Mike Salem's thread about 7-on-7 got me thinking about the sports to which we devote our time, in terms of both attending and watching on TV. That dude clearly loves football on a year-round basis.
For my part, three sports very neatly fill the year: high school football, college basketball, and professional golf (specifically, the four major tournaments). Consider: high school football scrimmages start in mid-August, with games beginning the last week of the month. Ideally, the season runs until late November or early December. By that time, college hoops is featuring the best inter-conference matchups, followed by holiday tournaments.
January and February features a constant feast of conference games, which is particularly awesome here in ACC country. March, it should go without saying, is sheer.....
The big tourney wraps up the first Monday in April - which leaves, at worst, a wait of ten days before the Masters tournament begins. I follow the PGA tour year-round. On a typical week, I might catch a little on TV on Saturday, activities permitting. I usually try to watch the last hour or two on Sunday; if I happen to miss it, no big whup. But the majors? Must-see TV. I watch every bit of coverage I can, all four days. Our extended basic cable package somehow includes the Golf Channel. They have "Live From..." telecasts every day of the tournament, as in "Live From the Masters", "Live From the Open Championship", etc. Three or four panelists analyse and over-analyze every tiny detail of the action, Monday morning through Sunday night. For a devotee, it's heaven. For a non-fan, such as my lovely wife, it's a ticket to insanity. By Wednesday of a major tournament week, she's usually on the verge of beating me (and the TV) to death with a three wood. [Disclaimer: my wife is the sweetest, gentlest person on the face of the planet, and would never be party to such a heinous act of violence - she loves that TV.]
May is a rough month, as there are no majors, although there are a number of good tournaments. Thankfully, June, July, and August bring the US Open, the Open Championship (British Open), and the PGA Championship. And what happens within two weeks of the conclusion of the PGA championship? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
That's right - the first high school football game of the new season. These are the diversions that get me through each calendar year. And that, my friends, is the Circle Of Life. What is it for you, in sports terms?
Some additional comments. For me, the football season effectively ends when the VHSL playoffs conclude. I'll never be able to get into Division 1 college football until they do away with all the bowl games and have a real playoff, consisting of at least sixteen teams. As all three other divisions of NCAA football manage to do. As for the NFL, I barely pay attention until the playoffs. I do enjoy the conference semis and finals. I watch the Super Bowl, less I be deported for being un-American, but I rarely find it enjoyable. Far too much of a bloated, commercial spectacle, IMHO.
High school basketball used to be my number one sport, period. From the mid 80's to the early 00's, I used to go to dozens of games each year, including most of Salem's games. The district and regional tournaments were Nirvana; the Salem Civic Center was Mecca. However, sometime around 2005, 2006, the changes to the system started coming. First the regions started taking three, four, or more teams from each district to the regional tourneys. Then, basketball went to six divisions for the post season, so we started getting all these nebulous formulas for determining district and regional tournament seedings. Finally, the whole new format, featuring the conferences, came in in 2013. The conferences really made no sense, as many schools don't play everyone in their conference in the regular season. Yet, conference tournaments were held to determine who went on to the regional. And this year's post-season format just seemed downright goofy.
All these changes, combined with the ever-increasing talent exodus to the private schools (to which, thankfully, football has been much more resistant) pretty much sapped my interest in my once-beloved sport. Even though Salem brought home state titles in boys and girls basketball in the division era in 2013, I've gone to very few games since probably 2010.
Happily enough, though, something else came along to fill my fandom void - the resurgence of UVa basketball. I'd been a fan of Virginia sports, and especially basketball, since Jeff Lamp's first year in '77-'78. After the Hoos reached the Elite Eight in 1995, their fortunes steadily declined. Since the arrival of Tony Bennett in 2009, the Cavs have once again given me a team to follow in the Madness - and as fate would have it, beginning just about the time my love for high school hoops started to wane.
Finally - baseball. My whole family used to be huge Atlanta Braves fans. Anyone remember TBS endlessly touting "America's Team" back in the late 70's, long before every major league game was available? I was a big Dale Murphy fan. After Murph left for Philly in '90, the Braves became the National League's dominant team. All the Braves' playoff and World Series games used to be events in our house.
By 1997, both my parents were gone, and my grandmother (also a fan) was in a nursing home. And then, that season, the Florida Marlins just flat out went out and bought a World Series title, and made no bones about doing so. The next year saw the big "home run race" between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa - which I will go to my grave believing was entirely manufactured by Major League Baseball to renew dramatically flagging interest in the sport following a couple of strike years. It worked, but they lost me. As of 1998, I was done with major league baseball.
Which is why April to August is such a slow time for me, sports-wise. One golf tournament each month doesn't go very far. At least Virginia baseball has provided a lot of excitement the last several years. I also love both the Winter and Summer Olympics, and always watch every bit of coverage I can.
