Boxed In: Best Month: April vs. September
What's the best month of the year if you're a sports fan? Well, aside from every month before March 2020. It's a simple question with a not so simple answer. Matt Harmon, Hannah Keyser & Jay Busbee debate two of the top contenders on today's Boxed In. Is it April, with The Masters, the NBA and NHL playoffs and the optimism that comes with the start of baseball season? Or is it September, when the NFL and college football roll into town and the MLB wraps up its regular season with meaningful baseball every night? Watch or listen to Boxed In every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Yahoo Sports, YouTube or on your podcast provider of choice. Subscribe: https://apple.co/39UC09o https://spoti.fi/3aVpV56
Video Transcript
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MATT HARMON: Welcome to another episode of "Boxed In," our Yahoo Sports podcast where while we're all boxed in, literally, at home, we've decided that the most healthy way to get through this together is by arguing with each other. So on today's episode and doing that, I, Matt Harmon, am joined by two of my Yahoo Sports colleagues, Jay Busbee and Hannah Keyser, who will be helping us decide what is the best month? And I know we're going to take into factors like the sports calendar and the weather, which is great that you guys have me judging this as someone that lives in LA. I'm an expert on all types of weather and seasons.
So today, Jay, I think I'm going to let you start off here and present your case for the month of April.
JAY BUSBEE: All right, I would like to begin, your honor, by asking that we exclude April 2020 from our discussions because I cannot possibly defend this in any way. If we start with 2019 and work back, April is the month that spring truly begins. And Hannah may disagree with me depending on what weather is like where she is, but where I am, April is where the warmth comes in. You can get out on the porch. She can drink a beer. You can kick back. The summer's not here yet roasting you. To me, we'll start with the weather, and it's just an absolutely perfect month.
HANNAH KEYSER: I'm going to resist the urge to immediately rebuttal and immediately--
[LAUGHTER]
--and immediately say that you have to disclude the current month we're living in. I don't even-- I didn't even want to go there, coronavirus. I'm just saying there was no coronavirus in September. But I thought about recording this podcast outside just so you could see how bad the weather is in April.
But before we get there, I will make an argument in favor of September. Now September gets a bad rap in your brain because we associate it with going back to school. But what are we, children? Please, grow the F up. And remember, September is a great month that underpromises and overdelivers. And as far as school calendars are concerned, I am pretty sure that unloading your kids on the government for eight hours a day is actually a benefit in terms of months.
It is truly the perfect month. It is September weather but without the sense that summer is slipping-- sorry. It is summer weather without the sense that summer is slipping away because it already has. Post Labor Day, you're back at work, which also tanned, rested, and ready to tackle the last productive chunk of the year while still taking advantage of, like, perfect outside temperatures on the actual weekends without the, like, weird pressure of August and everyone going away all the time. It's perfect.
JAY BUSBEE: Here's where I need to-- I mean, if we're going to throw this back and forth, here's where I need to have Hannah come down. Come watch a Braves game in September because oh my god, Summer has not left. Summer where I am is hanging around like a house guest that just won't get the hell out of the house. So this is where we're going to go back and forth. It's going to be fun.
MATT HARMON: Yeah, again, I don't know if we need to talk about weather, you know, because--
HANNAH KEYSER: Weather's such a big deal in New York though. Like I pulled facts for this. The average temperature in Central Park-- April, 55 degrees; September, 70 degrees. Which would you rather be sitting outside a baseball game at?
JAY BUSBEE: There's baseball in Central Park?
HANNAH KEYSER: Well, there's baseball in New York.
JAY BUSBEE: I know. I know. No, Matt-- Matt, go ahead. Pull us out of this weather spiral before we go any further down this hole.
MATT HARMON: Yeah, I mean, the reality is, again, just from, like, a pure personal standpoint, I can't relate to any of this weather talk that we're having right now because today looks the same as two weeks ago, and it'll look the same two weeks from now.
So I get it. Those are good, compelling arguments, but I think Hannah brought up a good point about the school system here in particular because, look, again, yeah, I'm totally with you, Hannah. Children grow up. School is good for you in the long run. Maybe be a little forward thinking here. Also I got to think too, like, most parents at this point would be dying to send their kids the hell out of the house now that they're stuck with them. So that's a good point.
But I do want to transition to the sports-calendar part of it because both of these are two pretty central sports months, and especially in a normal world. So let's take that out of it. Let's-- Hannah, talk to me about September and what would normally be going on in the month of September.
