Miserable American Sports Cities (nesn)

[oldecapecod11]

Miserable American Sports Cities (nesn)
Started by oldecapecod 11, Sep 25 2014 11:35 AM

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10 replies to this topic

#1 oldecapecod 11
PFRA Member
Posted 25 September 2014 - 11:35 AM
Buffalo, Philadelphia Among Most Miserable American Sports Cities

Obviously, nesn people have not spent any time in Jacksonville or Tampa Bay.
Phoenix might fall from the second most miserable once the University of Phoenix professional football team gets going.
They've got the stadium; they've got the web site; and they've got the moolah. What else do they need?

1. Atlanta
2. Phoenix
3. Cleveland
4. San Diego
5. Buffalo
6. Houston
7. Denver
8. Kansas City
9. Minneapolis
10. Philadelphia

http://nesn.com/play...st-in-sports/1/

#2 Mark L. Ford
Administrators
Posted 25 September 2014 - 12:28 PM
I remember back in 1975, when the Atlanta Constitution had a big headline on its sports page-- "LOSERSVILLE". Looking back at the year's end then, it was NFL Falcons 4-10-0, NL Braves 67-94, NBA Hawks 31-51 and NHL Flames 34-31-15 (not that bad, but still one of five teams to miss the playoffs in an 18-team league). On the other hand, the Braves have done very well for themselves this year, and last year's 4-12 Falcons so far... as the saying goes, "2 out of 3 ain't bad".

#3 oldecapecod 11
PFRA Member
Posted 25 September 2014 - 12:50 PM
Woody Hayes, a fellow who preferred his teams to run with the football, once commented: "only three things can happen when you pass and two of them are bad."
Sorta sheds a different light on the 2-out-of-3 or the .667 theory?
Hayes later found out that three things can happen when you throw a punch and two of those are also bad.
One of the two is career-ending.

#4 JWL
PFRA Member
Posted 25 September 2014 - 05:52 PM
Mark L. Ford, on 25 Sept 2014 - 12:28 PM, said:
...NHL Flames 34-31-15 (not that bad, but still one of five teams to miss the playoffs in an 18-team league)...
The 14th best team was over .500? The NHL always had funny math, I guess. Although I gave up on hockey years ago, I still looked at the 2013-14 standings a few times just to view the weirdness. Everytime I looked 80% of the teams were above .500. Then there was that spell a decade or so ago when there were seven columns for records in the standings. For instance, Toronto may have been 26-20-17-3-8-4-2. 26 wins, 20 losses, 17 ties, 3 wins on Tuesdays, 8 overtime losses, 4 wins with Gilbert Gottfried in attendance and 2 regulation ties (games stopped due to melting ice).

#5 JohnH19
Forum Visitors
Posted 25 September 2014 - 09:32 PM
The 74-75 Flames actually had the 11th best record in the league. They missed the playoffs because of the tough division they were in. The same thing happens in the NFL once in a while when 8-8 or 9-7 division winners get in but 11-5 teams miss out on a wild card spot. Another reason is that it was an expansion season for the 8-67-5 Capitals and 15-54-11 K.C. Scouts. Games against those two powderpuffs meant extra wins for everyone else as did matchups with the 19-48-13 California Golden Seals.

The reason that so many teams have better than .500 records these days is because of the $&*#!%@# three point games that came into being when the *%$*&@#! shootout rule was created for the 2005-06 season. The losing team in regular OT or the shootout now gets a point. YUCK!

#6 Todd Pence
Forum Visitors
Posted 26 September 2014 - 03:40 PM
If this was published just one year ago, Seattle probably would have been on the list.

#7 Mark L. Ford
Administrators
Posted 26 September 2014 - 04:32 PM
JohnH19, on 25 Sept 2014 - 9:32 PM, said:
The 74-75 Flames actually had the 11th best record in the league. They missed the playoffs because of the tough division they were in. The same thing happens in the NFL once in a while when 8-8 or 9-7 division winners get in but 11-5 teams miss out on a wild card spot. Another reason is that it was an expansion season for the 8-67-5 Capitals and 15-54-11 K.C. Scouts. Games against those two powderpuffs meant extra wins for everyone else as did matchups with the 19-48-13 California Golden Seals.

