Sorry T.S., April Is the Best Month for Sports
"“April is the cruellest month, breeding
"
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain. “
–T.S Eliot, The Waste Land, 1922
Thomas Stearns (T.S.) Eliot, the American-British poet, playwright, and critic, may have been a member of the Literature Hall of Fame, but he didn’t know sports.
With apologies to old T.S., April is America’s best month for sports.
April, the rites of passage, the season of rebirth, where Opening Day signals the start of another baseball season.
April has the pageantry of the Masters, from Augusta National, the most beautiful golf course in the world.
Both the NBA and NHL playoffs, the second season for 32 basketball and hockey teams, begin in April.
The NCAA Tournament may be heralded as March Madness, but the Final Four is an April event.
And finally there’s the NFL draft, one of the most popular dates on the NFL calendar outside of the Super Bowl.
What other months challenge April?
June has the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup, the U.S. Open, and the Belmont Stakes—the last leg in horse racing’s Triple Crown.
October has the World Series and peak activity in college and pro football to go with Fall foliage.
And February has the Super Bowl, the single biggest day in American sports, and the Daytona 500.
Give me April every time.
