For any fan of football, baseball, and hockey, this is te best time of year.  The baseball regular season, after almost a half year, is wrapping up with playoff berths on the line; and for those fans in markets like Boston, where the baseball season has been unofficially over for some months now, can focus on the their football and hockey teams, as they being their regular season.
We mourn the potential loss of our baseball team until late-February or early-March  and celebrate the life of the new season with our other teams.
It doesn't get much better than that ...