MySportsSanctuary

These next three months will be a joyous occasion for many students, from kindergarten to seniors graduating from college (unless you are looking for a full time job). Along with the economy downturn which forced the Yanks to sell first class seats at coach prices, the sports appetite wanes as the months of June, July, and August roll through.

At June 1, we will have the NHL and NBA playoffs almost reaching its climax, and MLB is in its early stages of weeding out it pretenders. Once July hits, baseball will be king, champions are crowned in basketball and hockey, but two behemoth sports leagues are revving up for their shot at glory and ooh will they ever succeed.

August is when the NFL and College Football begin to really prep for their upcoming season. You hear of OTA’s, spring games, involuntary (did I say that) workouts, and scrimmages as early as spring. The pads start cracking in the summer heat and just in time for school to start (sorry 6th graders).

The college football season will start with the usual suspects of Florida, USC, Texas, Oklahoma, and some lucky team from the SEC rounding out the top five. Not in that order, but don’t be surprised. Until we have a playoff…I said I wouldn’t go there just yet. Moving on, the NFL is wide open as it has been since ’91. Only the Cowboys, Broncos, and Patriots have repeated as champions, and many of the SB losers this decade haven’t even made the playoffs the next year. And that even happened to the Patriots after their attempt at moving Mercury Morris down the street fell short and going 11-5 the next year. Arizona already looking like one with coordinators leaving, Anquan wanting out, and the Edge already shipped out.

So why not enjoy the summer’s heartbeat known as the MLB season. I will, sort of, with one eye on Tom Brady’s comeback, Dolphins season after the miracle, and some guy making a comeback after two years. Not all is lost in baseball once the leaves starts turning. They’ll have the spotlight again in October. It may be the temps in these next few months that are scorching, but it’s in the fall when things really heat up.

As a sports fan, the week that past was a great one. The NBA is just soaking in the best start to both conference finals in recent memory. Interleague is back, and the NHL playoffs have been anything but dull so far.

The biggest story is the two tied NBA conference finals. The Nuggets manned up and canned the Lakers in Game 2, however Kobe Bryant has now mastered his Jordan acts, and took over in the 4th in Game 3 in Denver where the Nuggets haven’t lost since Jay Cutler left town. Okay not that far back, but it has been awhile. Travel to the Midwest and LeBron, wearing number 23, is improving his late game heroics like his idol and drilled a three at the buzzer to break the spell cast by the Magic. If they had gone down 0-2, I would have had a better chance at climbing Mt. Everest wearing pink biker shorts, a brown tank top and blue flip flops than they did at coming back and winning the series. I have to say that the games all have been competitive, dramatic, and best of all, entertaining.

With interleague opening its 2009 chapter, a couple of series catch my eye. The Philadelphia Phillies, going to homer happy Yankee Stadium, will face the ‘bombers’ in the truest sense of baseball. The Yanks are hot, the Phils are defending champs and no new steroid allegations of A-Rod yet. Randy Johnson going back to where he didn’t start his career, but where he made the name ‘The Unit’ part of everyday jargon to inch closer to that 300 victory plateau is very interesting. Angels and Dodgers, Red Sox and Mets are other series worth noting.

With the Pens and Sidney Crosby taking the Caps and Alex Ovechkin out, they look like a lock to steamroll the Hurricanes on their way to a second straight Stanley Cup appearance. That’s the good news. It looks like it will be against the team who beat them down the last time, the Detroit Red Wings, who are looking good as always in the playoffs. That’s the bad news. Can ‘The Kid’ get his team to the promise land? If the Red Wings are standing in the way, it will be tough sledding.

This weekend starts the almost new tradition of baseball’s adaptation of the three other major sports. As purists balk at the notion of interleague play, a lot have grown into it and enjoyed the shift from monotony.

Baseball’s interleague schedule is by far the most interesting of the four major sports. Unlike the NFL and NBA, you can prepare for a change since certain dates are allotted for this special occasion. Some games are played in May (duh) and the rest in June, and in a 162-game, six month marathon (not including playoffs), a reprieve is justified.

The fans love it. Attendance is up more than in regularly scheduled games. The Jordan of the baseball world, the New York Yankees, brings the best following and for good reason. Baseball is all about history, and your team, probably not as good now, was great in your father’s and/or grandfather’s time. If they are in the National League and made the World Series, they most likely played the Yankees. So take the Pittsburgh Pirates for instance. Bill Mazeroski’s game seven winning walk off homer was hit in the World Series between those Yankees and Pirates in 1960. Pittsburgh has not had much success in recent years, but when the Yanks came storming into the Steel City last year, it created an atmosphere of nostalgia and jubilation as it brought memories of a great time in their team’s history.

Some people argue it takes away the ‘mystique’ or waters down the purity of the sport. You no longer have to wish of seeing a certain team or player unless your team makes it to the World Series. They say the Fall Classic and the All-Star game loses it luster. I think more people are happy that they will actually see the matchup rather than waiting impatiently for it. Baseball fans know the difference in importance too. We are not fools. The Red Sox visiting Wrigley Field is a nice story, but it would be a lot more memorable if it happened in October. With the Cubs history, that may take SOME time. Also, Mariner fans have the chance to see Albert Pujols playing at Safeco and the Reds faithful can witness A-Rod hitting a homer in Cincinnati. Interleague works well with fans, and so it does for baseball.