Forbes Picks Atlanta as “Most Miserable Sports City.” How Bout the City that Lost to Atlanta in the 95 World Series?!!!
Cleveland has the longest championship drought of any city. Shouldn’t that count for something?
MITCHELL BLATT
Recently Forbes listed the top five “most miserable sports cities.” Cleveland hasn’t won a championship in any sport since the 1964 Browns, and that wasn’t even a Super Bowl, for that matter. They have their share of stunning losses like The Catch, The Fumble, Red Right 88, and–dare I mention it?–the Drive, with John Elway going 98 yards to tie the 1987 AFC Championship Game.
Those are all just in football mind you.
Did they make the top 5? No.
The top 5 was:
1.) Atlanta
2.) Seattle
3.) Buffalo
4.) Phoenix
5.) San Diego
Atlanta has seen the Braves make the playoffs 14 straight years from 1991 to 2005. Hardly a curse. But that article states that it is sometimes better to have a terrible team that never makes the playoffs than continuously suffer playoff heartbreak.
As if anyone would want their team to miss the playoffs every year.
Even so, Cleveland has just as much playoff heartbreak as Atlanta. While the Braves won a World Series by defeating the Indians in 1995, the Indians haven’t won a World Series since 1948. They made the playoffs 7 straight years from 1995 to 2001. In 1997, Jose Mesa blew a save with two outs against the Marlons to lose the World Series.
Moving on the football. Well, we lost our team in 1996. When we got it back in 1999, it came with Tim Couch as the #1 draft choice. Other draft picks have included Courtney Brown, William Green, and Gerald Warren. Even before the Browns left, when they were making the playoffs in the 80’s and 90’s, they had to deal with John Elway. Oh, yeah, and not only have we NEVER WON A SUPER BOWL, the Browns have NEVER EVEN PLAYED IN A SUPER BOWL.
The last Cleveland team to never play in the championship was the Cavs, who just got swept last year in the NBA Finals. Before drafting LeBron, the Cavs had scarcely even made the playoffs. And who can forget Ted Stepien, the owner so incompetent that the NBA imposed martial law on the Cavs, having to approve any
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Cleveland’s drought will probably be around for some time to come.. too bad for them.
Great article Mitch!
I can understand why Phoenix is on that list
Take away the D’Backs 2001 World Series title and Arizona’s pro teams have fallen flat.
The Suns have watched heartbreak after heartbreak including that bitter loss to the Spurs last season. They haven’t won a title in 41 years of play.
The Phoenix Coyotes have never made the second round since moving to Winnipeg.
The Arizona Cardinals have won a single playoff game in their lone trip to the postseason (1998) since 1988, the year they moved from St. Louis to cactus-ville. I think that makes a pretty good argument for them.
Best case right now for most miserable sports city has to be MIAMI. All their teams (Marlins, Dolphins, Heat, Panthers) are pitiful, with the Panthers having the best results of anyone and just finishing 11th in the East.
Wosrt case for most miserable sports city: Boston. The Bruins made the playoffs this year, the Red Sox are defending champs, the Celts are back to prominence, and the Patriots nearly pulled off a perfect season.
And add Seattle to most miserable, just because of their Sonics, but I’ll have more to say on that later.
Goddamn it this post didn’t save completely. The computer was having trouble as I wrote, so it kind of trailed off.
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