In the American sports world few would doubt the Los Angeles area and New York City are the largest two markets. Both cities, in various sports, have certainly seen their share of glory over the many years. But not lately. Let's look at each.
New York
The Rangers just got bounced in their first-ever Game 7 Stanley Cup playoff loss on their home ice.
Despite continuing to have a ridiculous player payroll, the Yankees have routinely made a quick exit from the Major League playoffs in recent years.
The Knicks are god-awful. Even the Zen Master Phil Jackson couldn't put that train wreck back together. And now they've hired Isiah Thomas as some sort of consultant. Thomas has made his post-playing career fame as the Murphy's Law poster child when it comes to managerial decisions. If there's a way to screw it up or bankrupt it, rest assured Zeke will find it. Good luck with that.
The Islanders are still around -- I think. But they haven't been a contender in decades.
Technically, there are the NY Giants and NY Jets, though they've both long played in New Jersey. The Giants have hit the skids after winning a couple improbable Super Bowls over the New England Patriots in recent years. The Jets have finally moved beyond the yuk, yuk, circus years of Rex Ryan running the show, but they're pretty much still a mess as well.
The Nets moved back to Brooklyn from New Jersey, but they're a maybe playoff team at best, and certainly not serious contenders.
The Mets have long had their own faithful following, but when's the last time they made any noise in October?
And David Letterman just retired. His show came from New York and Dave was always a good sport.
Things are not looking good in the Big Apple.
Los Angeles
True, the Kings were the defending Stanley Cup champions, but they got bounced early this year.
Like the Yankees, the LA Dodgers always have a mega-payroll with stars galore, but when's the last time you saw them in the World Series?
The LA Angels are struggling to stay above .500.
After the whole Donald Sterling/Adam Silver/V Stiviano fiasco, and Steve Ballmer swooping in to pay well over twice the market value for the Clippers, then acting like a 5 year old on mind altering drugs while sitting courtside -- the Clips got bounced in the second round of the playoffs. Yet something good came out of all this. Mercifully, those stupid Chris Paul and his twin brother insurance commercials finally went away. Not so good for Chris because he still hasn't even tasted a conference final. But very good for Cliff. He likely made a fortune on the royalties from all those ads. He has to be the richest insurance agent in the world. Maybe he can now afford to make a down payment on getting a personality.
Los Angeles hasn't had an NFL football team since the Rams moved to St. Louis 20 years ago. The late Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders once took his team to LA, then moved back to Oakland. Oakland!! The armpit of the Bay area. What does that say about the pro football mentality in LA-LA-land?
The once mighty Lakers have become a joke. It's no longer show-time, it's blow-time. Any good player that could get out -- has. Only Kobe Bryant is left and he's getting old and can't seem to stay healthy for long. Expecting Kobe to lead the Lakers back to greatness is akin to thinking Tiger Woods is going to storm back and dominate the PGA tour. It's not going to happen. They both had their times in the limelight, and now it's over. Meanwhile, the NBA and PGA are doing better than ever with the young guns now showcasing their talents in both venues. Who needs a Kobe when we have a Lebron and a Steph? And who needs a Tiger when we have a Jordan and a Rory? The beat goes on.
The big cities and their big money no longer guarantee success in the pro sports world, and that's probably a good thing. We've had enough of New York this and Los Angeles that over the decades. It's nice to see a class act like, say, the San Antonio Spurs rise up from being an "expansion" team to win a few championships.
Nicer yet would be to see a long suffering franchise win a title. A few come to mind.
The Chicago Cubs. It's been over 100 years. They're kind of like Sara Lee. Nobody can really hate the Cubbies.
The Detroit Lions. The Motown bumblers either have the most loyal, or dumbest fan base in the country. How else to explain over 50 years of Keystone Kop Kaos while at the conclusion of every season the fans continue to steadfastly believe next year will be the one? In Detroit, hope -- or is that dope?-- springs eternal. The Lions are one of only four teams to never even MAKE it to the Super Bowl, let alone win it. The others are Jacksonville, Houston, and Cleveland. Note the latter three are all "expansion" teams, but the Puddy Tats have been around since forever.
And speaking of Cleveland, it's also been since forever the last time that town won a major championship in ANY sport.
Uh-oh. Lebron James and the Cavaliers are in the NBA Finals. Could this be the year the Lake Erie-ites finally get to celebrate something?
The oddsmakers say Golden State is the favorite, but how can one root against anything Cleveland, given their sad-sack history?
Regardless, and no doubt the Big Applers and Glitzers would disagree, the sports world is just fine without New York and Los Angeles hogging up the headlines and airtime, as they have so often in the past.
It's kind of like Tiger Woods fading away on the PGA tour. The game has become more interesting than ever in his absence. Instead of Tiger this, Tiger that, choke me on a Tiger spoon with the endless replays, it's nice indeed to see TV coverage of a variety of rising young stars showing their talents on various courses.
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