Blog

Peak Season for Multi-Sport Fans

This time of year is a sports fan's dream come true with a wide variety of sports either reaching their climax or just getting underway.

by Adam Slocum

September 1, 2023

Ellwood/USTA, MLB, Getty Images / NSM Illustration

September-October is a special time of year for an American sports fanatic such as myself. In late summer/early fall, there is so much tension building and excitement in the air. I can hear the crisp, almost metronomical cadence of dueling rackets as they connect with the tennis ball from the baseline; the unmistakable sound of a rock maple’s sweet spot as it loudly detonates a hanging slider for a game-winning homerun; or the distinctive thud of a kick-off to start the NFL season. And, of course, in every venue, there’s the inevitable roar of the crowd, in rapturous unison, upon collectively witnessing something breathtakingly spectacular.

END-OF-SUMMER SPECTACLE

It starts at the US Open, the fourth and final stop on the Grand Slam tennis circuit each year. It’s a time when charismatic American hopefuls such as Coco Gauff (now coached by Brad Gilbert, the former coach of Andre Agassi), and Frances Tiafoe (who reached the semis of the Open last year) are in contention. It's a spectacular two weeks of tennis, bringing even more energy and excitement to New York City as people flock to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens for a fortnight of excellence and inspiration.

Then, one week into September, there is the start of the NFL season with top 100 player rankings, Fantasy Football draft parties, and the first games of the season, when all conjecture and prognostication either turn to reality or early elimination, with equal parts exhilaration and disappointment. Either way, the football season, both college and pro, is a clean slate in early September and every team is a contender. All the offseason maneuvers, new draft picks, and freshly appointed coaches are ready to prove that they deserve to be standing at the end of a grueling 18-week season. Will Patrick Mahomes lift his third Super Bowl MVP trophy and inch that much closer to reaching Tom Brady as the undisputed GOAT? Or will a new team step up to assert itself as Super Bowl LVIII champions in Las Vegas on 2/11/2024?

Moving into mid-September, you have the MLB pennant races reaching their boiling point, as teams battle for the remaining wild card spots. I’m a big proponent of the expansion to three wild card teams per league. It keeps the season interesting for more than just the elite teams' fan bases, as 12 of 30 clubs are now able to continue playing past October 1st. Once October hits and the MLB playoffs get underway, baseball fandom shifts into a whole new gear, especially if your team is still alive! Then you also have the debates about individual awards, such as MVP and Cy Young. Shohei Ohtani’s injury is a great tragedy for him personally, as well as for MLB and its fans. He was having such an awe-inspiring year, both on the rubber and in the batter’s box, a 2-way phenom not seen since the likes of the great Babe Ruth (although Babe never did it simultaneously during the same season). And how about the National League? An extremely close race between Ronald Acuña, Jr. and Mookie Betts, with Freddie Freeman and Matt Olson also in the running.

GARRETT ELLWOOD/USTA

THE CELEBRATION CONTINUES

Let’s not forget the array of other sports, both crescendoing and waxing at the same time -- the culmination of the women’s basketball (WNBA) and soccer (NWSL) seasons, plus men’s soccer (MLS) with its revitalized Inter Miami team led by the world’s greatest player, alongside the puck-drop and tip-off of the NHL and NBA seasons. Mix in the Ryder Cup with its lingering PGA/LIV animosities and controversies and you have an amazing lineup of competitive sports action, spanning seven sports across eleven competitions (3 women’s and 8 men’s) for the next two months.

As I enter this sports vortex, I feel prepared: my tickets to attend the US Open next week have been secured, my fantasy football lineup is, by all measures, arguably strong, my baseball team is still in contention for the American League wild card, and my basketball team survived free agency with a major offseason signing and appears poised to make another deep run into the 2024 playoffs. Fingers crossed, I’m going into this gauntlet of September-October optimistically. I’ll let you know if I survive unscathed.

SPORTS BRING US TOGETHER

Beyond the excitement on the field, however, it’s the relationships forged off the field which make fandom, and this particular time of year, so remarkable. Because, of course, I’m not going to the US Open alone; I’m going with my wife and son, whose favorite sport is tennis. My 15-year-old son will sit next to me and discuss the nuances of the game and our father-son bond will strengthen as I admire his insights. My fantasy football team is not just me picking players alone; it is performed with 11 other friends who argue, talk trash, and reminisce. Throughout this process, our annual ritual ultimately strengthens our friendships as we confront middle age together.

The end of the baseball season, with my Red Sox clinging to a modicum of hope, allows me to watch a game at a Red Sox-friendly pub in the heart of Manhattan, and make new friends from all walks of life (but mainly other New Englanders). It also allows me to call my dad, who lives in an assisted living facility in Florida, to talk about the game and reminisce about the PawSox games we used to go to when I was a kid, when Wade Boggs was working his way through the Red Sox minor league system. I was a little leaguer at the time and my dad was my coach, so we’d sit in the stands at McCoy Stadium, and he’d say, “Watch how patient Boggs is at the plate. Watch how he waits back and goes the other way for a single or double.” A valuable lesson for a young ballplayer whose singular thought was to be aggressive and swing for the fences.

The undeniable part of sports – the essence that draws all fans in – is that it is a communal activity. It brings people together. There is nothing like the roar of the crowd, when every fan goes wild at exactly the same instant! Those moments of pure joy and togetherness; there is nothing like it anywhere else. It is like a dopamine rush experienced by 40,000 people simultaneously. That is why people go to live games. Not to see the action better; with today’s television broadcasts we get digital overlays of strike zones and first down markers, instant replays, commentators with in-depth knowledge of every player on the field. What’s missing when watching from home is one thing: that undeniable sense of camaraderie and community, that shared rush of adrenaline and unbridled joy that cannot be experienced – at that same level of intensity and passion – anywhere else.

If you want to know exactly what I mean, go pick up the book “Fans Have More Friends”, by Ben Valenta and David Sikorjak. It arrives at the undeniable conclusion that being a sports fan is good for you, it is good for others, and it is good for our society as a whole.

NATIONAL SPORTS MUSEUM IN NYC

That is why we are creating the National Sports Museum (NSM) in New York City: to celebrate the essence of sports, particularly its ability to bring us together as a nation. With all that divides us in this world, we need to celebrate the phenomenon of sports fandom, which has the unique power to bring us together, lift us up, and strengthen bonds – personally, communally, societally, and culturally.