This article, “Mayan Apocalypse is Unlike Other Doomsdays“, skirts the real issue with the end of the Maya calendar:

“The Mayan apocalypse myths are similar to prophecies like Martins’ in that they take a non-Biblical view of the end of the world. Mayan apocalypse believers get their inspiration from the Mayan Long Count Calendar, which consists of 144,000-day-long cycles called b’ak’tuns. (There are also longer units of time, such as piktuns, which are made of 20 b’ak’tuns.) Dec. 21, 2012 marks the end of the 13th b’ak’tun, which would have been seen as a completed full cycle of creation by the ancient Maya. However, there were no apocalyptic predictions associated with this day.”

But what they’re missing is that the prophecy really came from a bunch of disgruntled sports fans, as you can find out, in “The History of the Mayan Ball League” (or as an iBook).