What is the worst sports month of the year?

[johnnysama]

Alright, guys. Let's year ya. This Q is self-explanatory: What is the worst sports month of the year, and why?
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Me: You know, if I wasn't a CFL fan, I'd say July/August, but those months are the start of their season, and I like it for that (in addition to the MLB All Star Game in July). February is another nominee, what with the NHL and NBA not having their playoff drives in full swing, but sometimes these upstart alternative football leagues come up, like the XFL this year, so that's ruled out for me.
So, I say December, with no meaningful college bowl games and the NFL playoffs don't start until month's end, at the earliest.

[BBTV]

NFL runs from Sept->Feb, so that's out.  I really only follow MLB and NFL (and even then, just the local teams), and I hate college basketball tourney, so March might be it for me.  But... at least there's the heated debates over who will win the 5th-starter job, so maybe it's not all bad.

 

June and July are pretty awful.  It's the boring part of the baseball season, and when summer activities really hit high gear, and watching sports is pretty low on the list.  At least August has NFL camps (for now.)

 

My vote, all things considered, goes to... JULY.  It's when the MLB all-star game (and corresponding break) is, and that's the [tnak]ABSOLUTE WORST[/tnak].

[AnPheitseog]

10 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

NFL runs from Sept->Feb, so that's out.  I really only follow MLB and NFL (and even then, just the local teams), and I hate college basketball tourney, so March might be it for me.  But... at least there's the heated debates over who will win the 5th-starter job, so maybe it's not all bad.

 

June and July are pretty awful.  It's the boring part of the baseball season, and when summer activities really hit high gear, and watching sports is pretty low on the list.  At least August has NFL camps (for now.)

 

My vote, all things considered, goes to... JULY.  It's when the MLB all-star game (and corresponding break) is, and that's the [tnak]ABSOLUTE WORST[/tnak].

Yeah, I gotta agree with July. Even with the Riverhounds 4th of july game( a fixture on my calendar for sure), July is very bleh. And also the day that no sports(stupid espys)

[Red Comet]

February. No real football. No baseball. No fun.

[Matthew24]

On 2/4/2020 at 7:52 AM, Red Comet said:

February. No real football. No baseball. No fun.

Kinda have to disagree now with the XFL debuting tomorrow.

 

For me it not a month but it the combination of two months, mid July to mid August. Don't ask me why but I hated this time of the year for me as an sports fan.

 

It kinda weak for me as a sports fan.

[Chromatic]

I could make an argument for any of the summer months, but I’m going to have to go with July. The only thing I’m remotely interested that’s on and actually playing games is baseball, and with a 162 game season, it’s really difficult for me to have any kind of investment in watching a random game in the middle of the year. Same goes for CFL, I like going to games and will cheer on my team but it really feels like a sideshow while I wait for the NFL. If I have tickets I’ll go, but I’m not going to sit down and watch Hamilton and Winnipeg or whoever play on tv.

 

 

[dfwabel]

AUGUST.

 

Since the PGA Championship moved from August to May, there really is nothing but baseball in terms of US sports as the FedEx Cup Playoffs hasn't stuck as they want to end before Labor Day and the start of football season. US Open tennis starts in the last week of the month. 

 

August is only saved by holding part of all of the Summer Olympics. 

 

The LLWS is basically the other annual big event. 

 

A Dallas sports radio host has proclaimed that 2 PM on the second Tuesday in August is the worst moment of the year, period. 

[Magnus]

I'm fine with most of the calendar year for sports availability. I've got NBA to watch from November to at least April, (plus the occasional local hockey or basketball team now), and the CFL covers my summer and fall.

Don't need to watch sports every day, either. I have a life. 

[FiddySicks]

It’s ABSOLUTELY that stretch in between the Super Bowl and when Spring Training starts. It’s also BY FAR the worst part of the year weather wise. 

 

 

Lol, July. Got outside, guys. It’s summer. 

[CaliforniaGlowin]

It depends on what you're into.  I love baseball, so at first I'd say February, but July-August are the only months when colleges aren't playing the major sports, so there's not a lot of teams playing.

[RyanMcD29]

July in a non-Olympic year. No football, hockey, or basketball outside of midseason WNBA, no college sports, baseball's got the all-star break and the dog days of the season, it's the worst stretch of the NASCAR season with the ghastly traditional Kentucky-New Hampshire-Pocono-Indy stretch that's now 3/5ths of the ghastly Chicago-Pocono-Indy-Kentucky-New Hampshire stretch, and even if there's a World Cup that only saves the first handful of days of the month from the rest of the dreck. August at least has preseason NFL, most of the time part or all of the first week of college football season, start of the European soccer season, the Watkins Glen NASCAR race and now Daytona in the last regular season race, and the pennant races taking shape.

[The Six]

July has NBA free agency, which we all know is more interesting than the NBA season, so that clearly isn't the answer.

 

I agree that there really isn't any bad month for sports because they all have something to offer, but for the sake of playing along, August I guess, because only MLB is active.

