It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

For those of you who want to see Major League Baseball’s regular season shortened, tell me you watched the games last Wednesday night. Let’s start with the St. Louis Cardinals, who caught and passed the Atlanta Braves for the National League Wild Card. The Braves once had an 8 ½ game lead for the Wild Card the 1^st week of September and fell flat going 9-18 down the stretch. However, they are not alone. We can’t forget about the American League, baseball’s darlings, the Tampa Bay Rays who came from way back to catch and pass the Boston Red Sox. Boston just fell apart, or should I say Tampa came storming back from being down 9 games on September 3^rd, which is now the greatest September comeback or collapse, depending on how you look at it. Not to go unmentioned is that Tampa trailed 7-0 in the 8^th inning of their last game only to tie it in the 9^th and have Evan Longoria’s homerun in extra innings push them past the Red Sox and into the playoffs. It was not only the wildest finish to a MLB regular season, it also kicked off a time of the year that us sports fans have to love.

To kick of the most wonderful time of the year for sports, let’s try to chronologically explain the weekend my wife and I spent on the road. Friday night, we are watching Game 1 of the AL playoffs between the Rays and the Texas Rangers. We would have watched the entire game at the airport had we not had to catch a plane to Vegas. No, I didn’t place any bets on sports teams. We would have also watched Game 1 between the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees had it not been postponed due to rain. Saturday was as good at it gets for us sports nuts: a quadruple header with the MLB playoffs, a full day of playoff baseball. Now add to that the first Saturday in October of college football season this year, featuring Nebraska at Wisconsin, Arkansas at Texas A&M and Alabama at Florida. I would have watched parts of those games had my wife and I not had to catch a plane from Vegas, (we did win a couple hundred bucks at the poker tables), to Houston. Once checked into our hotel room in Houston, we did catch the 2^nd half of Stanford beating UCLA. Sunday morning, NFL all day. For us, tailgating at Reliant Stadium for the Steelers/Texans game (Happy early Birthday baby). Loved the stadium, didn’t like the 17-10 Texans win, hated the rules and surroundings of the stadium. Then we headed back to the hotel to watch the rest of the NFL and some baseball, flipping back and forth between the Jets/Ravens game and Game 2 of the NL playoffs between the Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies. Then Monday, it was back to Los Angeles, and of course, Monday means Monday Night Football. We watched, but we also flipped back and forth between the Colts/Bucs game and Game 3 of both AL playoffs, Rangers topping the Rays and Tigers outlasting the Yanks. Traveling or not, that is one heck of a sports weekend.

My buddy Tommy and I used to have the argument about what is the best time of year for sports. He used to say that late March/early April was the best time of year. It is pretty good: March Madness and the Final Four along with Opening Day in MLB and both the NHL and NBA winding down the regular season to the playoffs. But, in my opinion, it has never measured up to the amount of excitement of what just went on this past weekend. This year is a little different, since we normally would be getting ready for the NBA season to begin, but we do also have the NHL season beginning. Yesterday, elimination games in three baseball matchups with a tied series in St. Louis. Good thing for me my wife loves sports, although I’m sure even she will get a little tired of all the games on TV. My advice to you wives and girlfriends, make us a deal. Leave us in a room all day to watch these games, and we will pay for almost any spa day/shopping spree, Beverly Hills excluded.