The Sports Equinox

Thanks to the Cubs' win in Game 4 of the NLCS, we ended up with the rarest of sporting phenomena.  The sports equinox.  Thursday marked just the 17th time in history that all four major sports were in action on the same day.  It's one of those things that can only happen in October.

ESPN had a chart listing every sports equinox since the first one in 1971 (it's funny how we're talking about this like the eclipse earlier this year), and they seemed shocked that it happened only once from 1985-2009 (and that was only made possible because the 2001 World Series, which was delayed a week, went seven games).  Frankly, I'm kinda surprised about how frequent it has become since then, although with the NBA season now starting earlier, the chances have become greater.

The reasons why the sports equinox are so rare should be obvious.  Baseball is the only game in town for much of the summer until football season starts in September, and basketball and hockey have the stage to themselves in February and March (with a slight interruption for college basketball).  Until this year, the only time the four sports overlapped was, potentially, the final week in October, provided the World Series wasn't over yet.

And, if you think about it, the leagues have kind of set up their schedules to avoid this happening.  That's why the off days in the World Series are Thursday and Monday.  Those are the nights the NFL plays.  And on that Sunday night when they go head-to-head, Game 5 of the World Series usually gets crushed by the football game.  (There were also a few years when NBC and the NFL didn't schedule a Sunday night game during the World Series.)

Speaking of World Series Game 5, if there is one, we'll have a second sports equinox in 10 days on October 29.  That's one the things about this rare event.  You can't plan on it happening.  Because the baseball game is always *if necessary.  There's only been three times where the sports equinox could've been pre-planned (Game 2 of the World Series in 1972 and 1973, Game 4 in 2009). 

It's also not much of a surprise to see that most of the sports equinoxes have come on a Sunday.  In fact, they're only possible on Sunday, Monday or Thursday, the three nights the NFL plays.  Of the previous 16 sports equinoxes, 14 were on Sundays, and the other two were on Mondays (in 2009 and 2010).  This was the first ever to occur on another day of the week.  And, if the NFL drops Thursday Night Football after this season as many suspect, we'll go back to Sunday and Monday being the only possibilities.

One other factor that contributed to this early sports equinox was the NBA's decision to move up the start of the season.  Opening Night in the NBA has always been right around Halloween, and sometimes basketball season wouldn't even start until the World Series was already over.  (It used to start in mid-October, which is why we had all of those sports equinoxes in the 70s.)

With the NBA moving the start of the season up a week, the sports equinox could become even more frequent.  But that doesn't make it any less fun.

Sure, a playoff baseball game has much more urgency than an early season NHL or NBA game, but we'll take what we can get.  Because for the sports fan, there is no better day.  You don't have to wait until (fill in the blank) season.  For a brief period of time, it's every season.  Although, that leads to the entirely different problem of trying to figure out to watch.