This time of year isn't fun when it comes to sports on TV
Comments (...)Well, this is that time of the year when I write that 'this is the worst time of the year to watch sports on TV' column.
It falls every year starting after the Super Bowl and before racing season and spring training baseball.
It's simply awful.
Hockey is the only thing the keeps an interest at all in watching sports on the tube at this point and nine straight losses by the Backhawks have made even that painful.
The one good thing about this time of the year is that I am generally too busy with work to even watch TV. Starting two weeks ago, the "championship phase" of the high school season got underway with regional action in both wrestling and girls basketball. This is also Visions time of the year, which also serves to stretch us here at the MDH very thin, as well.
We traditionally have the TV on here in the newsroom most all day long. It is tuned to CNN or CLTV during the day and at night it is usually on Comcast or the NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus). Occasionally at this time of the year it will be on WGN if the Blackhawks are losing on that channel that particular evening.
Even then, it's virtually impossible to pay attention to the TV at all at this time. About the only way I pay attention to the tube at all is if I hear NBA highlights out of the corner of my ear. Then I get up and shut the TV off altogether.
By the time I get home at night from work these days, it's generally too late to listen to West Coast hockey — which I really like to do.
So, there are very few stop-gap measures to getting through this sports entertainment period. At least until pitchers and catchers report and the first spring training game is held - which is usually the first week in March.
Until then, I guess its a blessing that work keeps me so absorbed. Generally, this is the most exciting time of the winter season for the local teams. Wrestling is always at its best right about now. The individual state tournament starts Thursday and runs through Saturday night down at Assembly Hall in Champaign. Saturday is virtually a thrill a minute for sports fans, though it's also a long day for sports writers.
Thanks to Minooka, the team state tournament also has been of keen interest for the better part of the last decade. The Indians have finished second at team state twice and won it once over the last three years. They look to be in good shape to getting back to the U.S. Cellular Coliseum again this year a week from Saturday (Feb. 25).
In talking to a Marmion wrestling coach at a recent tournament, he told me that he is amazed at how sound fundamentally the Indians wrestle year in and year out now. I have to agree.
On top of that, seeing the best teams in the state year in and year out has given me a greater appreciation for the sport than ever before. From Glenbard North, Oak Park-River Forest and Sandburg in Class 3A to Montini in 2A and Wilmington in 1A, these teams always seem to be at the top of their respective classes and bring their best to the mats — even more so at this time of the year.
The filler in the middle is high school basketball. Except for a couple of appearances by Seneca at State in the past 10 years or so, the local boys scene is usually highlighted by a team winning a regional. The Morris boys have done this two years in a row and are the No. 1 seed this year at the Kankakee Regional, which starts next week.
Should the Redskins pull off that feat again this year, not only would it be the first time that it's happened in MCHS history, it would fill the gap leading up to the first pitch of spring training quite nicely for a third straight season.
Comments
Total Comments 0 View/Add Comments |
There have been no comments made about this story. |
