Category: Sports Forecast

What should I watch at the Olympics on Thu, Aug 11?

The Olympics are here! The Olympics are here!

Now, what should I watch? It’s a universal question with a personal answer. I can’t tell you for sure what you’ll enjoy the most, but I can tell you what I think the best, most interesting events of the day are going to be. Listen to the podcast and follow along with the abridged schedule below. If you want to see a full schedule, check out today’s schedule and tomorrow’s schedule on Dear Sports Fan. If you’re on a phone, this Google Sheets link is your best bet.

Let me know if you enjoy what you see and hear and please, if you have a question as you’re watching, email dearsportsfan@gmail.com and I will reply!

What should I watch at the Olympics on Wed, Aug 10?

The Olympics are here! The Olympics are here!

Now, what should I watch? It’s a universal question with a personal answer. I can’t tell you for sure what you’ll enjoy the most, but I can tell you what I think the best, most interesting events of the day are going to be. Listen to the podcast and follow along with the abridged schedule below. If you want to see a full schedule, check out today’s schedule and tomorrow’s schedule on Dear Sports Fan. If you’re on a phone, this Google Sheets link is your best bet.

Let me know if you enjoy what you see and hear and please, if you have a question as you’re watching, email dearsportsfan@gmail.com and I will reply!

What should I watch at the Olympics on Tue, Aug 9?

The Olympics are here! The Olympics are here!

Now, what should I watch? It’s a universal question with a personal answer. I can’t tell you for sure what you’ll enjoy the most, but I can tell you what I think the best, most interesting events of the day are going to be. Listen to the podcast and follow along with the abridged schedule below. If you want to see a full schedule, check out today’s schedule and tomorrow’s schedule on Dear Sports Fan. If you’re on a phone, this Google Sheets link is your best bet.

Let me know if you enjoy what you see and hear and please, if you have a question as you’re watching, email dearsportsfan@gmail.com and I will reply!

What should I watch at the Olympics on Sun, Aug 7?

The Olympics are here! The Olympics are here!

Now, what should I watch? It’s a universal question with a personal answer. I can’t tell you for sure what you’ll enjoy the most, but I can tell you what I think the best, most interesting events of the day are going to be. Listen to the podcast and follow along with the abridged schedule below. If you want to see a full schedule, check out today’s schedule and tomorrow’s schedule on Dear Sports Fan. If you’re on a phone, this Google Sheets link is your best bet.

 

Let me know if you enjoy what you see and hear and please, if you have a question as you’re watching, email dearsportsfan@gmail.com and I will reply!

How to plan for the week of Mar 14 – 20, 2016

If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.

For full coverage of all the NHL and NBA games, see our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Tuesday: The hockey game between the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers is not single elimination, like the play in games to the men’s NCAA Championship is, but it’s almost as big. These two teams are fighting for the last playoff spot in the east with only a dozen games remaining.

Wednesday: Soccer in the afternoon, basketball at night. What more could you want? Oh, right, silly question given what’s coming tomorrow…

Thursday: THE FIRST DAY OF MARCH MADNESS IS ONE OF THE BEST SPORTS DAYS OF THE YEAR!! FIND A WAY TO GET OFF OF WORK! OR STREAM THERE.

Friday: Date night! Which you will, of course, spend watching the second 16 games of March Madness. Some years, these are even better than the first. Sip wine as your bracket gets totally busted.

Saturday: You’ve seen all the teams once, now you get to watch the winners from the first two days play each other. Some of your favorites will be eliminated. Sad times. Some of your favorites will move on, fun times!

Sunday: Mix a little bit of Manchester vs. Manchester soccer and Crosby vs. Ovechkin hockey into the last day of the first weekend of March Madness, and you’ve got a superlative Sunday of sports.

Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.

How to plan for the week of Mar 7 – 13, 2016

If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.

For full coverage of all the NHL and NBA games, see our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Monday: As is the trend this week, the majority of our sports action today is in college basketball, both men’s and women’s. Two minor men’s conference championship games and two major women’s championship games lead the way.

Tuesday: Sticking its nose into the college basketball party is Champions League soccer. Real Madrid come into their game against Roma knowing that the only thing that can eliminate them is a loss by two or more goals. This could lead to a boring, defensive game from some teams, but Real Madrid seems constitutionally unable to resist putting on a show. Back at home, there are a few more college basketball championship games, including the women’s Big East finals.