I misspoke (or miswrote) when I said that they were one of 5 teams to miss the playoffs in an 18 team league. They were one of six, since it was a 12 team playoff, not 13. As John notes correctly, it was based on the division finish, The NHL set up was, unfortunately, to guarantee that the three best teams in each division would go to postseason.

That's true-- their record of 83 points (68 for their 34 wins and another 15 for their ties) was better than Toronto (31-33-16 or 78 points) and Chicago (37-35-8 or 82 points). Atlanta was only a tie's worth of difference less than the 10th place team, St. Louis. Luckily, the NFL hasn't yet decided to send at least 2/3rds of its teams to the playoffs, which would be a return to three wild cards per conference in addition to the top two finishers in each division.

#8 97Den98
Forum Visitors
Posted 26 September 2014 - 11:55 PM
Mark L. Ford, on 25 Sept 2014 - 12:28 PM, said:
I remember back in 1975, when the Atlanta Constitution had a big headline on its sports page-- "LOSERSVILLE". Looking back at the year's end then, it was NFL Falcons 4-10-0, NL Braves 67-94, NBA Hawks 31-51 and NHL Flames 34-31-15 (not that bad, but still one of five teams to miss the playoffs in an 18-team league). On the other hand, the Braves have done very well for themselves this year, and last year's 4-12 Falcons so far... as the saying goes, "2 out of 3 ain't bad".

Two years later, SI did a story about Atlanta, talking about how they may have gotten all their sports teams too quick. They got the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, and Flames within a six-year span.

#9 JohnH19
Forum Visitors
Posted 27 September 2014 - 11:39 PM
It was only too quick because the teams weren't any good for years after coming to the city.

The only team that had some relatively early success was the Braves who won the NL West in 1969, their fourth year in Atlanta, only to have the Miracle Mets dispatch them three straight in the NLCS.

The Flames were a very good expansion team in 1972-73 and made the playoffs in their second season but the novelty of an NHL team faded quickly after the charismatic Boom Boom Geoffrion left his position as head coach midway through the 1974-75 season. The team remained competitive in every season that they called Atlanta home, making the playoffs in six of eight seasons. Unfortunately, they lost in the first round every time.

#10 Jeremy Crowhurst
PFRA Member
Posted 28 September 2014 - 01:17 AM
Atlanta... repopulating hockey in Canada, one city at a time....

The Flames as a team deserved a better fate, but Atlanta only got the franchise because the NHL was battling with the WHA for cities. They really should have let the WHA win that particular battle, as the WHA had "won" with San Diego, Birmingham, and Phoenix. But I don't know how anyone outside of Winnipeg has ever thought that the Thrashers were a good idea.

As for the NHL's playoff system, the madness continues -- in 2010, the team that finished tied 19th-20th (Flyers) went to the Stanley Cup finals... in a league where the "top" 16 teams made the playoffs.

#11 luckyshow
Forum Visitors
Posted 29 September 2014 - 10:47 AM
<The Shaughnessy playoff system was invented in 1933 by Frank Shaughnessy, the general manager of the Montreal Royals minor league baseball team of the International League. After its successful implementation by the International League, the popularity of the new postseason format spread to other leagues in other sports, including the All-America Football Conference (which used the Shaughnessy playoff system in the league's last season of existence)
and the minor American football league American Association, which used the format in five of its championship seasons. The format has also been widely used in minor league baseball on all levels.
In the Original Six era of the National Hockey League (1942-1967), the circuit adopted a Shaughnessy playoff system (first place vs. fourth place and second place vs. third place) in which the paired teams played in a best-four-of-seven-games series with the winners advancing to the Stanley Cup championship round.>

I think this was the original system which had playoffs before the championship game or series. The NBA isn't mentioned I think because the Shauughnessy system specifically was for a divisionless league.. (perhaps or they just don't mention them in error)

Perhaps at one time, Baltimore was a bad city for pro sports. They had no major league baseball team for 50 years, they lost their first pro football team, aand later on, their NBA team moved out of town.. They were a popular minor league baseball city, though...