[dfwabel]

6 minutes ago, The Six said:

July has NBA free agency, which we all know is more interesting than the NBA season, so that clearly isn't the answer.

 

I agree that there really isn't any bad month for sports because they all have something to offer, but for the sake of playing along, August I guess, because only MLB is active.

Exactly.

July has Wimbledon and The Open Championship aka British Open, the MLB All Star Game, . 

June and July host female/male international soccer events basically on an annual basis now too

 

August is now set up for the Summer Olympic Games, but historically they go in and out of being an August event. 

[BBTV]

The MLB ASG partially ruins July for me, since 1) it's pointless anymore, 2) there's a 3-4 day gap between your team's games, and 3) all the things that surround the ASG are annoying to hear about.  I don't care about golf, I'd watch tennis but it's all aces (at least the men's game), and I'm not sophisticated or educated enough to appreciate the game enough to be an American soccer fan, so screw July.  I'll just go down the shore and get hammered all month.

[JayMac]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

The MLB ASG partially ruins July for me, since 1) it's pointless anymore, 2) there's a 3-4 day gap between your team's games, and 3) all the things that surround the ASG are annoying to hear about.  I don't care about golf, I'd watch tennis but it's all aces (at least the men's game), and I'm not sophisticated or educated enough to appreciate the game enough to be an American soccer fan, so screw July.  I'll just go down the shore and get hammered all month.

You mean you aren't watching training camp practices like it's week 1 of the regular season like almost every other Philadelphian? 

[BBTV]

10 hours ago, JayMac said:

You mean you aren't watching training camp practices like it's week 1 of the regular season like almost every other Philadelphian? 

 

I used to go to West Chester and then Lehigh, but once they took that away from the fans, I stopped caring about preseason.

[TBGKon]

I feel like for me there are a few times, but the one that gets me the most is the late June into July period.  At that time hockey playoffs are over, and all thats going is baseball.  Of course, you have a spike of interest around MLB all star week for a few days, but the playoff races really haven't heated up in MLB, and NFL hasnt opened training camps.
 

From after the Super Bowl thru early March when spring training kicks in isnt so bad, as NHL is hitting it's playoff push, but I guess it depends if you are an NHL fan or not.

[BBTV]

On 2/13/2020 at 9:53 AM, TBGKon said:

 you have a spike of interest around MLB all star week for a few days,.

 

Is that really true?  I can't be the only one that couldn't care less about anything related to the ASG, and am just bitter that it means I can't watch a real Phillies game for 4 days.

[Digby]

3 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Is that really true?  I can't be the only one that couldn't care less about anything related to the ASG, and am just bitter that it means I can't watch a real Phillies game for 4 days.

 

Right there with you on that one.

 

I like MLS but I don't understand why they don't run a full slate of games on the Wednesday and Thursday after the ASG, in that vacuum. Especially with all the constant handwringing about MLS playoffs going up against college and pro football and how bad that supposedly is.

 

If you're lucky, we'll get a big international soccer tournament overlapping with the ASG, but those are usually finished up before that week.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

38 minutes ago, Digby said:

45 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

I can't be the only one that couldn't care less about anything related to the ASG, and am just bitter that it means I can't watch a real Phillies game for 4 days.

 

Right there with you on that one.

 

I used to love the All-Star Game. I am not even from this era of the home-run-hitting contest and the overall circus atmosphere. I'm from the 70s, when the All-Star Game was our chance to see matchups we could not otherwise see.

 

After the 1986 game, I went out to a fast-food restaurant wearing my Yankee jersey, and spotted someone sitting there in a Met jersey. I instinctively raised my arms in triumph, in reflection of Dave Winfield's double off of Dwight Gooden. The guy was a good sport about it; we shook hands and had a laugh, and then talked about the game. It was a real baseball fan bonding moment.

 

And the American League's victory in that game felt celebration-worthy, after the seemingly endless string of defeats the the A.L. had sustained at the hands of the N.L., until Fred Lynn made history in 1983.

 

The point is that the All-Star Game was important even before there was any merchandise connected with it. Indeed, if there had been some kind of hat for the 1977 game at the Stadium, I would surely have bought it (and would have been wearing it when Thurman Munson heartbreakingly ended the game by striking out on a check swing against Goose Gossage).

 

 

55 minutes ago, Digby said:

I like MLS but I don't understand why they don't run a full slate of games on the Wednesday and Thursday after the ASG, in that vacuum.

 

As an MLS fan, I'd say that the worst thing about that league's "All-Star Game" is the game. I absolutely do not want to see a league XI against a major club team; I want to see a game between stars of MLS, East vs. West. Friendlies involving big clubs are very nice; but the MLS All-Star Game should be a celebration of MLS.

 

And they have to have days off after the All-Star Game, no matter the format. A full slate of games immediately afterward would keep the best players out of those games; or else it would make those players unwilling to play in the All-Star Game, thereby terribly undermining it.