Shaun Connolly

While every summer brings a new hope to our year. It has warm weather, vacations, longer days and of course plenty of sports. There will always be the mainstays of summer. There’s the NBA Finals, the Red Sox, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, there’s always a big soccer tournament (this year being the Women’s World Cup), and of course Wrestlemania. But sometimes, there are just slow weeks of nothing doing for sports. We find ourselves scrolling DraftKings to spice up a Reds vs. Cubs doubleheader, or staying up late to watch cornhole on ESPN 3. Here are some of my own discoveries while trying to fill the sport-less hole in the middle of July. 

Major League Cricket

This is honestly such an exciting sport. The big thing is grasping the rules. I understand that we as Americans don’t like learning new things or adapting to others culture but trust me, this is pretty awesome. I bet you didn’t even know there was a Cricket League in the U.S. Well there is. That honestly was the big gap for me trying to get into the sport. If I wanted to watch a match I would have to watch it at like 3 AM as it streamed from Agra, India. Well now, we have it here with teams in Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington DC, San Francisco and New York. How could you not want to root for the San Francisco Unicorns? For just $55 a year you can watch Major League Cricket live on WillowTV. You spend more on coffee in a month. I recommend you drink less caffeine and get your jolt from watching fast-paced American Cricket.

Professional Disc Golf

Folks really like to diss this one, but I don’t understand it. They say it’s dorky. You’re telling me real golf isn’t dorky? They say it looks easier. I insist as one who has been trying to play more this summer it is not, I apologize to all of the trees I have hit head on. This is a riveting sport of skill, touch and so many highlights. The women’s and men’s divisions each have plenty of breathtaking holes in ones, trick shots and seemingly impossible outs from strange angles. You can get a subscription on YouTube to watch their matches live, but you can also just head on up to Leicester to Maple Hill Disc Golf Course and watch one of their majors live and in person. I went last and will be going again this September and it will be something to behold. 

College Baseball World Series

The NCAA for a long time has figured out how to market and sell both college football and basketball very well. This country has made their games a huge part of their betting, spectating and partying habits. The College Baseball World Series that occurs in Omaha, Nebraska each year, had one of its most entertaining tournaments to date. We saw some of the top players at the collegiate level face off against each other. We saw upsets from tiny little schools and collapses from giant, endowment heavy universities. LSU ended up winning the whole thing pretty handily as they had the number 1 and number 2 draft picks in this MLB Draft, but not without its hiccups and battles on the road to their defeat of Florida University. With transfer student being able to move more easily between schools, the MLB Draft lessening the amount of rounds they have to 20, collegiate baseball is going to be a lot more competitive and therefore a lot more entertaining. 

While you most likely missed the College Baseball World Series. You still have a shot to catch cricket and disc golf. I highly recommend that you do. There’s only so many times that the Red Sox can break your heart, mend it with a disc golf ace from behind a giant elm tree.