Cannon Firing Line
Best Times
By Ellis G. Cannon
PSR Publisher

The argument is rekindled each fall: what is the best time of year for sports?

Spring is a favorite of many if no other reason than we can get back outside after months of doing our Jack Nicholson in “The Shining” imitation. If nothing else, the snow is (almost) gone, the Pirates are in spring training, and we are slaves to March Madness and the Masters.

Tough time of year to beat, until now.

Face it, as much as we like the outdoors and summer, there’s something that appeals to a lot of us about the coziness of the fall cool and the return of college and pro football, hockey and, of course, the baseball playoffs.

Especially the baseball playoffs.

For some, the Fall Classic is an afterthought. Not on Page 5. By the time we get to this point, many have turned their attention almost exclusively to football.

With the Pirates’ situation, we can understand how all this conspires to kill interest in the MLB postseason, but that’s one of the things that makes fall special. The football brings pace and information to just about every day. No question, it fills most sports conversations and media. This year we have hockey again, which, for obvious reasons, is a hot item. But, particularly with the introduction of wild card races, baseball takes it to a completely different level.

Don’t get us wrong, we love it all. Breathe it up every day. But when you throw something as high level as the playoffs into the midst of the NFL, college football and NHL *regular* season games – not to mention all those games being available just about every night of the week – the elimination scenarios of baseball enhance the entire package.

Recognizing the challenges, at least locally, accompanying the sport by October, baseball remains as compelling a storyline as any other. The other sports, while compelling, are in their *qualifying* seasons. And while the faces may be unfamiliar to some, the playoffs and World Series make that less important than the other sports. The stars make the NFL, and hockey has had to respond to charges nobody knows its helmeted players – all while baseball counts on its timelessness.

In fact, it can be argued baseball is particularly romantic this time of year *because* the beauty of the sport rises above the contestants.

One could easily reference unlimited baseball moments captured in October. For those familiar with what was going on in the ‘70s, you remember what it was like for the playoffs and Series to be played in the afternoon. You remember what it was like to run home from school. Heck, you remember what it was like to not even go to school so you could watch those games, coming up with an non-diagnosable stomach condition that could only be cured by a television, couch and hidden bag of caramel corn.

Or a series like that between Houston and the Mets in ‘86, when, while you wore a suit but still practiced the same form of health care outlined above, those teams put on a classic every bit as memorable as a decade before.

And, of course, the thrill – and heartbreak – that was the early ‘90’s playoffs for Pittsburgh baseball fans, something you’d take back in a moment just to get that feeling again.

So we’re there again. College campuses and NFL stadiums. The return of the Igloo. And the pitch-by-pitch theatre of baseball.

All at the best time of the year for sports.