We've Officially Reached the Witching Hour of the Sports Year
It's that time again folks...that special time of the year when the weather is nice and the only major sport on TV is mid-season baseball. The conclusion of the European Championship and Wimbledon mark our journey into the summer sports abyss.
Some people might argue, "Don't fret, the British Open is this weekend," but because it's in Scotland the first group tees off around 3:00AM EST and the last group finishes their round around 3:00PM EST, still leaving us still without any prime time action.
"But Baseball!": Nah. I would classify myself as a casual baseball fan. I love going to games and whacking dogs with the boys, but until the playoff picture begins to shape up and teams begin to make their last ditch efforts to make the post season, I often find it difficult to stomach. The general lethargy of mid-July baseball actually makes me tired when I think about it.
Every year, around this time, I find myself scouring the internet for news of any obscure international competition to latch onto. Last year I believe it was the FIFA u17 world cup that I followed, and streamed, to fill my summer void. Other years it's been the Women's world cup, the u20 UEFA European championship, and even Rugby 7s.
When I turn on the TV at night these days the best I can hope for is an NBA summer league game on ESPN, or maybe an MLS game if I'm lucky. You know it's bad when ESPN is filling their Prime Time slots with essentially D-League ball. I don't know if you've ever watched an NBA Summer League game but it is absolutely BRUTAL. A group of guys, who have never played together before, who are all trying to grab a roster spot, just bricking 3's. It has all of the selfishness and poor shot selection of an actual NBA game except the players aren't talented enough to get away with it. I was actually so desperate to watch a sports game the other night that I illegally streamed a WNBA game on my computer. I don't want to get into details but let's just say there is a serious talent disparity in that league. The amount of missed layups I saw legitimately gave me anxiety.
The only thing you can really do to keep morale up, and the pistol out of your mouth, is to follow twitter feeds and news outlets about NFL and NHL free agency or transfer rumors about European soccer (which are almost always false, but nice to daydream about). It's important to remember that it's always darkest before dawn, and while it may seem like there's no end in sight, the Olympics kick off in less than a month, which will then spring board us into football season, and then hockey and basketball.
So fear not fellow sports fans, this too shall pass.
