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How I discovered the greatest sports weekend of the year

By Fidel Martinez | Last updated 5/3/18

On Saturday, May 2, 2009, during a weekend where I had reluctantly agreed to host a buddy who was visiting town, I discovered one of sports' hidden truths: the first weekend of May is the best sports weekend in the calendar year.

That I was hosting someone and the fact that I referred to him as a buddy as opposed to a friend are both germane to the topic.I was two years removed from college at the time, working a menial job and trying to figure out what to do with my life (much to the chagrin of my immigrant parents, I had abandoned the idea of law school months before). In contrast, my buddy was working for a major consulting firm doing who knows what and getting paid handsomely for it. We weren't particularly close, but the fact that we were in the same fraternity made me feel obligated to say yes when he asked if he could crash with me because he wanted to spend a few extra days in town after flying in for work. It also didn't hurt that he offered to pay for my drinks with his expense account.

Still, I was anxious from the moment he arrived. What would we even talk about? It's not like we had an endless supply of "remember that time in college" stories to fill up all the hours we were going to spend together. Thankfully, my buddy assuaged some of that angst by proposing that we find a sports bar after lunch so that he could catch Game 1 of the NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals. He's a white dude from the D.C. area who unironically refers to it as "the DMV" — of course he was a huge hockey fan. I happily agreed, not only because it would give me some extra time to try to figure out what I was going to do with this guy, but because it meant that I could watch Barcelona and Real Madrid face off in El Clasico on one of the billion TVs mounted on the wall while he watched his hockey. We didn't know it then but his suggestion would kick off what turned out to be one most magical sports-watching days of our lives.

Both our games proved to be historic. It was the first time ever that Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin faced off in a playoff game, a nail-biter that ended in dramatic fashion after Tomas Fleischmann's goal with less than two minutes remaining in the third period gave the Caps a 3-2 lead they would hold. (The Pens would go on to win the series in Game 7 before eventually winning the Stanley Cup).

As for El Clasico, Barcelona would trounce Real Madrid 6-2 at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium thanks to the braces scored by both Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi. Not only was this Barcelona's first time scoring six goals as a visitor in an El Clasico, but the victory was instrumental in helping them clinch the league title. Barça had already won the Copa Del Rey, and would go on to win the Champions League later that summer, making this squad — one of the best ever assembled thanks to a roster that included the aforementioned players along with Samuel Eto'o, Carlos Puyol, Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique — the first Spanish team to ever complete the continental treble. (Barcelona would repeat this feat during the 2014-2015, the only club to ever do so).

You'd think that two highly entertaining matches would suffice even the most ardent sports fan, but we were nowhere near done. You see, as our respective games were wrapping up, a crowd started to congregate at the bar. When we asked, our server informed us that they were here for the Kentucky Derby.

"Holy shit, dude!" my consultant buddy yelled as if he'd stumbled upon the cure for cancer. "Do you realize what this means? This is the best sports day ever!"

Dubious, I was about to challenge his hyperbolic claim (because that's the kind of person I am) before our server once again interjected.

"Actually, if you guys want to keep this sports thing going all day, you should stick around for tonight — we're showing the Pacquiao fight and charging a $20 cover. Oh, and there's the NBA playoffs," he informed us, referring to the light welterweight championship bout between the Filipino boxer and Ricky Hatton, and to Game 7 of the first round series between the Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics, respectively.

"Dude!"

"Dude," I conceded, happy that our bartender had solved my dilemma of what to talk about or what to do. As long as there was some type of sporting event on the TV (and as long as the free drinks kept coming), I knew that I'd be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm pretty sure my buddy felt the same way.

What we weren't expecting was to witness yet another momentous sporting event. That day, Mine That Bird became the biggest upset winner in the history of the race since 1913, and his margin of victory (6 3/4 lengths) was the biggest since Assault won in 1946 (8 lengths).

Nor were we expecting to see the seventh-seeded Bulls, led by eventual Rookie of the Year winner Derrick Rose, give the defending NBA Champions a run for their money by nearly overcoming a 14-point deficit late in the fourth quarter.

And while we both knew that Pacquiao was going to win his fight, we didn't know to what extent he'd dominate and how quickly he would do it. Pac-Man delivered a blow so devastating in the waning moments of the second round, Hatton all but retired (he would fight one more time, but it was only to confirm that he no longer had it in him). Pacquiao's victory, by the way, was also historic: he joined Oscar De La Hoya as just the second boxer ever to win a world championship belt in six different weight divisions. Since then, he's won belts in two additional weight divisions.

We took a cab back to my place after the fight was over, our voices too coarse from a day's worth of yelling and cheering. By the time I woke up the following morning, he'd already left for the airport. Still exhausted from the past 24 hours and nursing a hangover, I plopped down in front of my TV and channel surfed before settling on the Italian Open men's final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Nadal would eventually defeat his Serbian counterpart, at which point I texted my friend an update. His response?

"Best sports weekend ever."

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It's been nearly a decade since and though we've lost touch, I still think about my buddy and his theory every year around this time. Nine years later, his premise still stands: the first weekend of May is the best sports weekend of the calendar year. I'll admit that sports equinoxes — a term that refers to a single day when the four American sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL) all have at least one game scheduled — can sometimes be better, but these a rarity. According to FiveThirtyEight, there have only been 17 sports equinoxes in history.

In contrast, the Kentucky Derby has consistently been held during the first weekend of May as far back as 1932 . The first weekend of May has also become a major date in pro boxing ever since Mexican pugilist Julio Cesar Chavez popularized the tradition of scheduling a major fight in or around the Cinco de Mayo holiday. Since then, the practice has been maintained by other prominent Mexican and Mexican-American fighters, and has even been adopted by the sport's biggest stars — in addition to the aforementioned fight against Hatton, Pacquiao also fought Floyd Mayweather in the first weekend of May 2015. In fact, if it weren't for Canelo Alvarez failing multiple drug tests , we would have had a blockbuster fight this weekend (His would-be opponent, Gennady Golovkin, still managed to find somebody to fight this Saturday). Every year, you also have the early rounds of the NBA and NHL playoffs, the MLB regular season, and international club soccer.

No other 48-hour period gives fans this much diversity of high quality programming. In celebration of what should become a national holiday, here's what to look out for during "the best sports weekend ever" 2018.

Saturday, 5/5:

NBA Conference Semifinals: Boston Celtics @ Philadelphia 76ers (Game 3); Toronto Raptors @ Cleveland Cavaliers (Game 3)

NHL Conference Semifinals: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Washington Capitals (Game 5); Winnipeg Jets @ Nashville Predators (Game 5)

144th Annual Kentucky Derby

Gennady Golovkin vs. Vanes Martirosyan: Golovkin will look to defend his WBA (Super), WBC, and IBO middleweight titles

MLB: Houston Astros @ Arizona Diamondbacks; Cleveland Indians @ New York Yankees; Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Diego Padres (game in Monterrey, Mexico); Chicago Cubs @ St. Louis Cardinals

Sunday 5/6:

NBA Conference Semifinals: Golden State Warriors @ New Orleans Pelicans (Game 4, if necessary); Houston Rockets @ Utah Jazz (Game 4)

NHL Conference Semifinals: Boston Bruins @ Tampa Bay Lightning (Game 5); Las Vegas Golden Knights @ San Jose Sharks (Game 5)

MLB: Houston Astros @ Arizona Diamondbacks; Cleveland Indians @ New York Yankees; Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Diego Padres (game in Monterrey, Mexico); Chicago Cubs @ St. Louis Cardinals

La Liga Santander/ El Clásico: FC Barcelona @ Real Madrid C.F.