Growing up a sports fan in the state of Washington was tough. Following an AFC Championship berth in 1983, the Seahawks descended into mediocrity and outright awfulness up until 2005. Then their first and only Super Bowl berth, a game filled with bad officiating and worse play. They are 2-4 in this foul year of our Lord, 2009. They are starting a fourth string left tackle. The Mariners beat the Yankees in 1995. "The Double" saved baseball in a city that had been on wrong end of .500 for years. Despite losing Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez in consecutive years, the Mariners tied a major league record for most wins in the regular season. They then followed that up with a colossal choke job in the playoffs, losing to the Yankees 4-1. Despite winning 93 games in '02 and '03, they failed to make the playoffs. They then began a catastrophic slide that saw them lose over 100 games with a $100 million dollar payroll. The Mariners have slowly begun to dig their way out of the cellar. The Sonics reached the NBA Finals in the 1995-96 season, a couple of years after famously being bounced out as the #1 seed against the 8th seeded Denver Nuggets. After being beaten by the Bulls and some guy named Jordan, the Sonics played well, up until the retirement of Nate McMillan and George Karl's resignation. Since the start of the 1998-99 season, the Sonics were a laughingstock up until the 2004-05 season, which saw them take a division title. This being Seattle sports, Nate McMillan left to take over the Trailblazers and the Sonics fell back under .500. Then they hired Sam Presti, a protege of the Spurs front office. After drafting a core of Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook, the Sonics were moved to Oklahoma City. Sold to a man that demanded a $500 million arena to stay. Since then, the Thunder have been the model of efficiency. They've been drafting well, signing role-players for next to nothing, and letting their young team simply get better with time. I won't even go into college football. So why have I posted this longwinded pile of shit? Quite frankly, following Seattle sports is like being a battered spouse. I'm at the point where I'm seriously contemplating the ifs of stabbing that motherfucker while he sleeps. Focus: You're all sitting at the bar watching the game and having a few pints. Go. ..
This might have legs... let's see how it goes. Make it a multi-sport thread where you can vent your past or current angst about anything sports related. Pretend your sitting at a bar sharing a pint or 3 watching the game. Bash other teams, other members, whatever... but keep it friendly and good natured. If it gets too personal or out of hand, it'll go away.
Hate Duke basketball? Well, somehow they are more gay without Paulus and Reddick. Enjoy this faggoty shit. Especially the Titanic bit.
Minnesota Oh, where to begin? As I've vented in other threads before, my sports life has been filled with depression and angst. Without further delay: Vikings: This one is the worst. The 1998 NFC Championship game is the perfect example of the Vikings and the playoffs - underacheivers. I really can't elaborate too much more. Four Super Bowl appearances, zero victories. The two times I have seem them make it to the NFC Championship it has ended in A) absolute heartbreak and B) complete slaughter. If I name this Vikings season, it would be: "Eternal Optimism - your 2009 Vikings". Wild/North Stars: The North Stars lost in the cup finals to the Penguins in '90-91. Two years later, they are shipped down to Dallas. The State of Hockey went without professional hockey until 2000 when the Wild started back up in St. Paul. I love going to the games, and will be a die-hard Wild fan, but they still seem to let me down every playoffs. As I type this I look up at the two "FIGHT TO THE END" towels I have up in my cube from the 2007 playoffs where we were smoked by Anaheim. With a great 3-8 start to the season, I have a feeling I may be beating my head against the desk this year as well. (at least Gopher hockey had back-to-back championships in the 2000s) Timberwolves: It's roundball, I'm not even going to talk about it. Twins: The Twins haven't disappointed. The WS from '87 and '91 still linger here and are always a source of pride. We seem to be decent year-in and year-out regardless of our low payroll. My heartbreak here: watching our good players leave to go to the big markets. David Ortiz (granted he sucked while in MN trying to hit for AVG), Johan Santana, Torii Hunter, etc.. This will soon be Joe Mauer. My friends have already been sending photoshopped pictures around of Jesus Junior wearing Yankee hats. Go figure, right when his contract goes up, Jorge will be too old. There's my pain. I know it could be worse *COUGH*Cincy*COUGH*.
I grew up in Cleveland. I'm 31 years old. It was about 15 years BEFORE I WAS BORN since the last championship. I've never seen a championship in my life. It was pre-god damned-super bowl. I'm a Buckeye fan and that was nice a few years ago when they won theirs, but it's just not the same. I also don't count whatever soccer championships or whatever the Cleveland team won. I have nothing against Soccer, but it doesn't count as a Cleveland sport. Indians Browns Cavs The first two are not looking like they'll win anything in the next decade, at least. The Cavs are the best shot, but I don't know. After 10 games this year when this team has had some time to work out the kinks of playing together, we'll see. I'm nervous right now. There are still major flaws with the team. Their good, but have their work cut out for them. And, the best teams all got better. I've shed enough tears for my hometown teams. I have nothing left. I'm just beaten and there is nothing I can do. I've tried to take up with teams in cities where I was living, but it just felt wrong. I can't stop rooting for my three teams. It's a painful reality. My only hope for a good sports situation is with Hockey. I have no allegiance and lived in DC for a good while and now live in Raleigh. I comfortably root for The Hurricanes and the Capitals. Only problem with that is that Hockey is fourth on my list of favorite sports. I thought I've come to grips with this, but I haven't. I'm going to go grab the nearest bottle and go cry in the corner.
