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| 10 College World Series |
| One day I will take a whole week to ten days off just to go soak in the entire event live in Omaha, Nebraska. Until then, I will just settle for ESPN's coverage of the event from the comfort of my couch. And while you don't have to watch every pitch of every game, it is the sort of event that gets better the more you watch it and get to know the teams who are in it. After all, college baseball isn't one of those sports you can follow all season long. |
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| 9 Kentucky Derby |
| Even though the actual race is only a little over two minutes, the Kentucky Derby is "must see TV" at my house due to all the pomp and circumstance that comes along with it. Like college baseball, it is really hard to keep up with the who's who before race day, so the hour or so of coverage before the actual race is as important as the race itself. Oh, and it's fun to watch for ridiculous hats as well. |
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| 8 US Open (Tennis) |
| While tennis just isn't my deal, but the US Open is different. The wild outfits and the rather non-traditional tennis crowd seem to make for interesting late night tv. It's basically the anti-Wimbledon in HD and in a better time slot. And as a fan of "meltdowns", it is always fun to watch some euro get rattled by a heckler in the third deck. |
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| 7 MLB All-Star Game |
| More than any other item on the list, the MLB All-Star game is just sort of a habit I can't seem to break. Summer just wouldn't be summer without it. But with modern players, and more importantly their modern contracts, sitting the game out with mysterious injuries, the game has just lost its edge. Still, it's on a Tuesday night... so it's not like you really had anything else exciting to do. |
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| 6 Masters |
| Like a lot of Americans I presume, if Tiger isn't playing or in contention on Sunday, chances are I'm not going to watch. However, the Masters is different. Regardless of who is in the lead, I watch the Masters for the shear beauty of it all. The recent addition of HD, as well as the deletion of commercials, has even further enhanced the experience and continues to motivate me to work a little harder in my own yard each spring. |
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| 5 NBA Playoffs |
| The NBA Playoffs is basketball at its finest. However, it is sort of odd how interest sort of drops off the deeper you get into the playoffs. For some reason, two games a night for two straight weeks during the first and second rounds .... exhausted, grind, glad I live in the central time zone. |
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| 4 Superbowl Ads |
| While the internet has sort of taken the punch out the ad game with all the "sneak previews" and pre-releases online, there is still nothing like watching Superbowl ads with a room full of people. Suddenly, everybody turns into a professional ad critic and has a knee jerk critique ready to go the moment the ad is complete. |
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| 3 BCS Bowl Week |
| In spite of the whole BCS format being totally bogus, the succession of nights where you have huge college football games running back to back is a lot of fun. The BCS would probably have ranked higher if it had not caused the destruction of what used to be the best TV day of the year - New Years Day. Still, the post-midnight drama created in the 4th quarter of these games that the teams have had over a month to prepare for is second to none... well almost... keep reading. |
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| 2 Baseball Playoffs |
| While there are fewer games than during the NBA Playoffs, the Baseball Playoffs require a much bigger time commitment. So much so that when they are finally over, you find yourself wandering around in the evenings wondering what you used to do with the 4 hours a night before the playoffs began. |
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| 1 March Madness |
| It's not even close here folks. Every year, March Madness on CBS is the best thing on tv. Regardless of whether or not you have a dog in the fight, those first two rounds over a four day period make for the best drama around as, for some odd reason, the underdogs somehow surprise us year in and year out. And while the coverage may have been a little better back in the ESPN days in the late 80's, the overall production has greatly improved since CBS took over and has helped make March Madness what it is today - the best thing on TV. |
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