The Washington Senators- Washington: first in war, first in peace, last in the American League. Frank Howard, a great player on a terrible team. The American League’s Ernie Banks
The Quebec Nordiques. Used to love the way the crowd sang The Happy Wanderer in French. Also the Stasny brothers.
The Muskegon Mohawks of the old IHL. Watched many a game growing up, I miss the old IHL.
They took your elephants, too.
They’ll be back within 5 years, I predict.
The Montreal Expos were fun to watch in the Gary Carter era.
Well, for that matter, the Browns are still around, they’re just the Orioles. And they started off as the Brewers. The now-Brewers were the Pilots (also mentioned above). Of course, the original Orioles are still around in another form, but don’t tell Yankee fans. They like to think they’ve ALWAYS been in NYC.
The Yankees were once briefly an “Orioles” franchise, but they were not the original, “old Orioles” (who are a good answer).
Folks from #straightdope chat will remember me talking about our local minor-league hockey team, the Lubbock Cotton Kings. I still have a jersey with the old logo. They also has a hilarious costumed mascot named Eli.
…for which there exists no team photo, so most histories use a shot of the 1900 team instead.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
Ho. Lee…
Ah yes, the Nats v.2.0. Hondo, Mike Epstein, Ken McMullen, Ed Brinkman, Tim Cullen, Paul Casanova, Joe Coleman, Dick Bosman, Jim Hannan…it was a sad day for D.C. when they moved west.
I like the Nats v.3.0, though, even if we had to wait 1/3 of a century for them.
Good thing their brief existence was immortalized by Jim Bouton’s Ball Four. It’ll be a long time before they’re forgotten.
The Chicago Cardinals. They played their last home game on the day I was born.
Before the Cardinals decamped, contrarian Chicagoans could hate both the Cubs and the Bears, and be fans of the White Sox and Cardinals, both of whom played in Comiskey Park. Hating the Bears, for the last 25 years, would have been almost as much fun as hating the Cubs. The Bears have been pretty bad.
The Cardinals spent 28 miserable years in St. Louis, and then 18 miserable years in Sun Devil Stadium. They seem to have finally found a happy home since they got their new stadium in 2006, but they still haven’t won an NFL championship since they left Chicago, which serves them right.
Ernie Nevers, playing for the Chicago Cardinals, scored 40 points in an NFL game in 1929. Against the Bears. The record still stands. And, Nevers achieved a defunct-team double-tip by pitching for the St. Louis Browns during his summers.
Five - Seven - Eight,
We’re the best from the Lone Star State!
Yeah, I STILL have the 45 single of the song, and yeah, they’re the franchise I miss the most. I used to be a fairly avid pro football fan, until the Oilers left Houston, and I subsequently moved to Dallas before the Texans came to be.
So I sort of got out of the habit, and basically refuse to watch the Cowboys (and have the worst case of schadenfreude at their misfortunes, woes and on/off-field drama).
Syracuse Blazers… my grandfather owned a piece of it when it was founded in the late 60’s. In 1976, long after my grandfather had passed away, they shared their home ice with the Hyannisport Presidents, league rival of Paul Newman’s Charlestown Chiefs…
For those wondering, it was an old novelty song, maybe even a joke song, that gained popularity when a local Houston radio station started playing it during The Good Years.
I think I first heard it in the '78 season?
Later came Luv, Luv Ya Blue
What, no love for the Kansas City-Omaha Kings? (Not only a hyphen, but its “home courts” were in two different states. IIRC, the Golden State Warriors got its location name from the fact that it was meant to play some games in Oakland and some in San Diego.)
However, my vote goes to the California Golden Seals, especially in the Charlie Finley days; not only did the players tend to sport mustaches, but they wore white skates. (Also, it truly is extinct - the most recent team in the four major pro sports to disband, IIRC; after a year or two in Cleveland, it merged with the Minnesota North Stars (now Dallas Stars). I remember when a local sportscaster noted the day when the last player to play for the Seals retired.)
The Seattle SuperSonics (back when I cared about basketball). Although my understanding is that that team is now masquerading about as one from Oklahoma. So I’ve heard.
If you miss that song, you can always come to a Miami Dolphins game, where we still play that stupid tune after every score. As I recall, Owner Stephen Ross tried to get rid of it a couple of years ago (replacing it with Jimmy Buffet), but the fans revolted, so it still gets used.
For my money, the best extinct franchise is the Houston Gamblers. With Jim Kelly running the run & shoot, what’s not to love?
Red: Why do the Dolphins play an old Oilers song? 
Green: You got that right! Exciting football, that was. :eek:
My father was a diehard Brooklyn Dodger fan. I’m sure I would have been indoctrinated. I wish they had stayed and I could have inherited the history. They were dead to him after the move.
No, they play an old Miami Dolphins song, which is exactly the same as the old Oilers song, except for the team name. Miami started using it before the 1972 (perfect) season.
Googling tells me that Houston didn’t steal it from Miami; rather, it was offered to each team by its composer, but only the Phins and Oilers decided to use it.
I really hope that those elephants are dressed in Supersonics regalia when they are delivered.