Chicago The only team worth watching in town is the Blackhawks, a team which the owner purposefully blocked from being shown on television because he believed it would force fans to come and watch the steaming pile he called a team get smeared. It's hard to hang my hat on this team when 3 years ago I didn't know what they looked like. The Blackhawks and I are still in the honeymoon phase of our relationship. Bears: We have a quarterback who will be unable to tell the difference between a wet fart and swamp ass because the defenses of the NFC played monkey pile on his head. He is our only elitely talented offensive weapon and he is getting smacked around like Tom Cable's wife. Add to the fact that our last 2-3 draft classes have underperformed, if they even showed up (Hello Dan Bezuin and Michael Okwo), and Cutler is on the fast track to walking in Dan Marino's shoes as a great qb who couldn't recognize the Lombardi Trophy if it fell on his head. Cubs: MLB blue balls. 3rd or 4th highest payroll in baseball and I want you to name me one man who is top 5 at his position. Bulls: Derrick Rose is a ridiculous athlete but how good is his basketball IQ? Also, the team gets off the bus ready to play but Vinny Del Negro is back at the hotel because he pissed the bed thinking about the last two minutes of the 4th quarter. As a Chicago sports fan, I am not a battered wife thinking about killing the bastard while he sleeps. I am at the bar daily looking for optimism at the bottom of my drink however.
There was no need for you to write anything after that. Focus: I'm from Boston. We haven't won a Championship in almost three years!!!!
I don't the what the hell was with the Sox post-August though. It's like their bats caught swine. Almost an '06 redux.
You Chicago fans really piss me off. I've been living in Chicago for about a year, since moving from Philly, and all I hear about is people bitching about the damned Cubs. The Cubs are a joke because the fan base is a bunch of softy frat boys looking to party, and no matter what, that stadium will be full of people looking to party every summer afternoon. If your fan base could grow a set and put some pressure on the players, they wouldn't take you for granted. Of course all this bitching goes on in an environment where the White Sox won the Series a few years ago, and you have Six, SIX!, NBA championships brought to you over the past 15 years by the greatest player of the modern era. The bears were in the Superbowl in the past five years, and actually have a SB championship. If it wasn't for the Phillies last year, Philadelphia would be in a 26 year championship drought, as a city. Cities that have a championship in any single sport in recent time have no right to complain about their frustrations with a single team, that's cherry picking. Cleveland and Buffalo, I cede the floor to you.
If I was a moderator, I'd ban you, find out where you live, then beat you to death with a sack full of doorknobs.
Golden State Warriors One of the good things about being as old as dirt is I can remember when the Warriors won an NBA championship. I always have that to fall back on. But the shit I have to put up with from my own children just makes me want to cry.
You expect people who can't pronounce R's to be good at math? (I live in Rhode Island and support the Pats and Celtics... Don't really care about the Sox.)
I from NJ so I like the New York teams. "The Yankees just won the World Series and the Giants won the Super Bowl a couple years ago, what's the problem?" you ask. The problem is I like the shitty teams. I'm a Mets fan not a Yankees fan, my dad is from D.C. so I grew up hating the Giants so I like the Skins and Jets. I'm a Knicks fan and the Isaiah era was fucking pitiful. Hockey's not a real sport so I dunno if the Devils or Rangers or whoever I'm expected to like is/has been any good. Fuck. We better get fucking LeBron. And Mark Sanchez better stop throwing motherfucking interceptions. Rex Ryan lives in my neighborhood. After the first couple weeks and the win over the Pats, everyone here loved him. If he keeps losing, dude will be run out of town.
So you say Cubs fans are soft and need to put pressure on the players, yet all you tough Philly fans sat through 25 years without a single championship? Are you guys soft as well, or do fans actually have absolutely little to no bearing on what happen in pro sports?
I know not too many of you know much about S.A.'s prevalent sports. I'll preface it with this: Durban has some talented sides that almost under-perform on an almost yearly basis. It's sickening. Sharks (rugby): They won a few Currie Cups in the 1990's, with Gary Teichmann as Captain (who STILL has the highest win percentage of ANY Springbok captain, ever, at fractionally over 70%) - this was the first time Natal had won ANYTHING in rugby. The Sharks have won the Currie Cup once this decade in 1998, despite being one of the Big 5 teams in the competition (the others being: Cats/Lions, who play out of Johannesburg; Bulls, who play out of Pretoria; Western Province, who hail from Cape Town; Cheetahs, who play out of Bloemfontein). They've made ONE appearance in the Super 14 Final, losing to the Bulls in 2007, despite making the semi-finals nearly ever year since 2003. Dolphins (cricket): Oh Jesus. Supporting these guys is like getting kicked in the head repeatedly by Bruce Lee for your entire life. The last thing they won was in 2002 - they have sucked every single year since then. It's sad, since they always have some decent players but never quite get there. I think that's why they have a corner bar in the stadium - so you can turn away and not watch the Dolphins get beaten like the red-headed stepchild. Durban has a few soccer teams. Manning Rangers (which, I think, is now bankrupt and in the First Division) was the last team to win a title in the late 1990's, when Gordon Igesund was the head coach. AmaZulu and Golden Arrows are the other two sides. AmaZulu just try to avoid relegation. but Arrows are a safe mid-table club who managed to record a memorable 6-0 thumping of Ajax Cape Town in the MTN8 Cup Final a couple of months back.
It was a fumble dammit, TOM BRADY FUCKING FUMBLED IT. HE HAD TWO HANDS ON THE BALL Broke a TV that game. Still pisses me off.