The 12 months of sports

Here's a fun project I've had in mind to write up for some time: ranking the 12 months of the year in terms of how good they are for sports fandom. I've decided to count up from my least favorite sports month to my favorite. A few ground rules:

- Only the Big 4 sports count (football, baseball, basketball, hockey). Football and baseball get a slight bit more weight than basketball, which is higher than hockey. Hey, it's my ranking.
- Playoffs count for more because they're awesome
- Soccer, NASCAR, golf, etc. - none of that stuff is factored in. I do like tennis, but I never know when it is and don't even up watching a whole lot. If anything, each month with golf loses points, but they all seem to have golf so it's a wash.
- No allowance for Olympics - they're great sports, but the 4 years thing makes it hard to calculate their impact.

I haven't made this list especially Cleveland- or Ohio-centric, though maybe I'll include a future edition that does that. Obviously, in such a case, the NFL Playoffs won't get such strong weight. Ouch.


12) August
Pro: Baseball.
Con: Only baseball? Really?
Bottom line: August, in terms of sports, is basically the same as July, as we'll see below. The difference is that now we're in our second month of it, plus we're subjected to the horrors of preseason NFL football, which is somehow worse than no football at all. Easy choice for worst sporting month of the year. NFL, come rescue us!

11) July
Pros and cons: See: August
Bottom line: No hoops, no hockey, no football, no nothing. Interestingly, July features two of the rare days in the sporting calendar with no games: the days before and after the all-star break. Look, baseball is great, but it can't do this alone. Even worse is that, like August, the gap here means that Sportscenter has to try to fill its time with crap like golf and NASCAR, and that's not cool.

10) February
Pro: Basketball and hockey.
Con: No football, no baseball, and wow, is it ever cold outside.
Bottom line: The NCAA's hoopsters aren't ineresting at this point, so we're stuck indoors with only winter sports to entertain us. I like me some basketball and hockey, but they're both just regular-season at this point and both seasons are pretty damn long. Plus, golf and NASCAR start up this month, which infuriates me. March can't get here soon enough.

9) March
Pro: Same as February, plus the NCAA Basketball Tournament
Con: Same as February, except a little warmer.
Bottom line: Basically an upgraded version of February, as the winter sports head down the stretch, the cold breaks a bit, and we get the giddy fun of March Madness. Every year, some unoriginal pundit writes that the NCAA basketball tournament (Editor's note: I refuse to specify that it's the NCAA "Men's" Basketball Tournament, as if anyone ever got confused and thought you meant the girls' one.) is the greatest sporting event ever. It's pretty good, but not enough to lift March into the higher reaches of the sports calendar.

8) June
Pro: The NBA and NHL finals, and baseball.
Con: No football.
Bottom line: The choice between this and April/May comes down to: I like the middle rounds of basketball and hockey better than the Championship rounds because there are more games being played. That's no knock on the sports' respective championships, but

7) January
Pro: NFL Playoffs, NBA and NHL regular seasons moving along.
Con: No baseball and it's fucking cold out.
Bottom line: Another February+, this one beating out March by virtue of football. The NBA and NHL regular seasons are pretty long and at this point are settling into a semi-routine. January also features the top NCAA men's football teams playing in men's bowl games, which is a big plus in its corner. January's major strength, however, is the NFL Men's Playoffs, which are, to me, America's best sporting event. They provide much of this month's strength and allow it to and outpace March Madness.

6) April
Pro: The start of the NBA playoffs and the NHL playoffs, both of which are outstanding, the NCAA's Final Four, plus Opening Day and the reemergence of baseball.
Con: Baseball gets rained out a lot early, and (getting used to this) no football.
Bottom line: The early rounds of the NHL and NBA playoffs are such excellent fun that, combined with the excitement of baseball's reemergence from hibernation, they make April an above-average, well-rounded sports month.

5) May
Pro: The exciting middle rounds of the NBA playoffs and the NHL playoffs, as well as Major League Baseball hitting its stride.
Con: No football.
Bottom line: Basically an upgrade on April. Baseball gets into its everyday groove and we get what I find to be the best rounds of the NBA and NHL playoffs.

4) November
Pro: Football, football, and more football. Plus the NBA starts up and the NHL gets in the swing of things. Sometimes, the World Series happens here, but not always.
Con: Wow, this month snuck up on me - what's not to like? No baseball, I suppose.
Bottom line: A surprising candidate for the top spot, we've got football saturation, baseball's championship, and both winter sports going on.

3) December
Pro: All of the strengths of November, plus bowls in college football and more time to drink beer.
Con: No baseball.
Bottom line: A slight upgrade on November, thanks to the college football bowl season and the fact that a lot of people get a lot of time off around the holidays to sit around and watch sports..

2) September
Pro: Baseball's pennant drive, the start of college and pro football, and the best outdoors weather of the year.
Con: Basketball and hockey are off-season.
Bottom line: This is kind of a toss-up with October. You don't have hockey here, but the early stages of hockey are less interesting, and pennant battles in baseball are super cool. Plus it's just so fun to have football back in our lives. September is indeed an exciting time in major professional sports Still, the slight edge goes to...

1) October
Pro: Baseball's World Series, the NFL season in full swing, the start of NHL, and great weather for outdoor spectating.
Con: No basketball, but the #1 spot had to go, at some point, to a month without one of the big three.
Bottom line: October is a wonderful time of year for sports with the calendar's only overlap of hockey, baseball, and football. There's so much good stuff going on between NCAA and Pro Football plus the entirety of baseball's dramatic postseason that October deserves this high ranking.


The ranking in condensed form:
12) August
11) July
10) February
9) March
8) June
7) January
6) April
5) May
4) November
3) December
2) September
1) October

Well, sports fans, what do you think?