The Fall Sports Schedule: Bounty Or Glut?

Fall is in full swing. Major League Baseball's postseason has just started. There's no shortage of football. NFL, NCAA ... take your pick. After a summer on ice, the NHL is, well, on the ice. NBA training camps are starting up, and soccer's is in session. Bill muses on what to do when there are so many sports to follow.

The baseball's gotten serious; the playoffs have begun.

A possible World Serious that would be lots of fun

Would see the lowly Pittsburgh playing for the shining crown.

As Pirate madness threatens to engulf the cheering town.

For Pittsburgh hasn't lately had a baseball champ to cheer;

They've had to say so often, "Ah, we'll wait until next year."

But baseball faces competition from the NFL,

Where teams have played enough to show us who is playing well

And also playing badly, having started 0 and 4,

The Steelers, for example, who might rather play no more,

For they have lost so constantly that they can only dream,

That fans in Pittsburgh might forget they have a football team.

But I digress, the point is we are in that time of year,

Where baseball's reached the money games, and football's what you hear

And see and also read about, no matter where you turn:

The NFL and college games for which the gamblers yearn.

But wait, there's more, for hockey's also started playing games

That count, or almost sort of do, as long as no one blames

The NHL for starting when the fall has just begun,

And ending in the heat of early summer's rising sun.

And if you act right now, or even if you don't do that,

The teams throughout the NBA, which lately only sat

And waited for their time to play have also now appeared

In training camps throughout the land, and though it might seem weird,

The soccer played all summer here is also still in session;

It's also on in England, and in Europe. What's the lesson

In all the horns and whistles, all the sound and fury, too,

That comes with all the games brought every day to me and you

In this, the time of year, where all those sports are running hot?

If you deny it's true, then I can demonstrate you're not

Attentive to the situation: baseball, football, soccer,

I think I spoke of football; there is scare an empty locker.

Distractions help on days when so much news is bad reports;

I guess we should be grateful for this monstrous glut of sports.