Philadelphia's Four Lost Championships in a Nine Year Span - Has Any City Done It Quicker?
by David S. Cohen on Jun 10, 2010 11:00 AM EDT
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PrintThank goodness for the 2008 Phillies! If not for them, I'd be too depressed this morning to post this story. But with their World Series victory from 2 years ago, I can safely write this up....
Is there any other city that has lost a championship in each major professional sport in a span of less time than Philadelphia has? If I were done grading, I'd try to dig into this myself, but maybe the collective wisdom of the internet can answer this question. Once it's answered, hopefully in the comments, I'll post the answer below. [Edit: Answer below.]
Consider:
June 2001: The Sixers, coached by Larry Brown and with Allen Iverson leading the way, were in their first championship series in 18 season. They were outmatched in the finals, losing 4-1 to the Shaq and Kobe Lakers.
February 2005: The Eagles, in what will now forever be their only Super Bowl appearance in the Andy Reid/Donovan McNabb, lost to the Patriots 24-21. In retrospect, the score makes the game seem much closer than it was . . . .
October 2009: The Phillies, coming off their thrilling "world fucking champions" season of 2008, made it to back-to-back World Series for the first time in franchise history. They lost to the Yankees, 4-2.
June 2010: We all know the story by now, but in case you've lived in a hole for the past month, the Flyers, left for dead about a hundred different times over the course of the past several months, made it to the Stanley Cup Finals as a 7-seed. They gave the Chicago Blackhawks a run for their money, but lost the series 4-2 after forcing overtime in the sixth and last game.
Thus, in a span of just under 9 years (8 years, 359 days to be exact), Philadelphia teams lost the championship in each of the major sports.
Has any city's teams ever done this in a shorter period of time?
[And we have two answers in already: New York from 2000 to 2002 (Mets, Giants, Devils, Nets) and Boston from 1986 to 1988 (Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins). Leave it to New York and Boston to beat us in futility.... Thanks to njhoya06 and taco pal for the answers.
Now another question - can any city top those two?]
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Depending on how you count NY/NJ teams
The Mets, Giants, Devils and Nets all lost in the finals within a two year period from 2000-02
Also the Yankees, in 2001 to Arizona. And they did it again in ’03, to the Marlins.
by dajafi on Jun 10, 2010 10:17 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Probably – Not many cities even have teams in all four sports. I count: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Boston, Washington, Miami, Dallas, SF Bay Area, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta, Phoenix.
The last five cities on the list all have at least one team that has never even been to a championship final, so they’re out.
Washington hasn’t been to World Series since the old Senators, and they didn’t have a hockey team back then, so they’re out too.
here's one
Boston
1986 NFL (lost to Bears)
1986 MLB (lost to Mets)
1987 NBA (lost to Lakers)
1988 NHL (lost to Oilers)
Ouch, that’s a rough stretch. Of course, the ’86 Celtics helped matters in there.
by PhillyFriar on Jun 10, 2010 11:27 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
especially since the '86 C's were one of the best teams of all time
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. - C&H
by alcatraz0109 on Jun 10, 2010 11:32 AM EDT up reply actions
add in the Semi final round as well and you can get 5 more: 4 NFC championship games and one Flyers loss to the Lightning.
I think we also have to give an Honorable Mention to Buffalo
3 Super Bowl losses in a 2 year period.
I guess you could say that, when it comes to how close in time all four teams lost their respective championships, Philly HAS actually done it in a shorter time:
1980 Stanley Cup Finals – Rangers beat Flyers, 4-2
1980 NBA Finals – Lakers beat Sixers, 4-2
Super Bowl XV – Raiders beat Eagles, 27-10
(1982 NBA Finals – Lakers beat Sixers, 4-2)
1983 World Series – Orioles beat Phillies, 4-1
Of course, the Phillies won in 1980.
his time span omits the 1980 WS win and the 1982 NBA Finals loss.
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. - C&H
Of course!
D’oh. I was thinking of the good from that era without remembering the bad too. Thanks.
by David S. Cohen on Jun 10, 2010 11:32 AM EDT up reply actions
whoops! you're right.
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. - C&H
by alcatraz0109 on Jun 10, 2010 11:33 AM EDT up reply actions
scratch that last sentence
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. - C&H
by alcatraz0109 on Jun 10, 2010 11:33 AM EDT up reply actions
You cannot cout new york and boston it is not the boston patriots it is new england meaning conn., maine and mass. That is how it is seen in carolina teams. north and south share the panthers and it is the new jersey devils not the new york. So taco and the other guy are wrong we are the only city whose teams share the same first name Philadelphia
I wasn't even a year old but I stayed up to be outside the Vet with my Dad and Mom when the Phillies won the World Series 1980.
The Patriots are the de facto representatives of the Boston metropolitan area. What’s in a name, as they say. Similarly, the German Democratic Republic was not democratic and the National Socialist Party was not socialist.
Nice argument, but that dismisses Dallas since the MLB teams aren’t actually in Dallas proper?
