Am I the only one feeling the mid-June void in the sports calendar?
The high school sports seasons have all wrapped and won’t return until September. Unless of course the Rocky View Sports Association brass goes NFL on us and locks out the football players.
The NHL and NBA seasons are over. Congrats to the Dallas Mavericks for beating LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, the tall one from Michigan’s 1992 Fab Five team and some other guys.
Congrats to either the Boston Bruins or the Vancouver Canucks, as game seven was after press time. I’m predicting a Boston win.
Needless to say, I miss last June’s World Cup. Call me crazy, but I miss getting up at 5 a.m. to watch soccer. I miss the excitement. I even miss the vuvuzelaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas.
It’s rodeo season in Alberta, with Crossfield’s Pete Knight Days this weekend, the Airdrie Pro Rodeo June 28 to July 2 and the Calgary Stampede starting on July 8.
People seem to enjoy the thrill of bull riding, cowboy hats, big belt buckles and that whole thing. I like beer gardens.
The U.S. Open golf tournament will wrap up on June 19, but with far less fanfare than if Tiger Woods was involved. Quick, name five other professional golfers in less than 10 seconds.
Wimbledon commences in London on June 20. I’ll watch the final on July 3.
Moving on, two of my favourite sporting events of the year are on deck in less than two weeks.
The Tour de France begins July 2 and the Nathan’s (welcome to Airdrie by the way) Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island is July 4.
Major League Baseball’s all-star game is July 12, marking the six-week countdown to when I start paying attention to the baseball season.
The CONCACAF Gold Cup championship game is set for June 25, and yes I can already hear the ‘what’s the Gold Cup?’ questions.
It’s the North American soccer championship, similar to the Euro.
Canada is already out, after losing to the United States, beating Guadaloupe (yes they’re part of it) and drawing Panama, so you didn’t miss much.
At least it’s only 111 days until the new NHL season, 357 days until next summer’s Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine and only 1,092 days until the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
