Best Days in Sports

What a phenomenal day of upsets yesterday/last night! Lower seeds won six games, including 13/4 (Murray State over Vandy) and 14/3 (Ohio over Georgetown) upsets. They also took things to OT (Nova over Robert Morris) and 2OT (BYU over Florida) and kept them close in regulation (Tennessee by three over SDSU and New Mexico by five over Montana). With potential upsets on the docket today in Siena vs. Purdue, Utah State vs. Texas A&M, Georgia Tech vs. Oklahoma State and Cornell vs. Temple, this could be another epic day of Madness.

That got me thinking, what the best sports days of the year are. Here are my (and Lube Tube's) picks and reasons, in no order whatsoever:

March Madness Day 1

I made most of my point in the opening paragraph, but it may very well be the best day of the year for sports. If I were to tell you there'd be 16 games in 12 hours that most of which will probably be very interesting and down to the wire, is that something you'd be interested in? Of course you would be. It's a great day and I'm taking a half-day on Day 2 (Friday) of the Dance to soak it in.

March Madness Day 2

See above.

MLB Opening Day

Hope springing eternal here again, even for fans of the Royals, Orioles and Pirates (OK, maybe not the Pirates). A full slate of games, most of which are in the daytime. It's a perfect day to skip school/work and head down to the local ballpark. Your team's ace is on the mound and you get to see the new players for the very first time. It's a day when even the Nationals can be in first place.

NFL First Sunday

America's favorite sport kicks off every September and men and women from all over paint their chests and tailgate and watch other men continually run full speed into each other. We've waited all summer, sat through the Pro Bowl, the draft, mini-camps and pre-season all for this.

Sunday at The Masters

Augusta, the sun peeking through trees, Green Jacket on the line, the chance to see golf history, the no-women-allowed policy. What's not to love? Golf is normally the best sport for napping to, but Sunday at Augusta is magical, especially when it's close or there's a new guy involved.

New Year's Day

College football was running this day for decades until the NHL poked its head in and said "We're going to throw a rink in a ballpark and sell it out in an hour. How you doin'? Oh, and we're going to use Original Six teams or classic rivalries and it'll probably snow." This day went from an 8 to a 10 in short order. Good work, Gary Bettman (that sounds weird to say).

NFL Draft Day 1

Now that it's being done during primetime, my opinion might change since you won't get a full day of picks and the whole event is stretched out to a long weekend. Historically, it's been a great day, where hope springs eternal for most, if not all, of the teams and you get to find out more about a player than you ever cared to know, watch their family go wild when they get picked and see some awful suits.

Thanksgiving

Three football games you get to watch with friends and family when you're full of food. It's about as American as you can get. And I love me some 'Merica.

Kentucky Derby Saturday

Women in large hats and sundresses, mint juleps, whiskey, a crazy two minutes and the chance that this will happen. Spring really hits its stride on Derby weekend as far as MITM is concerned.

Awesome, but Don't Happen Every Year

Opening ceremonies for Summer and Winter Olympics, World Cup Final, last day of the Olympics (usually the hockey/basketball finals are then).

Honorable Mentions

NCAA Men's Basketball championship, NFL conference championship Sunday, Labor Day (baseball and college football), Opening Night (NBA and NHL), Christmas (two big NBA games and a bowl game), NBA Draft, the day of Game 1 of The Finals/World Series/Stanley Cup, Indy 500 day and July 1, 2010.

What are your thoughts/favorite days?