HANNAH KEYSER: Well, the big thing is you get baseball playoff races, which takes the best part of baseball-- the omnipresence, it's on all the time-- and amps up the stakes. So there are some meaningful sports games on every single night. And sure, some teams are effectively out of it, but from a, like, sheer mass-appeal perspective, you get the most number of people getting to watch the most number of meaningful sports games every week or every night or every month or every September. And also football, NFL and college, is on if you care about that, but I don't.
MATT HARMON: I care a lot about it, so--
[LAUGHTER]
JAY BUSBEE: Yeah, I was going to say, don't be so quick. I might even make your argument for you there if you're going to add in NFL and college football.
HANNAH KEYSER: So you're saying that that would be a point in favor of September.
JAY BUSBEE: I am willing-- I am willing to concede that it is fun watching football in September. Yes, I will concede that point.
MATT HARMON: Well, now that you've conceded that point and, you know, given a little bit of credit to your opponent here, give me some-- give me some appeal to April. What are we hyped about? We're still in April, and obviously it's not normal, but what would we be normally hyped right now?
JAY BUSBEE: What better day in sports is there than opening day? Hannah, come on. You've got to agree with me this. There is no better day in sports than opening day of the baseball season. Every team is tied with one another for the playoff race. Every team has hope. Of course, half of them bail out after the first day, but you know what I'm talking about. Not only that--
HANNAH KEYSER: Jay, do you know what day opening day was scheduled for this year?
JAY BUSBEE: I know. I know. I know. I know. I know--
HANNAH KEYSER: March 26.
JAY BUSBEE: I know it was March-- I know. I know. I'm talking traditions here. I'm also going to flip that around and say that March Madness ends in April, so I'm going to take credit for that too, all right?
Yes, I know precisely by the calendar we don't have-- it's ridiculous. Baseball now backs up to March. It's going to back up even further. But for right now, I'm going with opening day or at least the opening weeks of the season. I think we can concede that.
Not only that, NCAA championship ends in April. Even though it's March Madness, it always ends in April.
Right after that, you've got the Masters. Again, whether or not you care about golf, a lot of people do. It's an amazing event. It's one of the landmarks in the country.
And then one that Matt I think will enjoy very much, the NFL draft. That was this past weekend. That's always in April. Yes, it means nothing in terms of game scores, but it's a chance for NFL fans to have hope and faith and prayer.
And then finally, you've got the NHL and the NBA playoffs starting. That's a whole lot of sports all packed into one month.
HANNAH KEYSER: If you want to talk about quantity in sports though-- so I sort of breezed through football, both professional and college, but we got kids going back to school. In terms of playing sports, September is when all the college athletes get back. All these sports that maybe you or I don't care about, kids, they're getting back to their teams. They're getting back to their whatever-- their squash and their gymnastics or whatever it is they're doing in the NCAA. But that is-- that is-- again, if we're talking mass appeal and sheer numbers, I got to say there are more college kids who play sports in fall than there are people who care about the NHL playoffs.
MATT HARMON: I think you both have a good argument with quality-- I mean quality and quantity. I think you guys both have good arguments with quantity. That's for sure.
I will, if I could, peel back your baseball arguments here, and I think this is important to the larger point, which is, number one, Hannah, yours is a cold, hard reality that I actually really like, which is, look, you're right. Not every team is involved, but the teams that matter are involved. And that speaks to me personally because in covering the NFL, it gets to about November and I don't want to talk about the damn Giants anymore, those teams that just, they don't matter. They haven't mattered in months. So I like that.
Jay though, it's a pure optimistic play, which is, look, this is the beginning of the baseball season. We're in the origins here where everybody theoretically has hope, and I like that too.
Now, I think you guys have made good, compelling arguments about weather. You've made good, compelling arguments about the sports calendar. And I want to open it up to pretty much anything else that you have, and I want to-- I want to specifically tease out clothing because there's fall fashion. There's spring fashion at play here. And you could argue that one is better than the other. So kind of give me your sort of closing arguments in terms of the other things that are appealing about your months.
HANNAH KEYSER: All right, well, I alluded to this idea that September is kind of the like extra-- the extra summer. It's the summer after the summer. It's the summer when you're no longer on vacation, but you're getting summer weather for dressing.
