Being A Fan In October

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Damn it feels good to be a sports fan in October!  It’s got that not quite fall, dregs of summer weather going, and even on the days when it’s cold at least you’re glad to be wearing a sweater again.  Then at night it settles down into this cool no breeze atmosphere where everyone is drinking shouting running around screaming: Let’s go Let’s go Let’s go!  That’s a sports fan’s October in a sentence.

It should come as no surprise that I’m writing this in October.  My football teams are winning, my baseball team is in the playoffs, my fantasy football team is undefeated, and the rest is gravy. Even when some of the teams lose, which they will, at least in October you can always say: We’ll get em next time.  There’s always a next time in October.  Because what is a sports fan besides potential?  It’s the anticipation of success that hooks us.

Maybe the winter kills it.  There are 29 major league baseball teams who have zero fans by the second week of November.  By December, Vegas has their spreads figured out for the NFL.  By the second week of January nobody talks about the BCS.  By the second week of February nobody cares about anything beside the dunk contest, and even that is rigged. And when spring comes back around the weather is warm, and the only people who still care that much about being a fan are the ones who can’t go outside and play sports for themselves.

But now, in October, life is good.  I can turn on the television at any time during the weekend from sunup to sundown and find a football game on. In a few days there will be a MLB playoff game every day.  Even the off nights are still interesting.  The NFL network just came out with a channel, The RedZone, that shows every single touchdown as it’s happening.  The NBA channel has live feeds of Lakers and Celtics training camp. ESPN has the entire Eurobasket2009 streaming free on ESPN360.  There’s a 110,000 seat football stadium down the street from my apartment! My hometown newpaper’s website, Philly.com, had an article about whether the city can afford a second World Series parade.  This is the life I lead, debating the pros and cons of back-to-back World Series championships.

It could be said that I’m underrating March.  For many, the measure of a man is how he ranks in comparison to everyone else in his NCAA office pool.  And some could wonder if I’ve passed over the Super Bowl, ignored spring training, undervalued days of summer passed in baseball bleachers drinking beer. Those people might be right, and looking in later months this little rant might seem misplaced.  But damn, right now, at this very moment, it feels good to be a sports fan in October!

So I guess the point of this is, what’s your favorite month to be a sports fan? If you’ve read, you can at least reply with your own favorite sports month, because this opinion is obviously nothing more one person's own biased perspective(who doesn’t care about hockey, if you haven’t already noticed). Don’t forget the silent R in February.

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