Although exact dates differ each year, there are certain pages on a calendar that are always going to be connected with the start of a new season in professional sports.

When the first week of April hits, for example, it’s a tradition that each Major League team will have its starting pitchers working through their first cycle, err, rotation.

In college hoops it takes a couple months for each program to designate tutors for all the starters but once November rolls around it’s game-on.

The next four months see every gym across America jam packed with two types of people: Jordan hopefuls and hopeful students trying to pay tuition with the help of a little luck and a few big parlays.

For National Football League fans it’s a cinch; September is the sacred time of year.

But I also love March on my NFL calendar.

That is the time when free agency throws open its doors and the madness begins—I realize the “Madness” moniker will forever be attached to college ball, but some of the transactions and signings from the past few days are giving the NCAA tourney a run for its money.

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