There is something about September and October that has always felt different to me.
Maybe it is because I spent so much of my career around sports.
Or because I am still the guy who looks at a sports schedule and gets excited about what is coming next.
But mostly, I think it is because these two months do something that sports does better than almost anything else:
One season is ending just as another one is beginning.
Everything overlaps.
And for a sports fan, that can be pretty wonderful.
When I was at the Los Angeles Times, a September weekend had a rhythm to it.
Friday night might mean high school football. There was something special about those Friday nights. The players were local, the fans knew the families, and the marching bands, parents, grandparents and students made it a community event.
Saturday meant college football.
Sunday meant the NFL.
And somewhere in between, Major League Baseball was heading toward the finish of its regular season, with pennant races becoming more important every day.
I loved that rhythm.
At ESPN, the pace became even more intense. Games were happening everywhere, storylines were changing by the hour, and there was always the same question:
What matters most right now? It was exhausting, exciting, and I loved it.
September and October also take me back to my college years at Michigan.
I was there in the late 1970s, and fall Saturdays in Ann Arbor were about as good as college football gets.
The Big House. Tailgate parties. The band. The students. The crowd. The anticipation walking into the stadium.
And then the game.
On October 1, 1977, Michigan hosted No. 5 Texas A&M in front of more than 104,000 people. Michigan was ranked No. 3 and won 41–3.
Two weeks later, Michigan hosted undefeated and No. 14 Wisconsin and won 56–0.
Those games are part of what I remember about being a student at Michigan. I still follow Michigan football closely today. In fact, I'm currently the President of the University of Michigan Club of Southwest Florida, so our Game Watch parties give me another reason to pay close attention to what is happening in Ann Arbor.
What I remember most about September and October is the feeling of everything beginning to happen at once.
Baseball is moving toward the postseason. College football and the NFL are in full swing. The NHL and NBA seasons are getting started. College basketball teams are preparing for November.
And the sports calendar has become global.
Tennis has the US Open, the Billie Jean King Cup Finals and the Laver Cup. Golf has the Presidents Cup and the Solheim Cup. Soccer is being played across the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, MLS and USL. NASCAR is heading into its Cup Series playoffs.
And then there is women's sports, which has become an increasingly important part of the fall sports calendar. The WNBA playoffs and NWSL and WPBL seasons add to an already crowded schedule, while the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Berlin brought the world's best women's national teams together in September.
There are games everywhere, and eventually baseball takes over.
For a lifelong Yankees fan, October has always carried a little extra meaning.
I've been fortunate enough to experience some unforgettable World Series games at Yankee Stadium.
In 1996, I was there for Game 6 against the Atlanta Braves. The Yankees had lost the first two games at home, then won three straight in Atlanta to take a 3–2 lead.
Back in the Bronx, the Yankees scored three runs in the third. The Braves finally broke through in the eighth and made things very interesting in the ninth.
With two outs, Atlanta had the potential tying run on second. John Wetteland got Mark Lemke to pop up in foul territory on the third-base side. Charlie Hayes had already had one adventure. The pitch before, Lemke had hit a popup toward the Braves' dugout. Hayes chased after it, tumbled into the dugout and couldn't make the catch.
Now he had another chance.
This time, Hayes made the catch for the final out.
Yankees 3, Braves 2.
World Series champions.
The Yankees poured onto the field. The stadium erupted. Then Wade Boggs ended up riding a police horse around the field, celebrating the first World Series championship of his career.
It was one of those sports images that was almost too perfect to be real.
Two years later, I was back at Yankee Stadium for Game 1 of the 1998 World Series against the San Diego Padres. The Padres led 5–2 in the seventh inning. Then the Yankees scored seven runs, highlighted by a three-run homer from Chuck Knoblauch and a grand slam by Tino Martinez.
Martinez sent his grand slam into the upper deck, giving the Yankees a 9–5 lead.
The Yankees won 9–6 and went on to sweep the Padres in four games.
Then came 2001.
Game 5 of the World Series. Yankees versus Arizona Diamondbacks.
November 1, 2001.
Technically November, but it was the 2001 World Series—a season dramatically altered by September 11.
The Yankees had won Games 3 and 4 in dramatic fashion to tie the Series, but trailed 2–0 entering the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Scott Brosius came to the plate and hit a two-run home run off Byung-Hyun Kim to tie the game.
The stadium exploded.
The Yankees and Diamondbacks went scoreless in the 10th and 11th. Then, in the bottom of the 12th, Alfonso Soriano singled home Knoblauch to give the Yankees a 3–2 win and a 3–2 lead in the Series.
Another Yankee Stadium night that seemed impossible to script.
October baseball makes you feel like anything can happen.
And while baseball is heading toward its finish, other sports are just getting started.
For me, that means the Knicks.
I grew up playing high school and schoolyard basketball in New York City and sitting in the blue seats at Madison Square Garden watching the great Knicks teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I've stayed with them through the lean years, the exciting but heartbreaking 1990s, and more than a few rough seasons that followed. Now I'm looking forward to October 20th at Madison Square Garden, when the Knicks will celebrate their first championship in 53 years and receive their championship rings.
October brings another season, another schedule and another reason to wonder what might happen.
The sports calendar doesn't really have a reset button.
It overlaps.
After more than four decades around sports, I still get excited when September arrives. I still look forward to October baseball, follow what is happening at Michigan, see what the Knicks might do, and look at the schedule to figure out what game I'm going to watch next.
Maybe that's what these two months have always represented to me.
Not just the end of one sports season or the beginning of another, but the anticipation of what comes next.
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See you next time.
Marc Appleman.
P.S.: I advise sports and media organizations on growth, partnerships, audience strategy, and what comes next. I’m also available for keynotes and executive workshops. Feel free to reach out!