You're also getting the benefits of having been out enjoying the sun. So you're looking good. You've been having fun all summer. You've gotten tan. You've gotten fit. Now you get to, like, show off. You're back in the city. You're back at work. You're back taking your life seriously but with the benefits of getting to wear dresses or short sleeves or sandals or whatever it is. Don't wear sandals in the city. It's disgusting.
[LAUGHTER]
I want to take some quick shots at April before I round out my closing arguments, which is just to say that, look, I understand that April gets a little bit of, like, an added boost because it comes at the end of the roughest month in the calendar. It is definitely a relief to get to April. I understand that.
It's true in terms of baseball. You've had the long offseason. And it's true in terms of weather. So we can apply that to both the sports and the weather. You really don't want the best thing about your month to be the fact that it's not February anymore.
And also, what is the one thing we know about April? April showers bring May flowers. It is part of the selling pitch of April that this [BLEEP] weather will pay off eventually in some other different month down the line.
[LAUGHTER]
You should have just gone with May. And in conclusion, please wake me up when September starts. I do not want to miss the best month.
JAY BUSBEE: You set me up there for the famous Green Day song, but I'm going to let that one slide, and I'm going to make a couple of points in favor of April that I think will sway my case. Number one, who was born in April? Robert Downey Jr. and Emma Watson. We got Iron Man. We got Hermione. We got both of them. We got Leonardo da Vinci and we got Eddie Murphy. The birth stone of April, the diamond, the most valuable stone-- birthstone of any month of the year. And finally, Apple is big enough to include both April Fool's Day, which is a terrible day on the internet but a wonderful day in your house, and also Earth Day, which everybody can agree is probably a day that we ought to be celebrating a little more than we are.
MATT HARMON: I don't know. I feel like this-- I feel like Earth on this particular Earth Day was like hey, please, stay the hell away from me, all right.
JAY BUSBEE: Exactly.
[LAUGHTER]
MATT HARMON: I'm enjoying a break.
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MATT HARMON: I'm enjoying a break from you guys. I mean, I can see, like, you know, very much farther than I normally could in this city. I will tell you that.
Well, you both have made really compelling arguments, but I am ready to give my verdict as to who think I made the best case, and I am going with September.
HANNAH KEYSER: Yes!
MATT HARMON: I'm going with Hannah here. I think her sports calender-- look, maybe I'm being a little biased here because I love the NFL. I love college football. I love that whole situation. But I think that's a good start of it.
I love the part about it's the conclusion of the baseball season, not just because then, you know, it's over, but also it's when the two-- the two best teams will eventually meet up. It's when everything kind of comes to a head. You know, you've got baseball playoffs, like you said. I think that's a great part of it.
And, look, I thought actually really where you sold me, Hannah, was the dig on April with the April showers part of it because I hate the rain. It doesn't rain very often in my city, but I have two dogs. And when it does rain, I still got to get my ass out in the rain. That was a very key point.
Jay, any closing words here from you in terms of how wronged you feel, this, that, or the other?
JAY BUSBEE: Well, I was going to invite you both because I'm looking out the window now, and it's about 72 degrees and blue skies. And I was going to both invite you both to have a drink on my porch, but we'll have to do it virtually.
MATT HARMON: All right, we'll all get out on our porches and, like, we'll fire up another Google Hangout or something. We'll do that a different time.
But thank you guys both so much for presenting-- it actually was a very tough decision. Honestly, I came in here unclear if I liked either of these months, and now--
HANNAH KEYSER: We got to know, what was your favorite month? What month would you have argued for?
MATT HARMON: I would have gone with October because I'm a fall--
JAY BUSBEE: That's a solid choice.
MATT HARMON: I'm a fall guy. Again, I don't really care about other sports beyond football. It's a good month of football season. You got Halloween in there. November was-- it was either October or November. You get to throw-- you get to start throwing the flannel on. It's an exciting time.
HANNAH KEYSER: I do love-- I do love the baseball postseason in October, and I considered it. It just gets so dominated by Halloween. You can't have a whole month where you're wearing orange and black.
MATT HARMON: I mean, black is very slimming, so I like to go with the black--
[LAUGHTER]
--especially after-- especially after the quarantine. I might really just, like, go transition to all black. But, you know, hey, everybody's got their opinions. And let us know. Get us on social media. Let us know what your favorite month is. And, of course, make sure you're still tuning into "Boxed In" every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts, and you can find us on YouTube. You can find us on yahoosports.com.
Thank you, Jay. Thank you, Hannah, for joining me. And everyone else out there, continue to listen, and we'll see you later.
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