With Tuesday’s penultimate Game 6 sending the NBA Finals to a climactic one game, winner-take-all finale, Major League Baseball came one step closer to owning fan dollars and television sets indefinitely for the foreseeable future. As the only major North American sports league to operate during the summer months, baseball takes center stage in a sports world that is ruthless when it comes to competing for attention. But due to baseball’s “every day” nature, every other league’s attempts to land lasting headlines often come up short.

If you’re Canadian, chances are you just emerged from your den last Thursday morning for the first time in two months. With the conclusion of the NHL playoffs, it was time for you to re-join modern society and realize that other sports have been going on; as well as the fact that you lost thousands of dollars by skipping work while cheering on the Montreal Canadiens until their inevitable collapse and wondering just what the heck happened to Chris Pronger’s blue line defense in the final two games. Okay, maybe it’s not that bad, but probably close to it.

Baseball is unique in that it owns 100 percent of the major sports market for more than two months. None of football, hockey, or basketball has that luxury, and baseball takes full advantage of their monopoly over July and August. An All-Star Game that actually attracts viewers, a trade deadline, the “dog days of August”, as they’re not-quite-affectionately known by the players. These all add up to exciting sports action in an otherwise excruciatingly long season.

When the NBA season ends on Thursday, all attention will turn towards MLB, and they’ll certainly run with it. Going in to Tuesday night, every playoff race in baseball had the first- and second-place teams separated by no more than three and a half games, and things will not change much in three days. This is baseball’s time to shine, and with so much having already happened this season, such as two (three?) perfect games, the re-emergence of the Rays and Yankees rivalry, and even “Strasmas”, now is as good a time as any to devote oneself to the Boys of Summer.