If you read this blog, you probably LOVE the fall season. Fall is football, and sweatshirt weather, and pumpkin spice everything. I literally bought a pumpkin spice candle at Target on Monday for no reason other than I just felt I needed it. I also bought a fun metal pumpkin decoration at Michael’s for outside of my new house, and a fall “welcome” sign to hang when you walk in (my husband was very confused but it’s fine). Even if pumpkin spice isn’t your favorite flavor (maybe you love an apple cider donut or a candy corn moment), October has something to offer you! For some reason, though it’s still 800 degrees outside so the only things that make me feel fall-y are all my fall purchases and buffalo chicken dip on Sundays, until October 1st. (*Note my favorite fall activities also include apple picking, making apple crumbles with my picked apples, and picking pumpkins with my dog because I am truly basic, but my favorite fall beverage or any time of year beverage is a chai tea latte with almond milk-iced in the summer, hot in the colder months.)
On October 1st, a Tuesday, the night after another Monday Night Football game, we had playoff baseball! Some of you may have a team in the hunt, some (like me) do not, but as the wife of a former baseball player, baseball playoffs are a must-watch in our house. Sports fans across the country can agree few things are as exciting as a one-game, winner take all elimination game which we now get with the MLB Wild Card round! I am a Phillies fan (duh) so I love to watch and route against the Harper-less Nationals (don’t come for Bryce, Washington, he has the entire city of Philadelphia behind him now), or to see if the Brewers can go on a nice run following the loss of MVP-candidate Christian Yelich (spoiler alert- they can’t). I want to see walk-off home runs, diving catches, and the feeling that EVERY. SINGLE. PITCH. Is life or death for these teams. It’s been some years now (omg 2008 was so long ago) since the Phillies won the World Series, but few things catch my attention the way the MLB playoffs do (as far as series go, hockey playoffs might be the absolute best, this is a debate for another post).
Is October the greatest sports month? As the baseball playoffs conclude with the always dramatic World Series, we are led beautifully to the start of the NBA season (Joel Embiid has Iverson braids and I am HERE FOR IT, 10, 9, 8, 76ers…). This NBA season features the nearly forgotten L.A. Clippers as title favorites and perennial champs the Golden State Warriors as underdogs for the first time in yearssssss. Not to mention the Eastern Conference experienced a major shakeup with Kawhi bolting from the Raptors and luring Paul George with him to the Clips, KD going to the Nets (even if he doesn’t play this year), Al Horford defecting to Philadelphia, and the Knicks, well they somehow maybe got worse? Russell Westbrook joins former OKC teammate, The Beard (James Harden and his new moves?), in Houston for another season of ball-hogging dysfunction, and Zion Williamson will make his NBA debut for the New Orleans Pelicans, and to be honest he could be a superstar, or he could be Julius Randall, but we will find out!
We can’t forget October also features the start of the NHL season for my hockey fans out there (are you out there? I feel like football/basketball fans are usually different from hockey fans, but I could be wrong). We also have college football rivalry games, which is that great point in the season where we stop watching Alabama beat up on scrub teams and play some games that really matter. I used to not be a huge college football fan (I still prefer pro, but college football playoffs have made me a believer), but I’ve always loved college basketball, which also starts in October…
I choose October has my top sports month over a few close contenders- March and February. March naturally has March Madness, one of the greatest sporting events that exist. March Madness really speaks to me 1. because I am a Villanova fan so duh, and 2. because I love an underdog, an upset, an unpredictable game. College basketball is bigger than the players on the court, these teams and coaches are legendary and our allegiances to our teams/schools are strong. I loveeee a March Madness bracket challenge (I once won my sister her office pool by picking UConn when no one else did and she gave me a nice cut), I’ve witness my friend pick Michigan State every year until we literally thought he was going to will them to a championship (close, but he did not), and I even made everyone in my master’s lab fill out a bracket so I could grade them and display them daily (they were forced into so I don’t know if they loved it but my boss did so yolo). I witnessed Villanova’s 2016 title in a bar in San Diego by myself during a science conference and to be honest that story is for another time, but it symbolizes everything that is great about March (especially in sunny California lol). February also is in my top 3. The Super Bowl is everything to me and carries the entire month on its back, but I also appreciate the middle of the NBA season and the fun All-Star events surrounding the mid-point. But October, well October really does have it all. (Honorable mention goes to January- NFL and college football national championship and bowl games, and post-Christmas NBA basketball and hockey.)
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