www.dailymail.co.uk

Football fans, January and February probably seems like heaven. The BCS bowls and National Championship followed by the pinnacle of the pigskin: The Super Bowl.

Maybe you’re a baseball fan. The best times of year are certainly book ends for you. Many try to suppress elation when pitchers and catchers report, but most find their pastime bliss in October and early November.

Basketball and hockey fans seem to have an eternity of a season. Ask most and you’ll certainly here about June.

For me, none qualify as the best time in sports. As the title states, the best time of year is the end of May. Not because the English Premier League will be crowning a champion, but due rather to the battle at the other end of the table: the fight against relegation.

For those unfamiliar with relegation in soccer, allow me for a moment, soccer connoisseurs, to explain to those novices like me reading.

Take all levels of professional baseball for example: A, AA, AAA, and the Major League. Eliminate the whole farm system affiliations and make each team its own business entity that can hire and fire as it pleases.

The EPL replicates this idea with the Premier League (Majors), League Championship (AAA), League 1 (AA)and League 2 (A). The only difference is the top three teams get promoted at season’s end, and the bottom three teams get relegated.

So based on last season, The Washington Nationals, Seattle Mariners, and San Diego Padres would be competing this season in AAA. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, Louisville Bats, and Pawtucket Red Sox, all of the International League, would be playing Major League baseball in 2009.

Think of how that might change professional sports in America.

Even though I’m a basketball guy, the last few weeks of May present to us something quite unique in sports.

The majority of sports fans are average Joes, but more times than not, professional sports is a tale of nobility. The biggest, strongest, richest, and athletically gifted win the championships. Players who could not be further from who we are or the roles we have in society prevail while the ordinary begin reciting the infamous sports maxim, “there’s always next year.”

Sure we want our favorite teams to win, but since that is rarely the case, we often look for an underdog. Why? Because the underdog represents us.

Why do you think the best story come March is a Cinderella team? It’s a reflection of who we are.

Every season, The bottom the EPL becomes a perfect microcosm of middle-class America. The CEOs, like Manchester United, continually challenge for the top spot while the average employee, such as Sunderland, just wants to survive another day with the company.

The rich prosper and bask in the glory of championships and trophies. Meanwhile, the peons like me struggle to make ends meet month-to-month and are left only with delusions of grandeur.

American sports are unrealistic. If a team fails miserably, there’s no consequences. In fact, fail bad enough, and teams get rewarded with picking the new hot shot player for next season.

Not in the EPL. Finish in the bottom three and it’s a punishment. Moreover, teams won’t be bidding on top players; they’ll struggle to keep those who are good enough to be loaned to Premier league team. That’s more representative of life.

Time and again we see smaller clubs fighting for their Premiership lives by the end of May. Big clubs like Liverpool and Chelsea may feel dejected if they don’t win a championship, but smaller clubs, like Fulham last season, feel uninhibited respite when they narrowly avoid being relegated.

The joy of fans’ faces as the referee blows the final whistle exudes a feeling not often seen in sports: the feeling of accepted mediocrity only relative to those bidding adieu to the topflight football.

West Bromwich Albion, Middlesbrough, Hull City, Newcastle United, Sunderland, and Portsmouth will all be playing for the Premiership lives in the final two weeks of the 2008-2009 season.

Their respective matches are sure to be entertaining and hard fought. Fans will either sob for their club’s demise, or, for those lucky clubs who narrowly avoid the bottom three, revel in the fact that for another season, even if by only an inch, they can say that they’re competing with the best.

I’m a little guy. I love my teams, but they aren’t me; they suffer no consequences if they tank a season.

So you can have your NBA Finals, Stanley Cup, and game sevens. Take your Super Bowl Sunday and Mr. Octobers. Every year, I can’t wait for the end of May to watch the purest form of sport on display in any professional league.

Where teams are playing at their highest level until the very end. Where fans are more than proud to finish seventeenth. Where the common man takes center stage and plays with more heart and grit than a jaded, inflated payroll ever could.

A bitter, often belligerent past, like that of the Yankees and Red Sox. Short distances causing territorial conflict, like the eight miles separating the campuses of Duke and North Carolina. Desire to claim oneself as the best-of-the-best, like the many championships and Heisman winners between Ohio State and Michigan. And many times it just comes down to tradition, like Harvard and Yale or Army-Navy. We can always expect superhuman efforts from these games and assured overflowing crowds that create an atmosphere unlike any other.

Until you’ve watched a derby game, you truly haven’t given soccer a fair shot. Here’s a rundown of some of the greatest derbies in the UK in hopes you’ll try and catch one this premier league season:

Merseyside Derby
Everton vs. Liverpool
There’s two types of people in Liverpool, England: a blue (Everton) and a red (Liverpool) – two teams separated by ten city blocks and roots deeper than any red oak in California. Many stories surround how these two clubs came to be, but here’s my favorite: Everton was the original club in Liverpool, but after a dispute over the stadium, Everton players bolted across town for a fresh start. Those who stayed began the Liverpool Football Club.

North London Derby
Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur
The only two clubs in the north of London and perhaps the most heated London derby. Tottenham defeated the Gunners last year 5-1 for the first time since the 1999 campaign. Spurs fans hold on to fewer and much older accolades than their neighbors, Arsenal, but this rivalry could be rejuvenated after last year’s result along with Tottenham’s many summer signings.

North-West Derby
Manchester United vs. Liverpool
The two most successful clubs in England have a right to have their own derby, even if they are separated by more land than any of these others.

Tyne-Wear Derby
Newcastle United vs. Sunderland
From the Northwest derby to one in the Northeast of England. Two cities in the same region only ten miles apart. Many factors play into this derby and some run as deep as those supportive of the English Parliament and those supportive of the Royalists.

London Borough Derby
Chelsea vs. Fulham
It’s a treat any time two London clubs get together. This one parallels the small farm school against the big city school. Chelsea is known worldwide and consistently signs top players and enjoys the riches of international success, while Fulham stays humble in a much smaller stadium yet loyal fan base. The allure of this rivalry is the day Fulham can pull of the monstrous upset at their home park, similar to Milan beating Muncie Central, or Hickory defeating South Bend for you movie buffs.

Lancashire Derby (Manchester)
Manchester United vs. Manchester City
The Lancashire region of Northwest England has many derby games, like the battle for Manchester. Usually dominated by United, this derby gained some validity last year when City took the first match against the defending and eventual champions.

Old Firm Derby
Celtic vs. Rangers
This derby comes form the Scottish Premier League and is my personal favorite for several reasons. Both have dominated Scottish soccer, winning a combined 127 Scottish titles. In the late 1880’s when Catholics wanted to play football in Glasgow, the Protestant affiliated Rangers were not very welcoming. So naturally, the Catholics started their own club in 1888 and called it the Celtic Football Club. Nothing more bitter than religious strife! This derby has been a whirlwind, but the mid 1900’s brought change that saw Catholics play for Rangers and Protestants play for Celtic, originally brought about with international signings. The people of Glasgow haven’t forgotten about history and continue to support the club originally allied with their church. My grandfather is a native Protestant of Glasgow and when I asked him if he went to games as a child, he answered with conviction, “I went to Ibrox to support Rangers.” To this day, fans of the away side need police escort to enter the stadium before the game and if you’re an outsider, you’d better know how to dress and not get caught wearing Protestant orange at Celtic Park or green at Ibrox Stadium.