longest-suffering sports towns

In My Humble Opinion
1

This may be jumping the gun a bit.

The Redskins are showing surprising and disappointing signs of utter mediocrity and yet again the Orioles will soon wrap up another dismal, flat season. I don’t even want to think about the upcoming Wizards (Bullets) season.

When it comes to professional sports, the Baltimore / Washington area maintains a continuing streak of inferiority. I’m only talking professional sports here but if we throw colleges into the mix, the University of Maryland hasn’t reached the promised land…well, ever.

So, my question is which U.S. city / area can claim the dubious distinction of enjoying the longest run of their teams NOT bringing home the big one?

BTW, for the New Yorkers out there, don’t even bother posting here. This is painful enough already.

2

boston.

3

The Skins won in '91. I know, I was here then. It was my first year in DC, and it was horrible.

As we’re discussing in the Omar Daal thread over in MPSIMS, it’s been 17 years for Philly, the longest of any four-sports city.

Although, my heart weeps for the Red Sox, too.

4

I don’t remember ever hearing of a champion team coming out of New Orleans. Or Charlotte. Or Phoenix. Or Houston.

5

Well there have only been pro sports in the Carolina’s for about a decade, and Pheonix only a bit longer. New Orleans has been a one sport town for a long time, and even though the 'Aints suck royally, they can’t compete with any of the 4 sport towns.

Houston has had the Rockets win back to back titles this decade and the Astro’s have won the division the last 3 years. The Arizona Diamondbacks have done well for an expansion team and don’t have the history to be a disappointment, and the Suns won consistently in the 90’s.

Depends if its just a matter of winning it all, or being consistenly bad.

In arguement against Boston, the Celtics won too damn much to recently to be considered, and the Sabre’s have been excellent in these Hasek years.

Now, having said that, the Bulls will certainly disqualify Chicago, but looking at the rest of the teams in such a sports crazed city its awfully shocking.

Chicago Cubs: last title 1908…nuff said.
Chicago White Sox: last title 1917…nuff said.
Chicago Blackhawks: last title 1960-61…nuff said.

Its worth saying that each of these teams were originals in their respective leagues, and have hardly even come close to getting a title since. The total number of playoff appearances for both baseball teams in the last 3 decades can be counted on one hand.

Chicago Bears…title in '85, but have only fielded a competitive team about 6 seasons since their last title in 1963.

If you neglect the Bulls, Chicago wins it hands down, but MJ is the man.

Philly is probably a good canidate, but the Phillies have been very competitive in the last 20 years including one title and 3 WS appearances. While Lindros and the Flyers are always in the Stanley cup equation.

I guess it boils down to what you consider the most pathetic showing in sports. Is having 3 teams that haven’t hardly competed in 30 years, and a amazingly sparse trophy case in the last 350+ seasons played, but having one stellar team worse than having 3 above average teams that simply can’t win the big one? What about a city having one team that hasn’t had but a pair of winning seasons ever? Or a city that has never won anything, but has only had sports since the 80s.

IMHO Chicago’s cumulative total of losing and pathetic seasons over such a long long history in all the sports is the most daunting.

6

The Deltics won recently? Last championship they won was around 1985, as I recall. The Patriots are the only team that has made it to a championship game or series in about 15 years.

Rundown:
Red Sox: simply cursed
Bruins: I remember when they were good. When was the last time they even got into the playoffs?
Celtics: It’s been a while since Bird left, and they started to suck even before that.
Patriots: have had a few good seasons since being slaughtered by the Bears in ‘86. And a lot of bad seasons.
Revolution: No idea, I think the only people who bother to go to games are the players’ parents.

7

How about Seattle?

Mariners? Never.
Seahawks? Never.
Supersonics? I think they did win once, but I’m not positive.

8

The SuperSonics won an NBA title in the late 1970s.

9

<hijack with apologies>

The most disturbing thing in this thread is the OPs assumption that Baltimore and Washington and one town. I’m a Northern VA boy and all I can say is screw the Orioles.

Baseball in DC and we won’t raise taxes again. I promise.

Sorry for the hijack.

</hijack>

10

Hey now…I’m a Baltimoron & I don’t appreciate it when DCers bitch about not having baseball. Get over it already, OK? I don’t care if you like the O’s or not (I’m a Red Sox fan myself), but just quit bitching. I am sick of hearing it.

BOSTON. I am a Sox fan because A) my dad is from Boston, and B) I am a hardcore masochist. I can tell it’s fall not by the changing of leaves & the falling temperatures, but by the breaking of my heart. Every spring I think this’ll be the year, & every fall it happens again. Curse of the Bambino.

