Nov. 1, 2009: the greatest sports day ever?

Funny story. The MLB likes their playoffs to start on either the first Tuesday or Wednesday of October. However, October 1st happened to be a Thursday, meaning that the postseason started on October 7th -- later than usual. At the same time, the NBA likes to begin on either the last Tuesday of October or the first Tuesday of November, and since November 3rd was considered too late, the season begins on the 27th -- earlier than usual.

You may be asking yourself, “So what?” Well, this scheduling coincidence has created something that is the sports equivalent of Haley’s Comet passing over Earth (and hopefully it won’t be as disappointing). On Sunday, November 1st, the NBA, MLB, NHL, and NFL will all be playing games AT THE SAME TIME. Yes, in one of the only instances in your lifetime, you will be able to switch between each of the four major sports (assuming you have a good TV sports package).

Not enough? Good, because there’s more -- after the jump...

There’s also the final match of the Sony Ericcson Championships on the Tennis Channel (as well as the final round of a men’s tennis tournament), the final round of the Viking Classic on the Golf Channel, and the AMP Energy 500 from Talladega Superspeedway on ABC. There will also probably be a MLS playoff game -- I can’t confirm that since the schedule hasn’t been released yet, but the MLS schedules their postseason games on Thursdays and Sundays, and Nov. 1 is a Sunday.

This means that it may be possible to watch every single professional sports league all on the same day: the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, ATP, WTA, MLS, and NASCAR. It’s a shame the UFL couldn’t schedule a game in as well. Granted, in order to view all nine leagues, you’d need NBA TV, the Tennis Channel, the Golf Channel and about three or four season-ticket packages. And realistically, you may get so caught up watching Brett Favre return to Green Bay on November 1st that you’ll completely ignore everything else. It’s also worth noting that because Game 4 of the World Series happens on this day, there will be no Sunday Night Football on NBC. And since the Avalanche-Cunucks game starts at 10 PM Eastern, it’s actually not unrealistic to watch most of the four big leagues consecutively (though you’d have to watch the Magic-Raptors game at 1 PM).

All in all, I can’t give you the historical likeliness of these nine leagues ever scheduling non-exhibition games on the same day again. It’s rare, I can guarantee that much. And hey, if nine sports leagues still aren’t enough, you can still watch a new episode of Mad Men or Curb Your Enthusiasm. And if that’s still not enough, then you should just smash your television, because you’re obviously too hard to please.

(Phanatic photo by Chris McGrath, Getty Images)