There has always been debate between proud American Sports-Towns. Debate about which city that houses one of our beloved sports franchise is the best sports city in America. Numerous cities lay claim to being “Titletown
U.S.A.” or the town that is best known for exemplifying the singular ideal behind American sport: WINNING.
In this article I will lay down my personal beliefs and love of my own home city and examine the evidence supporting these towns’ claims to being Titletown.
I caution you, some of you may get your feelings hurt.
First, let’s remove some obvious pretenders. Detroit is gone, other than the Red Wings the only thing consistent in Motor
City is the crime rate.
Dallas? Nah, sure they’ve won 5 Super Bowls, and the Mavs have won a couple NBA titles I think too but they don’t have the history.
Anyone who seriously wants to say
Green Bay is crazy.
Besides the Packers, who have won precisely 1 championship since 1968, what other sports related things go on in that town?
Maybe the little league team took the county championship once or twice, who knows?
Baltimore? Nope.
Miami? Not a chance.
Ooh
San Francisco? Not really, but a better shot than some of these others.
Let’s get down to the Cities with a legitimate shot at this thing.
The way I see it, this should be like a short tournament. I’ll seed 4 cities and then weigh their merits against each other to determine scientifically who moves on. What cities will be in the final four? I’ll tell you. Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Now, before you get up in arms about my choices, allow me to explain my reasoning to you.
Boston has won the most championships lately, and almost had a three-peat in the major sports over the last year. (The Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl)
New York’s Yankees have won by far the most championships of any team in any major sport (26).
One of their Football teams won the Super Bowl this year and their hockey and basketball teams haven’t been bad in the past either.
Los Angeles has had good basketball teams pretty consistently for the last 30 years and they own the second most NBA titles.
I’m using the Raiders as their football team, and they’ve won a few Super Bowls.
Chicago might seem like the odd-man-out here but it won 6 NBA titles in the 1990’s a Super Bowl in ’85 and a World Series in 2005.
Plus people love to go watch baseball there.
There, now you should see it my way.
(1) New York - Hard to ignore the most championship victories in all major sports.
(2) Boston - No longer the lovable losers, winning championships is a routine thing in Beantown now.
(3) Chicago - 8 sports championships since 1985. And a good baseball and football teams recently make them a contender.
(4) Los Angeles - Seemingly outgunned, the only thing they really have going for them is Basketball, and Boston has them beat in that. Maybe their potential can lift them over the top.
So let’s break this down in a bracket style:
(1) New York VS. (4) Los Angeles - L.A. has actually won more Titles than New York since 2000. But before that things were way different.
New York has won at least one championship in every major sport since 1980. The only thing
L.A. has over N.Y. is Basketball, and that’s not even close to enough to swing the upset. Maybe next time L.A. but for now, it’s still
New York’s show.
(2) Boston VS. (3) Chicago - I’d say Chicago needs a better body of work to support their bid here.
Boston has 3 Super Bowls, 2 World Series and an NBA championship all since 2001.
Chicago has a World Series victory since then. That’s 6-1 over the last 8 years in favor of
Boston. Chicago won a lot of NBA titles with
Jordan in the 90’s and a Super Bowl in ’85. But that’s ancient history in sports terms. Winner:
Boston.
And now what you’ve all been waiting for. You knew it would come down to this, as it does frequently in the sporting world. The biggest Sports-City rivalry of all time!
(1) New York VS. (2) Boston- Da Da Da DUMMMMMM. Lots of memories here, the 2004 ALCS when Boston came back from 3-0 to beat the Yankees and go on to win their first W.S. in 86 years. Super Bowl XLII when the heavy underdog Giants stopped the Undefeated Patriots in their tracks. This is Tom Brady vs. Lawrence Taylor, Ted Williams vs. Babe Ruth, Larry Byrd Vs. Patrick Ewing. Legendary players played in these cities, men that transcended their games. You couldn’t fit all those trophies in a two car garage. We are going to have to break this one down.
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World Series since 1900: New York hands-down. The Yankees have 26 The Red Sox a mere 6. But the Sox have won 2 of the past 4 and the Yanks haven’t won it since 2000. Edge- New York
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Super Bowls: The Giants and Patriots are tied at 3 apiece. The Giants Defeated the Patriots in the head to head matchup in Super Bowl XLII. But the Pats won 3 of 4 from 2001-04. The Patriots also have more conference championships to their credit. Edge-Even
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NBA Finals: Boston wins this one easy. The Celtics have won 17 NBA championships. Including the most recent 2008 Finals. The Knicks have won 2. Edge-Boston
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Stanley Cups Since 1927: The New York Rangers won it first in 1927. Followed the Next year By the Boston Bruins. Overall the Rangers have won 4 and the Bruins have won 5. Slight Edge- Boston
In the interest of fairness, I took away three teams from New York, all the less-winning franchises. The bastard children, if you will. The Jets, Islanders and Mets were all left off this list to level the playing field. By the tally, it appears to be 2-1-1 Boston. But it’s hard to overlook 26 championships in a single sport. The Yankees are doing their part in keeping N.Y. Titletown hopes alive. Then again, the Celtics championships greatly outnumber the Knicks. So that kind of nullifies the Yankees efforts. This is a close one; let’s look at recent history for the clincher. Since 2000,
Boston sports teams have won a total of 6 championships.
3 Super Bowls, 2 World Series and an NBA Finals win.
New York teams have won 2.
A World Series and a Super Bowl.
The edge in recent history is
Boston.
With all this data in mind, it is my honor to present
Boston, Massachusetts as
TitleTown U.S.A. Sorry N.Y.,
L.A. and Chicago, but they deserve it the most.