Since the NFL season is about to end, I thought I'd put this question here. It could have gone under Pro Basketball, Hockey or Baseball.

And the question is which league's season seems the longest, not which season is calender-wise, the longest.

[ January 26, 2004, 01:41 PM: Message edited by: PCC ]

It has to be baseball. The season is so long it's rediculous.

Since it's my poll, I absolutely have to be the first to vote for baseball. Not only does the baseball season seem to be the longest, it is the longest by the calendar. The pitchers go into Spring Training in February and the World Series ends at the end of October. And let's not forget the Hot Stove part of the year, especially this year, when they're not actually playing but still sucking out the oxygen of sports conversation!

I voted for baseball because the season is so ridiculously long... and that's just the REGULAR season. It's a mind-numbing 162 games. On top of that, there are 30 spring training games, pitchers and catchers reporting, then the World Series champs can potentially end up playing 19 games more if each series goes the maximum number of games. That's a total of 211 games for anyone who's keeping track.

The NFL's seems the shortest, both in total number of games (Up to 25 if the Super Bowl champion plays one of the early preseason games and is a wild card entrant) and in the calendar. Personally, I get football withdrawal that Arena Football just can't satisfy. The first one or two games of any Arena Football season are flat-out unwatchable.

Hockey: The season ends in mid June and training camp starts in Sept., the shortest offseason of all. Hockey should start Dec. 1 and the Stanley Cup Finals should be over by May 1. Hockey is a winter sport.

Baseball's season has gotten bad with the additional round of playoffs.

The NBA doesn't count until April. Anyone who buys a ticket to an NBA game in Jan. or Feb. is getting ripped off since you never know if the players are coming to play that night or not.

The NFL has it just about right, as long as it doesn't expand the postseason. They were smart in starting the week after Labor Day. The exhibition season needs to be shortened to 2 games.

Baseball is my favorite major sport so the season doesn't "seem" too long to me, however when I think about them playing in near-freezing temps at the beginning and the end of the season, with the hottest of hot weather in the middle... well, it does seem long.

Basketball is supposed to be a winter sport, but the NBA goes until June! It seems like an eternity. I'm biased against pro basketball though; can't stand it.

Football seems about right, but it seems weird that the first games may be in 100-degree heat (especially pre-season), and then it gets into the dead of winter.

Baseball is the only one that spans all four seasons, starts in winter, plays through spring and summer and ends in fall. I mean, I'll give them starting in February but the 7th game of the World Series should be no later than Labor Day.

Basketball and hockey come close but both of them just miss summer.

Football is the only clearly 3 season sport, coming nowhere near spring. NFL football, that is.

[ January 27, 2004, 10:59 AM: Message edited by: PCC ]

Hockey has to "seem" the longest to me; but that's probably because I don't follow it. The baseball season lasts basically 3/4 of the year, but since I follow it every night the time seems to go by faster (especially when you are a Dodger fan hoping they can catch the Giants). Following on the heels of baseball, the football season is kind of a downer because you have to wait so long between games. Other than that, the rest of my year is spent following college basketball.

I voted for basketball, although I was also considering hockey. I love baseball so the season doesn't seem too long to me - besides, I can look forward to the change of seasons when the Phillies start playing at home.

Hockey and basketball always seemed like winter, indoor arena sports to me. Having playoff games in May or June seem way too late to be ending the season.

Though baseball has the longest season, it seems shorter than either hockey (my favorite sport) or basketball. Going to a game at Chavez Ravine in a pair of shorts or hanging out in the back yard with the game on the radio, the sun just going down during the fourth/fifth innings add to the shorter feeling of the baseball season. With winter's days being shorter and the games enclosed both basketball and hockey seasons seem longer. It's part of Charlie Brown's philosophy: "Summers fly, winters walk."

~Adam

I think the length of a season depends on how your team is doing. In a good year it seems like it flies by. In a pathetic year it never seems to end.

NBA, hands down. Not only is it practically year-round now, but the playoffs are so long and inclusive that they make the "regular" season utterly irrelevant. Between that and the current pathetic state of Da Bulls (which is actually kind of a relief from the watch-or-else climate of the '90s), I've lost all interest.

Baseball may be a long season, but at least they play most every day or at least 6 days a week. Sometimes basketball teams play as few as 2 games a week! The season would go a whole lot faster if they ensured everybody played 4 games per week every week!

Not familiar enough with hockey to know if it's the same type of scheduling, but I'd imagine it must be close given they play virtually the same number of games and each season lasts about the same number of weeks.

Both leagues playoff schedules are also ridiculous. They never play two nights in a row in the post season even if they don't have to travel. Hell sometimes the NBA will have 2 or 3 days off between games just so they can play on Friday or Saturday instead of Thursday! And the fact that they now play best of 7 in all rounds just makes it go even longer!