April’s Joe Mauer vs. January’s Bill Cowher

Is April the best sports month of the year?

Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Maybe
Appropriate Blog Length Answer: Depends on who’s asking?

April has had the reputation of being the greatest month in sports for as long as I can remember. Growing up I never thought twice about it. Even the casual sports fan pointed to April as the king of the sports months. Just look at what April offers: the Final Four, the Masters, the start of baseball season, the end of the regular season for pro hockey and basketball, the NFL draft, and for some of us Wrestlemania. I’m not so sure that April can take its dominance for granted anymore especially in the eyes of the casual fan.

The Masters and Final Four are still sporting events that reach out to casual sports fans but the decline in popularity of the NHL and NBA may have adversely affected April’s rep. The NBA has had declining television ratings in general and the end of the season is no different. In fact, the April 2nd NBA double header lost in the ratings to a NASCAR rain delay. Ouch! We all know the NHL has never had strong ratings but the prelude to the Stanley Cup playoffs usually received a lot more attention from the mainstream media and thus the casual fan. However, with hockey coming off of its work stoppage even the hardcore hockey fan has had trouble getting up for this season.

The NFL draft may be the only thing that’s growing in importance. The casual fan used to know when the draft was and who the top 2 or 3 picks might be. Now thanks to Mel Kiper’s hair and the marketing machines behind ESPN and the NFL the sports fan gets a constant diet of draft information from March right up to the draft. The fact that most casual fans recognize the name of Jay Cutler, a QB who had limited TV exposure during his college career at Vanderbilt, is a sure sign of this.

Baseball is more of a tricky wicket. The importance and interest in Opening Day is a divisive issue even amongst casual sports fans. Long gone are the days of baseball as America’s pastime. Still, for many people over the age of 25, Opening Day means something especially if you live in a MLB town. For others, it’s the start of 7 long months of boredom before the World Series finally wraps.

I guess in the end there is no absolute conclusion we can reach here. April still provides the best variety of any month of the year and features the end or beginning of multiple championships but with the dominance of the NFL and emergence of NASCAR as the number two sport, January seems to pulling ahead. I find myself in the January camp mostly thanks to the NFL playoffs. January also features the end of the college football bowl season, the start of conference play in college basketball, the NBA and NHL in full stride, and the Daytona 500, which as a casual fan is one of maybe 3 NASCAR races I’ll actually plan on watching during the year. Sure there’s no baseball or golf, but these sports have the summer months all to themselves. Besides January also has the Royal Rumble which is usually better then Wrestlemania.