sports events are about to take a few weeks off, so if you want to hang out, give me a call!
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