Forbes ranks Seattle as the most disappointing place for sports fans. I can see that. Ben nominated them when I had my own discussion who has it worst.
But I had Cleveland as #1 after some research, and no way I'm dropping them to 6th, where Forbes has them. Every list-maker is measuring something a little different, of course. Forbes went with fewest championships, I was looking at worst moments. But history has to count for something if we are talking about the fans' psyche, and Phoenix hasn't got any. Buffalo hasn't got enough teams tormenting you in different ways. Denver may not have given their fans all that many successes, but the bad moments were never the blood-draining, finger-numbing moments other places have gone through. Long runs of mediocrity is just not the same as championships almost within reach, or stunning betrayals.
Boston used to think it was at the top of the list because of the absolutely insane variety of ways the Red Sox found to self-destruct. That was indeed legendary. But that's over, and the other teams from the area were never that frustrating. We can lay claim to an odd twitchiness in late September and October that won't ever go away, but no more than that.
Yet click the Cleveland link, above. They have not only had bad moments, they have had lots of them.
2 comments:
It is rumored that there are two baseball teams in Chicago, but the only one my wife listens to has had such a long string of disasters that perhaps it outweighs the OK record of the putative other team.
For football--do you recall the home gardening tip: "How do you keep bears out of your yard?"
For basketball and hockey and soccer, I must confess I haven't the faintest idea how well the Chicago teams do.
Actually, for much of the last century the White Sox have been as bad or worse as the Cubs, and they had their own no-World-Series-win streak that only ended in 2005.
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