11

As I write this in September 2000, we Cleveland professional sports fans have endured a record 102 major league team-seasons without a champion, a “team-season” defined as a season where a city had a team this century in Major League Baseball, NFL, AFL, AAFC, CFL, NBA, ABA, NHL or WHA, those being the current leagues in the US and Canada or else leagues that merged into the current leagues. The top twenty five current suffering locations are:
No. City Current Drought Last Champion

  1. Cleveland 103 ‘64 Browns NFL
  2. San Diego 84 ‘63 Chargers AFL
  3. Buffalo 72 ‘65 Bills AFL
  4. Philadelphia 68 ‘83 76ers NBA
  5. Seattle 63 ‘79 Supersonics NBA
  6. Boston 56 ‘86 Celtics NBA
  7. Phoenix 53 None
  8. Indianapolis 48 ‘73 Pacers ABA
  9. New Orleans 45 None
  10. Tampa-St. Pete 33 None

Fellow loser San Diego can take comfort in the fact that their winters are much nicer than the ones we get in Cleveland and down Interstate-90 in Buffalo.
Cleveland and Buffalo not only share Lake Erie, but they have share the agony of the near miss: Cleveland endured Elway’s Drive, Jordan’s Shot and Jose Mesa’s losing the lead in the bottom of the 9th inning of the 7th game of the 1997 World Series, while Buffalo lost 4 straight Super Bowls , including Scott Norwood’s missed FG which would have beaten the Giants, the 1999 Stanley Cup which the Sabres lost on a disputed goal and the Tennessee lateral. Cleveland and Buffalo are also high on the list of all-time suffering cities:

No. City Drought From when to when
(City-Seasons)

  1. Cleveland 103 Dec.‘64 Browns - present
  2. Atlanta 93 Oct. ‘66 (1st season) - Oct. ‘95 Braves
  3. Chicago 84 Dec. ‘63 Bears - Jan. ‘86 Bears
    San Diego84 Dec. ‘63 Chargers - present
  4. Minnesota 79 Apr. ‘54 Lakers - Oct. ‘87 Twins
  5. Washington, DC 76Dec. ‘42 Redskins -May ‘78 Bullets
    Milwaukee/Green Bay76 Apr. ‘71 Bucks-Jan.‘97 Packers
  6. Buffalo 72 Dec. ‘65 Bills - present
  7. Denver 71Dec. ‘60 (1st season) - May ‘96 Avalanche
  8. Pittsburgh 68 Oct. 25 Pirates-Oct.‘60 Pirates
    Philadelphia 68 May ‘83 76ers - present
  9. Detroit 63 Oct ‘68 Tigers - Oct ‘84 Tigers
    Toronto 63Apr. ‘67 Maple Leafs - Nov ‘91 Argonauts
    Seattle 63 May ‘79 Sonics - present

With all due respect to Chicago, since the Bears’ Super Bowl shuffling crew of 1985 Chicago fans haven’t suffered at all. Michael Whatshisname and his 6 NBA champions has taken away a lot of the pain. Assuming Cleveland wins this year’s World Series, Chicago will have to go without a champion from now through the mid 2020’s to equal Cleveland’s current record for inept sports clubs.

12

I meant to hit preview reply instead of submit reply in my previous post, so I apologize for the typos and legibility problems.

13

Yes. My mother lived her entire life waiting for
her hometown Bosox to win the World Series.
They totally blew it to the 1986 Mets, and she
died shortly thereafter. I’ve always wondered
if the two events were connected.

14

There are plenty of Marylanders who live in the Washington metro area and are Skins / O’s fans.
I used to root for the Colts as well but when that skunk Irsay shipped them off to Indianapolis, many of us shifted all of our attention to the Redskins. If you read the Post and watch the D.C. news broadcasts, you can assume there are a large number of us.

As for baseball in Northern Virginia, yeah sure, whatever but I don’t think that many Orioles fans will suddenly switch their allegiance simply because the new team’s stadium might be closer to home.

Then again, if things keep up with the way Angelos is running things, who knows?

15

Right. Next time a Baltimore football franchise slips away in the middle of the night, I expect you’ll just watch the 'Skins with nary a complaint for the next 15 years?

Sorry; I may be a Ravens fan, but I’m only watching the O’s until D.C. gets the Senators back.

16

::pulling his Angels’ cap over his face and his jacket more tightly around his Ducks’ jersey…quietly slinks away::

17

Attendance for recently finished season: 15,465.

That’s a lot of parents.

Anyway, back on topic, the Revs suck too, so i guess Boston is cursed.

18

Minneapolis-St. Paul…

Where we’re enduring the Twins’ 9th losing season in a row, amidst much fan apathy (you could fly a helicopter inside the Metrodome during a homegame and not worry about hitting anyone)…

Where in 1998 the Vikings amassed the best record in the NFL (15-1) and promptly lost to the 20 pt underdogs Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game.