Wednesday: The two Champions League matches on TV today are less star-studded than yesterday’s but significantly closer. Chelsea hosts PSG knowing that a 1-0 win is enough to advance. A similar situation holds in Russia for the Zenit vs. Benfica match where Benfica holds a 1-0 aggregate lead. Of more interest, perhaps, to many American soccer fans is a friendly match between the U.S. women’s national team and Germany in the SheBelieves Cup. This is a rematch of the 2015 World Cup semifinals which the U.S. won 2-0.

Thursday: The Europa League doesn’t have the cache of the Champions League but when giant English teams like Liverpool and Manchester United are involved, it still feels like a big deal. Closer to home, the Los Angeles Lakers don’t have any cache anymore, which is why I’ve been holding their games off the sports calendar for most of the year. But you know what? The week after they became only the sixth team all season to beat the Golden State Warriors, they deserve to be here.

Friday: Date night! Are you in a college basketball relationship? If so, you’re in luck. If not, maybe bank some good favor and have a non-sports related date tonight. March Madness is coming soon…

Saturday: There are a flurry of men’s college basketball conference championships today. All of them are worth watching but counter-intuitively, it’s sometimes the ones from the smaller leagues that are the most fun. Leagues that only get one or two spots in the overall NCAA tournament, really raise the stakes of their championship games.

Sunday: Sunday is always a great sporting day, but it does feel a little like we’re just killing time here, waiting for the next big thing to start happening.

Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.

How to plan for the week of Feb 29 – March 6, 2016

If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.

For full coverage of all the NHL and NBA games, see our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Monday: The New York Rangers will be debuting their new toy, former long-time captain of the Carolina Hurricanes who they traded for this weekend.

Tuesday: The Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby and Washington Capitals Alexander Ovechkin have been rivals for a decade now. This year, Ovechkin is the leader of the by far the best team during the regular season so far. Still, when he looks in his trophy cabinet, he’s missing the two biggest prizes, the Stanley Cup and Olympic Gold, both of which Crosby has. Every time these teams meet, it’s worth watching.

Wednesday: It’s time to start scouting men’s college basketball teams for March Madness. Keep an eye on Miami, who could make or break your bracket. Watch them play against Notre Dame tonight.

Thursday: Around this time of the year, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team is usually in Portugal playing in the Algarve Cup. This year, taking advantage of the attention from last year’s World Cup, the U.S. team organized a new exhibition/tournament in the United States with three of the other top five teams in the world: France, Germany, and tonight’s opponent, England.

Friday: Date night! Spice up your ordinary Friday night date with some Rugby Sevens — the fastest sport (played with an oblong ball) on two feet!

Saturday: Duke and North Carolina is the greatest men’s college basketball rivalry and they just played a doozy of a game a few weeks ago. Expect the rematch to be twice as intense and hope for it to be half as close.

Sunday: Major League Soccer begins its 2016 schedule today but it’s women sports that are going to steal the day. Two championship games in college basketball and another USWNT game should draw more eyes than anything else today.

Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.

How to plan for the week of Feb 22 – 28, 2016

If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.

For full coverage of all the NHL and NBA games, see our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Tuesday: All hail the Champions League. No, really, if you enjoy soccer, you’ll want to watch the game today. Barcelona is the world’s most fun offensive soccer team and Arsenal should pose just enough of a challenge to them to make them sweat a little. Columbus, Ohio is the closest NHL city to Detroit, so the Red Wings and Blue Jackets should eventually have a pretty good rivalry. Tonight could be the day it starts developing. In men’s college basketball, the second best team in the country, the Kansas Jayhawks, travel to Baylor to play the 19th ranked Bears.

Wednesday: Here’s a tiny piece of trivia that I find endlessly interesting: the common Eastern European soccer club name, “Dynamo” is left over from when government agencies sponsored the teams and refers to a team sponsored by the secret police. Dynamo Kiev takes on Manchester City in the Champions league. In men’s college basketball, number 1 ranked Villanova plays at number five ranked Xavier in what, by the numbers, should be the best game of the week. There’s also a double-header of NHL games on NBCSN with the first game a doozy between two teams who think of themselves as championship contenders but are struggling to make the playoffs, the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Thursday: The Nashville Predators fans feel their team is consistently one piece away from winning a Stanley Cup. Usually, it’s the Chicago Blackhawks who have that piece. As such, games between these teams get heated. In the NBA, there’s an excellent double-header on TNT. The first game in particular, pits three of the most elementally great basketball players in the league against each other.