Teams in Minnesota represent the state, not a city, inherently in their name (which is kind of weird now that I think about it – all the minneosta teams are named after the state and not the city – then i start to wonder if the rays are pissed off that they only get ‘tampa’ while the marlins get all of ‘florida’)
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 11:49 AM EDT up reply actions
If your name is the city then I am all for them being for the city even if the don’t play there. I am not saying it is the New Jersey Jets because the play in New Jersey they still represent the city New England refers to I think the 4 states or is 5 states area. I am curious why Minnesota does this. I understand why they did the Carolina thing for football. Not sure why they weren’t name the Boston Patriots like they used to be but to me the aren’t not from boston if so change the name. If they called any of are teams the Pensylvania Eagles I wouldn’t care if they played in Philly they wouldn’t be the Philadelpha eagles no more to me I am sorry but have to be tick tacky with that. ( They never planned on giving a team to tampa but crazy just like most teams the play in St. Petersburg not Tampa)
I wasn't even a year old but I stayed up to be outside the Vet with my Dad and Mom when the Phillies won the World Series 1980.
by Christopher A on Jun 10, 2010 1:26 PM EDT up reply actions
If you want to get all technical about it
The New York (Football) Giants lost a championship game in December 1946
The New York Rangers lost the cup finals in 1950
The New York Knicks lost the NBA finals in 1951
The New York (Baseball) Giants lost the World Series in 1951 (with the Brooklyn Dodgers losing twice in that time span…all three losing to the Yanks)
Since we’re talking championships and the major sports news could be earthquakes in college sports, can someone here (lots of informed college sports fans here) tell me if the pac 16 is going to be just football or is the kansas basketball team about to get utterly shafted?
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 12:20 PM EDT reply actions
ESPN hasn’t mentioned football only but some other folk mentioned they thought it was.
As much as people love march madeness this has to demonstrate the insignificance of college basketball compared to football – I mean Kansas is a perennial basketball power and no one wants them cause their football program may compete every once in a while but as a whole, well, it stinks.
If the pac 16 gets its two BCS bids, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the big ‘10" try and get 4 more teams before the june 30th ’target date’ by targeting some more geographically friendly schools with football history (geographically friendly being places the big 10 doesn’t have a presence yet) – get miami, florida state…maybe boston college…if only iowa state wasn’t so crap – they’re a natural fit for the big ‘10’
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 12:25 PM EDT up reply actions
I’d actually consider USF also. Miami and FSU are both ACC, which is at least a respectable conference. USF is in the Big East, which is rough on basketball and doesn’t have any other members closer than Kentucky.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
I was mostly thinking of good ‘football’ schools that are in the ‘weaker’ conferences right now (Big East, SEC, ACC) that could be raided if the SEC (and big 10) want to go up to 16.
I think taking two florida schools would be good for the big 10 for the whole ‘geographic’ coverage type thing…if the target is 14, Miami, FSU and BC make 15, and maybe bring in kansas cause you want to strengthen basketball as well and increase the ‘lower midwest’ appeal of the big 10.
The SEC should look more to middle atlantic/north eastern traditional powers in an effort to get their influence stronger.
Or the two ‘lesser’ bcs conferences that are left (ACC BIg East) could consider merging.
Could Kansas join Conference USA? (I kind of forgot they existed)
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 1:03 PM EDT up reply actions
I suppose in theory they could, but CUSA currently has 12 teams in two 6-team divisions (Houston, Rice, SMU, UTEP, Tulsa, and Tulane in the West, and UAB, UCF, ECU, Marshall, Memphis, and USM in the East). They’d probably need to add one more member to balance the divisions.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
Well if things play out the way they do you got 5 schools without a conference
kansas
baylor
kansas state
iowa state
colorado state (I think is the last big 12 school but I might be wrong)
CUSA has some texas schools so they could take on baylor?
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions
Kansas State and Kansas are already members of CUSA for rowing, so they might be the most likely candidates.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
I’d like to nominate this comment as ‘obscure fact of the day’ for like the month of june
:)
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 1:35 PM EDT up reply actions
Last time I checked
Devils and Nets represent New Jersey not New York
The Kolb Era has begun....
Kolb - a heavy medieval war club with a spiked or flanged metal head, used to crush armor - Wikipedia of course
I've been waiting my whole life for an Eagles Championship
RIP JJ
Give it a couple years – the nets will at some point represent brooklyn
but they’ll still suck
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions
Yep
Not sure about the Nets, but when the Devils lost in the final, they were playing out of East Rutherford. Nets were probably playing in the same building.
I am the commenter formerly known as Belligerent Burkie
Follow me on twitter @CoolJ90 or add me to XBox Live - CoolJ90
The Nets played in the meadowlands
Next season they’ll play in the prudential center
in 2012 (they hope, but i doubt it) they’ll move into their pretty new arena in brooklyn
they also now have a cuban like owner
sadly the sixers are still owned by comcast
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions
Meh, they play in the same state as boston, there’s just no room in boston for a football stadium
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 2:58 PM EDT up reply actions
True, however, I am on the fence about this Boston thing, as part of the reason for the renaming (from Boston Patriots, their original name) was because the Patriots could not get the financing to put a stadium in Boston. They even at one point threatened to move to Hartford, Conn.— a deal that fell through when the financing for the stadium there did.
