Super Saturday

It is very seldom that you get the confluence of so many entertaining and important sports events all happening within about a week of each other. Maybe Masters week in golf, because you have the great golf tournament, the stretch drives of the battle for the playoffs in both basketball and hockey and you’ve got the opening day/week games of the Major League Baseball season all happening within that same early April week.

The excellence of Masters week was great and all, but today, Saturday May 2nd 2015, we’ve got that one topped by a long, long way. In fact, it might go down in history as the greatest sports viewing day in the history of sports. For you see, the great sports events of Masters week all happened over the span of a week. All of the sporting events on the calendar for May 2nd are all going to be happening on ONE DAY. It is ALL happening today and tonight in one big, Olympics-sized celebration of sporting brilliance.

On this one day of every sports fans’ nirvana, you will have your choice of:

Major League Baseball

You get a full slate of baseball games today. It’s not that big of a deal when you see them play 162 games a season, but it is still a major sport, and baseball in the spring still has that tradition and allure of being that exact sport that everyone thinks should be there in springtime on the sporting calendar.

Match Play Golf

The WGC (World Golf Championships) Match Play Championship golf tournament is being played this week. The quarterfinal and semifinal matches are being played on Saturday. It is a tournament that is just a few ticks below the majors in terms of importance in pro golf. All of the best players in the world started out in the field of 64, and what is left in this elimination type format are 16 players who survived in a match play format. Some of the remaining players still alive include world #1 ranked Rory McIlroy, Jim Furyk, Charl Schwarzel, Hunter Mahan, Rickie Fowler and Louis Oosthuizen. It is very entertaining (like Ryder Cup play) and is a big deal in the world of golf.

The NFL Draft

It’s not football season, and yet, the NFL has their draft this year at the end of April and early May, and they manage to make it into a big time, national sporting event. It’s just a draft of college players, and yet it captures the imagination of football fans every bit as much as regular season games, because for all of the teams, the draft of new players becomes each team’s chance to correct all that is wrong with their franchise and to give those teams (even for just a little bit of time) the hope that THIS could be their year. It’s the third day of the draft, rounds four through seven. Die hard football fans WILL be tuned in.

Hockey Playoffs

The NHL playoffs are past their first round and eight teams are left to play in the second round of the most grueling playoffs in sports. All of the favorites (Anaheim, Chicago, NY Rangers, Montreal Canadiens) are still alive (who really thought St. Louis would survive in the West?) and two games are on tap for this great May 2nd sports schedule. Hockey playoff games are as intense as anything in sports. The games today (Flames at Ducks and Caps at Rangers) should be excellent.

The Kentucky Derby

Okay, it’s JUST a horse race. I get that. But it’s the freakin’ Kentucky Derby, the most famous horse race in the world. Horse racing USED to be a big deal in years past and has lost a lot of its appeal, but it has its one, legitimate period of strong, general fan interest when any of the three Triple Crown events takes place. If there were NOT two or three other great sporting events going on this weekend, this would be getting a lot of attention, because, IT’S THE KENTUCKY DERBY!

The NBA Playoffs – And a Game Seven

There will be three NBA playoff games played today. Two of them are already in their second round (LeBron’s Cleveland Cavs vs. the Chicago Bulls and the Memphis Grizzlies vs. the Golden State Warriors). These games themselves, would help to make it an excellent sports day, but there is SO much more, for there are very few things in all of sports more exciting than the seventh game of a best of seven series in the playoffs.

Because today, the seventh game of the exciting L.A. Clippers vs. defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs series is taking place. This series has been as entertaining and intense as all of the rest of the NBA’s playoff games put together. Most of those series were one-sided routs of contenders vs. pretenders. The Clippers and the Spurs have played some of the best, most competitive playoff basketball since the famous Lakers – Celtics rivalries of the Magic/Bird era.

When one team is able to win a game on the road, THAT is something. When the other team can then knock off their opponent on the road, THEN you have the makings of a series. The Clippers and the Spurs, both GREAT teams at home, have both won TWO games each on their opponent’s home floor. That is OUTSTANDING basketball. Both of these teams are good enough to be the champions of the league this year. (Obviously, the Spurs DID win it all last year, and the talented Clippers are the up and coming challengers for the title) They are unfortunately having to play each other in the first round. You might not see better basketball throughout the rest of the playoffs. Lick your chops, sports fans, there is a Game 7 tonight for “all the marbles.”

The Fight of the Century – Mayweather Jr. Vs. Pacquiao

It used to be the greatest of sporting days when two men would be fighting for the Heavyweight Championship of the World in boxing. But things have changed since then (a lot of sports fans have abandoned boxing and replaced it with MMA fighting as their choice in pugilism) and for those who still liked boxing, most people don’t even know who the heavyweight champion is and prefer to see the best pound for pound fighters. The two fighters that have emerged as being the BEST fighters in all of boxing are Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. For years, most people had said that IF there would be a match between the two, for THAT, they would be interested. After dodging each other for over five years, that dream bout is finally here.

EVERYONE wants to see THESE TWO do battle with each other. Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have ruled the weight classes from about 130 lbs. to 155 lbs. for most of the last ten or so years. Both are considered to be, in one form or another, undisputed champions of their sport. The fluke of it was, though, that they had always seemed to be about the same size, why wouldn’t they fight each other? Politics and egos have gotten in the way before, but both sides realized that they would make millions and millions of dollars if they finally fought each other. So, it’s on.

They will fight tonight in Las Vegas in a match that has all of the excitement and hype and expectation of some of the greatest match ups in history. This might be the most anticipated fight since Ali vs. Frazier. The arena at the MGM only holds about 17,000 seats and yet, over 200,000 additional sports fans have arrived in Las Vegas, just to be a part of the excitement and ballyhoo of something so spectacular.

It is being called the “Fight of the Century,” and when you realize the bouts that have preceded it since this century began, that is a correct description. This fight has captured the imagination of sports fans all over the world. People may not know a lot of the names of the people who are boxing now, but they ALL know who Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao are. This one is gonna be big, folks.

And so we have a whole slate of things that make this a great day to watch sports. These things aren’t all happening during the same month. Or during the same week. It’s all happening on THE SAME DAY. The boxing match alone might make it the best sports day of the year (besides Super Bowl Sunday), but the combination of all of the others might make it even better than the Super Bowl.

Today, Saturday May 2, 2015 is going to be SUPER.

Enjoy, everyone.