'Tis the Season

The NCAA Tournament isn't the only show in town these days. With meaningful hockey, basketball and baseball on the docket, well-rounded fans find themselves renaming late March "Sports Heaven."

For baseball fans it's October. Hockey and basketball addicts will try to convince you that it's late May or early June. Football fanatics will argue that it's late January, early February.

But for the true sports fan, there is absolutely no doubt that the best time of year is right now.

Welcome to the third week in March (otherwise known as Sports Heaven), where all your greatest sports hopes and dreams take place. This is simply as good as it gets. For the next two weeks or so, every single day will be new and invigorating, gloriously jam-packed with limitless professional and collegiate games. Never before will you have so many compelling sports options all competing for your viewing pleasure. If you don't already own a DVR, good luck.

It all seems to be going on at once. For baseball fans, Spring Training is entering the stretch run. No more pointless footage of players standing around, joking with each other and going through the motions in the Florida sun. We've moved on to actual games. Players are even beginning to be cut from camp and sent to the minors as teams thin out their rosters in anticipation for Opening Day. Suddenly, baseball fans find themselves agonizing in the middle of the night over who will be their team's fifth starter in the rotation or win the battle for the back-up catcher position.

With just 13 games or so remaining in the regular season, Hockey is neck-deep in the playoff chase. For many teams in the NHL, their seasons will be made or broken over the next two weeks. While top seeds look to continue their dominance, jockey for positioning and enter the playoffs with some momentum, other teams on the bubble find themselves fighting for their lives. The margin for error is absolutely zero.

Same for basketball. With the NBA season winding down, teams are all fighting for a shot at the playoffs and each game takes on greater meaning. The cream of the crop, like Boston, Chicago, San Antonio and Dallas, find themselves battling for the number one seed and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Meanwhile teams on the cusp like Charlotte, Milwaukee, Utah and Phoenix are on the outside looking in and must win every remaining game just to entertain thoughts of a postseason birth. The stakes are so high that every game must be treated as if it were a Game 7.

If baseball, hockey and basketball weren't enough to keep you occupied, how about some March Madness? Forget the College Football Bowl Championship Series, nothing beats the NCAA basketball Tournament. It is by far the single greatest sports tournament known to man (ok, the World Cup is pretty exciting too but until the US actually wins one, I refuse to give it the edge over the Big Dance). Other than the joyful frenzy brought about by filling out brackets, the greatest aspect of March Madness is its unpredictability. For some odd reason, nearly every round is filled with epic upsets and jaw-dropping buzzer beaters. And, all the while, some unknown Cinderella that no one ever gave a shot at the start of the Tourney ends up reaching the Elite 8 or Final Four. It's beyond exciting, it's thrilling.

There's even something for the football fan. Despite the owners locking out the players and the season now resting in the balance, the NFL Draft is quickly approaching. And with all free-agents unable to sign with new teams or players to be traded until the owners and players sign off on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Draft is the one area in which football masterminds are forced to focus on almost exclusively. So what does your team need the most? A running back? How about a pass-rushing defense end? Maybe an offensive lineman? Now's the time for NFL executives to single out that specific player of need. You can bet the mock drafts will be swirling as well.

So here's some advice: don't make any plans for the next couple weeks. Do yourself a favor and cancel all your appointments. Forget going to the gym. And give all that bad network TV you watch a break. Just grab your friends, order a pizza and figure out a way to decide what you're going to watch tonight. The Bruins? Celtics? Sox/Yanks Spring Training? College Hoops?

With limitless options, you simply can't go wrong.