Twenty-four hours.  Out of all the 365 days in the year, on only one day are no professional or major collegiate games contested.  This seeming aberration is no anomaly; in fact, it provides a perfect snapshot of the sports landscape.  It suggests the possibility – nay, the immense probability – of one overriding force controlling the sports universe, the ruling of the unwitting (fanatic) masses by a cunning, omnipotent – and benevolent – despot.

Hmm . . .

Step back from your favorite player, team, and sport for a moment.  Did you ever stop to consider that after the Super Bowl and farcical Pro Bowl. it is no coincidence that pitchers and catchers report a mere two weeks later?  And such spacing is not just there for these two sports – it is consistently precise.  So exact, in fact, it almost appears as if one supracommissioner actually runs all of sports – at all levels.  Let me explain.  

At the year’s onset, football – the doomed Bowl Championship Series, professional playoff positioning and its subsequent postseason – dominate the sports scene.  Back on the college hardwood, conference play is just getting under way, while some place warm, baseball’s Winter Meetings are usually heating up the Hot Stove. 

And throughout the cold winter months, the NBA – and skating at full speed once again, the NHL – continue to trudge along, making slow but distinct progress through their laborious regular season schedules.

The groundhog ushers in Spring Training and – if he doesn’t scurry to his subterranean stronghold after seeing his shadow as media mogul Punxsutawney Phil did yesterday – witnesses the first glimpse of intra-squad games.  Yet it is not until March that the more inclusive inter-variety appears and, of course, the Madness in college basketball builds to a maniacally crazy crescendo. 

Yet the fervor and excitement is just beginning with the March thaw.  In April, a month saturated in renewal, promise, and invariably its fair share of drama, champions are crowned.  College basketball captures the first spring hardware while its older, taller, wealthier brethren embark on their much more time-consuming trek toward basketball greatness.

While NFL execs are meticulously poring over computerized printouts of body fat, 40-yard dash times, and Wonderlic scores in small, temperature controlled, windowless offices, on icy pond, the Frozen Four proves a fitting (solstice) cap to the collegiate year.  Though their own mission is complete, that to which they aspire – the NHL – has just taken the first slippery steps on the ultimate quest – the two month-long all-out-war for the Holy Grail of sports: Lord Stanley’s Cup. 

Outside, the warm dawn of spring has arrived with baseball’s Opening Day.

While May’s highlights are limited to Major League Baseball’s first inter-league games of the year, the Indy 500, and the most decorated leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, June ushers in tennis on clay and crowns two new professional champions. 

With the pennant races starting to take shape, July sees tennis’ venue shift across the Channel to greener pastures, hosts baseball’s Midsummer Classic (now with much at stake) and – for all of those crazy football fans – ushers in the beginning of training camps. 

Augustus’ month brings similar tidings but also offers up one irreplaceable thing: your fantasy football draft.  Few days of the year bring more excitement than the jour your principle – preferably keeper – league gavels into session.

September rivals March as the greatest of all sports months – especially in the fantasy realm.  With the pennant race in full swing, fantasy baseball enters its own playoff or – for the most adept of managers – the final weeks of the marathon encapsulating rotisserie baseball.  Of course, with the first week of the ninth month of the year, the NFL kicks off as well.  Seeing your hand-picked team first take the field is always a proud moment.

On the ice, college hockey faces off in October as the NHL season also begins anew.  The NBA’s first jump ball usually coincides with Halloween, while both amateur and professional gridironers gird to face formidable – and often conference – foes each week.

But baseball is king in October.  The World Series, the most historic and fascinating of championships, takes center stage here.  Ironically playing the most warm-weather of sports in often frigid conditions just heightens the drama where role players become legends, stars goats, and – with the entire world watching – a city is changed forever.

This makes the cold chill of November even tougher to bear.  Though some big college football games dot the horizon and Thanksgiving Day football – as well the constant jostling for playoff position – rarely disappoint, most of the month is consumed by a barren sports landscape, both drab and depressing.

The month of December makes amends.  They say the NFL season never ends.  The same can be said of fantasy sports.  For back in Fantasyland, the ultimate test – the moment you have spent your entire fantasy career fighting for – is now at hand.  With the properly assembled team, the right match-ups, and the fantasy gods at your side, you’ll be celebrating – read boasting – about your championship . . . until baseball starts.

So you see, all sports – and their fantasy adjuncts – are sovereign pieces to the broader, immaculate puzzle: a mosaic with something for all, every component playing its own often dramatic role, for you, the fan.  Pessimists would call this a conspiracy and harangue the network executives for hijacking – and then monopolizing – the sports we grew up on, learned from, and now use to teach our kids – the intrinsic fabric of our country. 

I, though, prefer a different, more philanthropic rationale.  One where all parties agree to be part of the whole, a solider in the athletic army, a loyal and dutiful servant of the one, all-knowing commissioner of commissioners, the one all who dare utter his name, simply refer to as ‘The Man.’ 

He can be reached via email at nicholas.wood@atomicsportsmedia.com.