Anyway - I went on longer than I had planned, but that's how sports helps me pass a lot of time each year. Let's hear some of your stories!
For my part, three sports very neatly fill the year: high school football, college basketball, and professional golf (specifically, the four major tournaments). Consider: high school football scrimmages start in mid-August, with games beginning the last week of the month. Ideally, the season runs until late November or early December. By that time, college hoops is featuring the best inter-conference matchups, followed by holiday tournaments.
January and February features a constant feast of conference games, which is particularly awesome here in ACC country. March, it should go without saying, is sheer.....
The big tourney wraps up the first Monday in April - which leaves, at worst, a wait of ten days before the Masters tournament begins. I follow the PGA tour year-round. On a typical week, I might catch a little on TV on Saturday, activities permitting. I usually try to watch the last hour or two on Sunday; if I happen to miss it, no big whup. But the majors? Must-see TV. I watch every bit of coverage I can, all four days. Our extended basic cable package somehow includes the Golf Channel. They have "Live From..." telecasts every day of the tournament, as in "Live From the Masters", "Live From the Open Championship", etc. Three or four panelists analyse and over-analyze every tiny detail of the action, Monday morning through Sunday night. For a devotee, it's heaven. For a non-fan, such as my lovely wife, it's a ticket to insanity. By Wednesday of a major tournament week, she's usually on the verge of beating me (and the TV) to death with a three wood. [Disclaimer: my wife is the sweetest, gentlest person on the face of the planet, and would never be party to such a heinous act of violence - she loves that TV.]
May is a rough month, as there are no majors, although there are a number of good tournaments. Thankfully, June, July, and August bring the US Open, the Open Championship (British Open), and the PGA Championship. And what happens within two weeks of the conclusion of the PGA championship? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
That's right - the first high school football game of the new season. These are the diversions that get me through each calendar year. And that, my friends, is the Circle Of Life. What is it for you, in sports terms?
Some additional comments. For me, the football season effectively ends when the VHSL playoffs conclude. I'll never be able to get into Division 1 college football until they do away with all the bowl games and have a real playoff, consisting of at least sixteen teams. As all three other divisions of NCAA football manage to do. As for the NFL, I barely pay attention until the playoffs. I do enjoy the conference semis and finals. I watch the Super Bowl, less I be deported for being un-American, but I rarely find it enjoyable. Far too much of a bloated, commercial spectacle, IMHO.
High school basketball used to be my number one sport, period. From the mid 80's to the early 00's, I used to go to dozens of games each year, including most of Salem's games. The district and regional tournaments were Nirvana; the Salem Civic Center was Mecca. However, sometime around 2005, 2006, the changes to the system started coming. First the regions started taking three, four, or more teams from each district to the regional tourneys. Then, basketball went to six divisions for the post season, so we started getting all these nebulous formulas for determining district and regional tournament seedings. Finally, the whole new format, featuring the conferences, came in in 2013. The conferences really made no sense, as many schools don't play everyone in their conference in the regular season. Yet, conference tournaments were held to determine who went on to the regional. And this year's post-season format just seemed downright goofy.
All these changes, combined with the ever-increasing talent exodus to the private schools (to which, thankfully, football has been much more resistant) pretty much sapped my interest in my once-beloved sport. Even though Salem brought home state titles in boys and girls basketball in the division era in 2013, I've gone to very few games since probably 2010.
Happily enough, though, something else came along to fill my fandom void - the resurgence of UVa basketball. I'd been a fan of Virginia sports, and especially basketball, since Jeff Lamp's first year in '77-'78. After the Hoos reached the Elite Eight in 1995, their fortunes steadily declined. Since the arrival of Tony Bennett in 2009, the Cavs have once again given me a team to follow in the Madness - and as fate would have it, beginning just about the time my love for high school hoops started to wane.
Finally - baseball. My whole family used to be huge Atlanta Braves fans. Anyone remember TBS endlessly touting "America's Team" back in the late 70's, long before every major league game was available? I was a big Dale Murphy fan. After Murph left for Philly in '90, the Braves became the National League's dominant team. All the Braves' playoff and World Series games used to be events in our house.
By 1997, both my parents were gone, and my grandmother (also a fan) was in a nursing home. And then, that season, the Florida Marlins just flat out went out and bought a World Series title, and made no bones about doing so. The next year saw the big "home run race" between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa - which I will go to my grave believing was entirely manufactured by Major League Baseball to renew dramatically flagging interest in the sport following a couple of strike years. It worked, but they lost me. As of 1998, I was done with major league baseball.
Which is why April to August is such a slow time for me, sports-wise. One golf tournament each month doesn't go very far. At least Virginia baseball has provided a lot of excitement the last several years. I also love both the Winter and Summer Olympics, and always watch every bit of coverage I can.
Anyway - I went on longer than I had planned, but that's how sports helps me pass a lot of time each year. Let's hear some of your stories!
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