Best Time of the Year

In the world of sports there are many times during the year when people start to get very excited for the beginning of a new season, or maybe for the playoffs to begin (if you root for a team that will be in the “second season”). For many, it is the end of July, when NFL training camps begin and the first Sunday in September when the NFL season begins.  With all due to respect to the fans of the NFL (and I am as big a fan as anyone), the month of March and April are the best part of the year to be a sports fan.

2007 NCAA East Regional - East Rutherford, NJ

The beginning of March is when the college basketball season ends and the conference tournaments are about to begin, and then comes Selection Sunday, which has become a spectacle all its own.  Once the tournament grew to 68 teams, the Big Dance now starts on a Tuesday with some play-in games and then the “real” games begin on Thursday.  I have started a tradition of taking that Thursday and Friday off to watch the games all day.

The NCAA tournament continues Thursday through Saturday the first two weeks, and then you have the Final Four the following Saturday and the championship game on the first Monday in April.  As this tournament is winding down, baseball season is starting up, and there is no better time for us baseball fans than opening day!!

2012 Final Four - New Orleans, LA

As baseball season begins, the NBA and NHL seasons are winding down and by mid-April you have the playoffs beginning for both which will then run all the way into June.  In late April, you also have the NFL Draft which NFL fans look forward to seeing how their team will build for the next season and future.  This small two-month window you have the end and the start of three different sports and four different leagues as well as the NFL Draft.

For someone like me, there is just no better time.  I have attended NCAA Tournament regionals in the NY Tri-State area, as well as attending the Final Four in New Orleans once (was supposed to go a second time in Atlanta, thanks Covid).  I have missed one Opening Day for the Mets in over 20 years (again THANKS Covid) and I have attended countless Rangers playoff games.  I unfortunately have never attended a Knicks playoff game.

2006 NLDS Game One - Mets vs Dodgers

I can remember coming home from school as a kid (pre streaming and being able to have picture in picture) where I literally had two televisions on in my bedroom watching basketball while also playing video games.  One of my fondest memories is going to opening day my senior year of high school.  It was a game for the ages.  Sure, the Mets ended up not being that great (but they won as they tend to do on opening day) as was the case most years in the 90s and forever but Bernard Gilkey had a great game and who will ever forget Rey Ordonez throwing from his knees halfway down the left field line on one hop to gun down Royce Clayton at home plate.  That goes down as one of the most magical plays I have ever seen in person behind the Mets throwing out two Dodgers at home during game one of the 2006 NLDS and Mike Piazza’s home run against the Braves on September 21, 2001, in the first game back home after 9/11.

Ever since my friends and I have made a tradition of attending opening day whether at the end of March or early April, it is a day I look forward to every year and I hope to bring my kids one day as well and add them to the tradition.

With all of this said, like I said earlier, there is no better time of the year to have so many sports winding down, beginning or ending!!