With the new National Hockey League and National Football League seasons about to start, the Canadian Football League campaign hitting its stride, and Major League Baseball entering its stretch run, it pretty much goes without saying that this is the best time of the sporting year. Throw in the U.S. Open tennis championships, the PGA Tour’s playoffs, and the upcoming National Basketball Association season, and the viewing options are endless.

And against that backdrop, sports fans can be excused if their minds wander, dreaming of being front and centre for some of the action. In his new book, The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live: An Insider’s Guide to Creating the Sports Experience of a Lifetime , author Robert Tuchman has detailed what he believes to be the top games, matchups, and destinations that sports enthusiasts must attend in person before the giant score clock in the sky ticks down and the final seconds in the game of life tick away.

Based in New York City, Tuchman is a corporate sports-management executive who’s made a living taking clients to big-time sporting contests all over the planet. After urging from friends and colleagues who were both curious about and envious of the opportunities he’d had, he compiled a list of sports events, and the result is a 337-page book outlining his favourites.

“I’ve been fortunate enough over the past 15 years to work for a sports travel business,” Tuchman told the Georgia Straight in a telephone interview. “I’ve been to so many events, I always get the question from my friends: what’s the best event to go to?”

The Masters golf tournament tops Tuchman’s 100, followed by the World Cup of soccer, the Superbowl, the Summer Olympics, Army-Navy college football games, the New York City Marathon, the World Series, the Winter Olympics, any New York Yankees–Boston Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium, and a University of North Carolina versus Duke University basketball game at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium.

After a trip to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, last month, Tuchman has now seen 40 of his top 100 events in person. And he said the common thread that ties his diverse list together—from the Daytona 500 to the Iditarod Great Sled Race to Nathan’s International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest—is the energy and the excitement created at the venue.

Even in this era of wall-size high-definition televisions with surround sound shaking home theatres and bringing sports to viewers like never before, Tuchman said, there is nothing like being at an event.

“Technology can almost bring that feeling to you,” he said. “Almost. But if you’re downstairs in your media room, all you hear is your wife yelling at you from upstairs. If you’ve been at an event, you’ve got that fat guy sitting beside you, and he’s been watching for 30 years; he can tell you about the entire history of the event. You can see and feel the passion; you can talk about the event and the whole experience. There is nothing that we will ever be able to do to re-create the energy of watching an event live.”

The beauty of a list like Tuchman’s is that it is subjective, and—when combined with the passion of hard-core sports fans—it’s sure to spark debate. He fully understands that and makes no apologies for the order in which he lists his favourites. But he’s also quick to point out that the list is evolving and could change substantially in any subsequent reissues of the book.

“The list changes so often because sport changes and people’s interests are always changing,” he explained, adding that he has included a UFC title fight as the 100th item on the list, to reflect the current state of the sporting world. “I had over 200 events when I first came up with the list and had to narrow it down, and, obviously, not everyone is going to agree with the top 100.”

Sports fans on this side of the border may not share Tuchman’s enthusiasm for the big-time American college sports. To his credit, though, the author, an admitted hockey lover who lists Game 7 of the Canucks-Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup final as one of the greatest events he’s ever attended, includes a number of hockey games and competitions among his top 100.

The Stanley Cup final is 12th on his list, followed by a Maple Leafs–Canadians game in Toronto at number 30; the World Junior Hockey championship is 92nd, with the annual Beanpot hockey tournament, featuring the four Boston-area university programs, coming in at 97.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s the NHL or the World Junior championship—I tell this to all the Americans who don’t understand or never played the game—there is nothing like watching hockey live,” he said.

If that’s not enough to satisfy Canadians, Tuchman also managed to work the annual Calgary Stampede onto his list, at 43rd.