Thank 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?]