Friday: Date night! If you’re a brainy couple, you might be interested in Harvard vs. Yale’s men’s college basketball game. If you’re hockeyish, you might enjoy the men’s college hockey game between Notre Dame and Boston University. If you’re date-less, settle down to watch an NBA double-header because there’s really no reason to plan a date around a mid-season NBA game.

Saturday: Soccer and basketball, basketball and soccer. If I had to choose one game in each sport to watch, I’d pick the battle of Madrid in soccer and Oklahoma City vs. Golden State in basketball. Plan accordingly.

Sunday: The NHL game today is a great one. The Washington Capitals are having the best regular season in memory. The Chicago Blackhawks are as close to a dynasty as we get in the modern NHL era. It’s regular season greatness vs. proven playoff ability and the game probably means a lot to both teams.

Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.

How to plan for the week of Feb 8 – 14, 2016

If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.

For full coverage of all the NHL and NBA games, see our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Monday: Whoops, didn’t get this posted in time. I guess there must not have been any sports today, right?!

Tuesday: The FA Cup starts to get real when teams you’ve actually heard of start playing each other. Liverpool is having a disappointing year in the EPL, so they’ll be wanting to take a run at winning this tournament. Talking about tournaments, now that the Super Bowl is over, the next giant event on the sports calendar is March Madness. Get a preview of four good men’s teams tonight on ESPN and ESPN2.

Wednesday: The biggest story, really the only story of the day is HOW THE HECK THE WORLD CHAMPION U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM’S OLYMPIC QUALIFYING GAME AGAINST COSTA RICA IS NOT ON NORMAL TELEVISION.

Thursday: Get your fill of a couple of winter sports with the luge world championships and snowboarding from historic Fenway Park. Then watch the last competitive NBA game for more than a week.

Friday: Date night! Set yourself up for a good Valentine’s Day weekend and give sports a miss. Nothing much to see here anyway, unless you’re an obsessive NBA fan.

Saturday: Even more ridiculous than not televising the USWNT on Wednesday against Costa Rica is missing their Olympic Qualifying game against Mexico today. It’s really wretched. Luckily, there are other fun things to watch, including a great men’s college basketball game, the U.S. Olympic men’s and women’s marathon qualifying race, and the NBA skills competition including the underrated three-point competition and the over-rated dunk competition.

Sunday: No more football until the late summer. Shucks. Make do with some golf (although, error alert, not the golf that’s listed,) soccer, competitive college basketball and exhibition professional basketball, and NHL Hockey.

Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.

How to plan for the week of Feb 1 – 7, 2016

If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.

For full coverage of all the NHL and NBA games, see our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Monday: Duke and North Carolina are two of the biggest names in college basketball. We’ve got both of them tonight, but not playing each other and not in the same gendered competition. At six, you can catch the Duke women taking on the #3 ranked team, Notre Dame. An hour later, the North Carolina men’s team plays against the Louisville Cardinals.

Tuesday: The British Premier League schedule remains mysterious to me, but I’m happy to take great day-time soccer whenever it appears. This game between Liverpool and the shocking first place Leicester City is worth sneaking out of work to watch. At night, you have a choice between an NHL game between the top two teams in the Eastern conference and a matchup of top 25 men’s college basketball teams.

Wednesday: More soccer, just not quite as good as yesterday, and more hockey, just not quite as good as yesterday. If you can stay up to watch it, the young and exciting Minnesota Timberwolves have a rare appearance on national television.

Thursday: All’s quiet on the sports front. At least it is until a late-night clash of southern Californian hockey teams. The game between the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks will be plenty noisy.

Friday: Date night! Schedule early or late depending on if you want to catch some hockey, basketball, or international men’s soccer. Also, make sure you think about whether your date will want to watch with you!

Saturday: It’s the day before the Super Bowl. This means, that it’s a pretty good day to take a brief vacation from sports if you live with non-sports fans. If you’re in a all-sports-fan household, then you do have a large number of options. Leicester City vs. Manchester City is a massive breakfast soccer game and the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder is a fantastic dessert basketball game.

Sunday: It’s Super Bowl Sunday!! Everything else pales in comparison. Note that I somehow switched the NHL and NBA games on the calendar — the Washington Capitals play the Philadelphia Flyers before the Los Angeles Clippers take on the Miami Heat. You’ll be cooking in preparation for your Super Bowl party either way, but at least now you’re fully informed.

Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.