If they had moved to Hartford it would be different. But Foxboro is just an exurb of Boston. The Pats are a non-Boston team in name only. It would be like if the Eagles built a stadium in West Chester and changed their name. Everyone would know they were still the Philadelphia area. The fan base wouldn’t change. The local media coverage wouldn’t change.
If Boston had its own team, AND the Pats existed, that’d be one thing.
The Patriots are Boston’s football team. The Devils aren’t New York’s football team.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
I think that’s right. Curiously, the Rangers are still arguably North Jersey’s hockey team, or as much as the Devils are. At least as I understand it.
Are you thinking in much the same way that large parts of North Jersey root for the Giants and Yankees? (I was at a law clerk orientation for clerks from all over NJ, and one of the things the opening speaker did to loosen up the crowd was say that he could, with one question determine what part of NJ everyone was from. He then asked all of the Eagles fans to stand— about half of the room stood— and he said “South Jersey” followed by his asking for all of the Giants fans to stand up, and him saying “North Jersey”. At this point, one little voice in the back of the room said "What about the Jets" This was met with laughter from all sides.)
I’m fascinated at the divvying up of fans in the New York metro area. Every time you think you’ve got some basic rules down — Mets fans are from Long Island, Yankees fans from the Bronx, most of it is passed down from parents, etc. — you’ll find somebody who’s some weird combination of the teams for no good reason.
The rules are handy but not infallible…
Typically we’re talking Mets/Jets and Yankees/Giants although the guy in the office next to mine is Jets/Yankees.
North Jersey is probably 65% Yankees / 35% Mets. Generally the further north in NJ (and thus wealthier, and closer to the GW Bridge and thus Yankee Stadium), the more pro-Yankees it is. I’ve noticed more Jewish Mets fans, too, but that may totally anecdotal.
Brooklyn, Queens, and LI tend to be pro-Mets, while Manhattan, Bronx, Westchester, and Staten Island are more pro-Yankees.
Of course, there’s a huge contingent of front-runners who come out of the woodwork and become “life-long” fans of the currently better team.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
See, that’s where the lines are fuzzy. The general Mets/Yankees distinctions make sense and are useful, but I swear there’s absolutely no logic to the Giants/Jets divide. And while you’d think the Rangers/Islanders divide would make sense, a couple of my good buddies grew up on Long Island… rooting for the Rangers.
On a tangential (though somewhat related) note, there seems to be no vestige of the divide in Philadelphia at this point, and probably for good reason. My late grandfather was an A’s fan back in the days, but embraced the Phillies when the A’s rolled out of town.
While in college, I lived with a guy who grew up in Queens (not far from Shea) and hates every single NY-area sports team except for the Nets. Besides the Nets, he roots for the Saints and Jaguars. This made for some strange conversations.
by ThinMountainAir on Jun 10, 2010 6:23 PM EDT up reply actions
Funding – where would they get geography – there’s a reason fenway park still has weird dimensions and limited seating – boston is one of the most ‘developed’ cities around – there’s no where really left to put stuff
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions
This is correct. I just took a tour of Fenway a couple of weeks ago actually, and they noted that the Green Monster is the product of Landsdowne St. already existing at the time Fenway was built in 1912 — thus, the stadium had to be shoehorned into the then-existing road structure.
And you’re right — there’s really nowhere to put a new stadium in Boston without dramatically overhauling the public transportation system. And whereas the Patriots could successfully be moved out of the city (because nobody really gave a shit about them until the mid-90s), that simply wouldn’t fly with the Red Sox.
Boston also has some sort of weird road pattern that makes sense if you’re from boston but i have coworker who go there for trade shows (expo east) and get lost every time.
I ask my gf about it and she says it’s wicked easy (yes sometimes she says wicked and i mock her for it as i should) – but i’ve yet to meet a non native who thinks it’s easy
by jemagee on Jun 10, 2010 5:23 PM EDT up reply actions
Lost in Boston
I went to college in Cambridge and drove a little Honda motorbike around the city then, but I never really spent much time driving in Boston. When I visited there last fall for the first time in 30 years I really did get lost on my way from the airport to my hotel – and I like to think I’ve got a pretty good sense of direction. I ended up buying a map and then asked a nice person for help in getting back to the freeway.
by phillyinportland on Jun 14, 2010 1:24 AM EDT up reply actions
Southern France, Monaco, and a tiny but of Northern Italy.
I spent one night in Boston near Boaton University and Boston College and loved the area.
by dannijd on Jun 12, 2010 11:13 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
New York 2000 to 2002
The Mets Lost to the Yankees in 2000. So this would not count for New York for this time period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_World_Series
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