What are the five best yearly events in sports?
04/06/2007
Stalter Home / Sports Channel / Bullz-Eye Home
While flipping around the MLB action on Opening Day, I started to get a great feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Baseball is back!
Opening Day brings so much to a sports fan. It means the start of something new, the return of spring and warm weather for those of us who don’t see the sun all 365 days a year. It means the end of spring training games and the speculation of how your team will fair in the new season.
Wait, wasn’t the Final Four title game on Monday too? Isn’t the NBA season wrapping up this month and heading into the playoffs? Isn’t the NFL Draft only a few weeks away now?!
As I flipped back and forth from the Tigers-Blue Jays, Rockies-Diamondbacks and Indians-White Sox games, I started to think: Is Opening Day the greatest yearly event in sports? Does it stack up with any championship or title game? Can it really compete with the Final Four or the Super Bowl?
After much debate, I settled on my top-five sporting events.
1. The Super Bowl
Unlike other title games in sports, it doesn’t really matter if your favorite team made it or not; the Super Bowl has everything. First of all, the hype that comes with the big game is like nothing in sports. For two weeks, analysts go over the ins and outs of the game ad nauseam. Websites and newspapers run daily or sometimes hourly articles just priming you for the big game. Then when the actual kickoff happens, it’s like all that hype explodes out of your television. It seems like the players compete at another level and you appreciate what they’re trying to accomplish. As a fan, when you factor in the parties, the betting squares, the commercials and, of course, the food, there’s just nothing that beats the Super Bowl experience.
2. Opening weekend in college football and the NFL
I’m not talking about that little bone the NCAA throws us when Michigan plays Central Michigan and Texas faces South Eastern Little Sisters of the Poor. Hell no, I’m talking about the first time the NCAA and the NFL merge into one super weekend of football. I’m talking about the weekend where wives and girlfriends hate us because we’ve watched football for more than 48 hours and otherwise have contributed nothing else to society. I’m talking about the agony of having to wake up that following Monday with a football hangover and dreading work only to remember you have the Monday Night game in your back pocket. That weekend in football is magical.
3. Baseball’s Opening Day
As previously noted, Opening Day in baseball is great for so many reasons. Even though football has seemingly passed baseball as “America’s Game,” Opening Day still signifies so much. Spring, warm weather and the start of a long journey are all on display during Opening Day. For some reason, on Opening Day and Opening Day alone, it’s easy to forget that your favorite team finished fourth the previous year with only 76 wins. Once you see the ace of the rotation take the hill for the first time in a new season, you think to yourself, ‘Yeah, this is the year we put it all together.’ And when your team wins Opening Day, nothing can ruin it for you. Until they lose the second and third game to drop the opening series and you remember how daunting 162 games really is.
4. The first two days of the NCAA Tourney
The opening of the NCAA Tournament rivals any of the previous events mentioned other than the Super Bowl. Somehow, someway, we all find a way out of work or school for the first two days of the tournament. I remember when guys used to have their mothers call them in sick to school just so they could watch the action on Thursday and Friday. Even the people who aren’t into basketball fill out a bracket and sit there on that first Thursday and Friday with their highlighters close at hand. And when you pull your first upset – even if it’s only a nine over an eight – you call your friends to brag. It’s a great weekend that quickly gets tarnished when one of the teams you have going to the Sweet 16 loses to #12 Creighton.
(tie) 5. The NBA Playoffs
Just hearing NBC’s theme music for the NBA Playoffs used to get everyone pumped up. With how many teams the NBA allows to make the playoffs, your team is usually in, so watching the opening games is sometimes thrilling. It’s also a great time in sports with hockey heading toward the playoffs and baseball in full swing. As with any playoff, the players just seem to take the game to another level.
(tie) 5. The NFL Draft
It wasn’t long ago that the NFL Draft was the most boring sporting event on television. But with the birth of fantasy football and the NFL Network, the NFL Draft has become a spectacle all its own. With live footage of the NFL Combine and the Senior Bowl, fans are getting more behind-the-scenes access, which makes them feel like they’re a part of the action. By the time the event actually rolls around, fans have seen the prospects workout and have their own opinions on who will be a boom or bust. Plus, with veterans being pushed out of the league earlier than ever, drafting a strong rookie class has never been more important to a team’s success. Fans now understand that a good draft could mean the difference between a 5-11 season and an 11-5 Super Bowl run. Not to mention, fans are dying for anything NFL in between the agonizing months between seasons.
So what are the biggest yearly sports letdowns?
1. When your favorite NFL team starts off terribly
One of the worst feelings in sports is when your favorite NFL team gets off to a 1-6 start and you realize that the playoffs and the draft are about as far away as the moon.
2. The day after Opening Day
As previously noted, after the excitement of Opening Day, the MLB season seems like one daunting task.
3. The Final Four Championship
Unless you’re a college basketball nut, your bracket is still alive or your favorite school is in it, the Final Four Championship Game is a bit of a disappointment.
4. Bye week in the NFL and college football
Thanks to fantasy football, the bye week in the NFL is a little less annoying. However, it’s still a huge disappointment when you see that your favorite college or pro team has a bye week coming up on the schedule. Those two weeks in between games feel like forever.
5. College football bowls, any of them
I only mention this one because this is usually around the time when true college football fans are dying for a playoff system but once again realize it will never happen. The BCS bowls are still fun to watch, but come on and figure out a playoff system already!
Questions or comments? Send them to astalter@bullz-eye.com.