In a world where life is surrounded by sports entertainment, any person with true fan hood understands the feeling of let down and disappointment. Ask Boston fans before 2004, Blackhawks fans before last year, New Orleans fans, and any basketball fan that doesn’t cheer for the Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, or Spurs. They all would say the years (or continuing years) before they won were terrible, nauseating, and sometimes unbearable to even watch. With teams in cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Boston not only winning, but also winning championships over and over again there are obvious cities left out of the enjoyment of sports. Recently there was a post about the top ten most miserable sports cities with the rankings as follows:
1: Seattle
2: Atlanta
3: Phoenix
4: Buffalo
5: San Diego
6: Houston
7: Kansas City
8: Cleveland
9: Denver
10: Cincinnati
This list was calculated based on a point system comprising stats of consecutive season’s without a championship title, championship losses, playoff losses, and loss of a team to a different location. Although the list was limited to cities/areas with 75 years of cumulative seasons in the four major sports leagues, there is one omission and a glaring loser of a city/state that sadly needs to be recognized…Minnesota.
Since 1954 when the Minneapolis Lakers last won a championship in Minnesota there has only been 2 championships won between four sports franchises in Minnesota (Twins ’87 ’91). These two give Minnesota 7 total championships (5 being the Minneapolis Lakers’ before 1955 which shouldn’t even count towards Minnesota’s total) with a total of 8 championship appearances lost, and 73 playoff appearances. Even excluding the years where teams didn’t even make the playoffs, it is clear Minnesota has a history of losing.
To add to the never-ending sorrow Minnesota not only lost on an extreme occasion, but also lost two important franchises. If someone doesn’t believe Minnesotan’s don’t have anything to complain about compared to Seattle or Atlanta, you must remember Kobe Bryant should be playing basketball in Minnesota and Mike Modano should be ending his career as a Northstar. Minnesotans have missed out on a total of 11 NBA championships including the great rivalries of Magic and Bird, and the duo of Kobe and Shaq and Kobe and Pau. We have also missed out on watching all-time greats like Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor (played 2 seasons in Minneapolis), Jerry West, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to name a few. Instead of this basketball fan’s dream of a team to cheer for, we Minnesotans have the Timberwolves (enough said), but yet we probably have the same amount of true fans the Lakers do now. For example the last time I saw a picture of the courtside seats at a Lakers game they showed a row of celebrities including Rihanna and Justin Bieber, who were all on their cell phones, talking, or looking more intrigued with their nachos…Instead of watching the Black Mamba work his magic. That’s fan hood right there. It’s bad enough Minnesotans don’t get to have season tickets to this or have a few Minneapolis Lakers championship posters, but Los Angeles the city has 5 lakes or reservoirs within the city, compared to the 12 lakes in Minneapolis and the 10,000 plus lakes in Minnesota.
If that isn’t bad enough we now must talk about hockey. Minnesota is not only known for its abundances of lakes but is also known as the state of hockey, this is nothing new to Minnesotans. Therefore one would think it is a guarantee the state always has a professional hockey team. But like our loss of the Lakers we also lost the coveted Minnesota Northstars in 1993 to Dallas, Texas. Then 5 years later with Minnesota favorites Mike Modano, Brett Hull, Jamie Langenbrunner, and Ed Belfour they won arguably the most prestigious trophy in sports: Lord Stanley’s cup. This in some eyes could be an atrocity to the sport; a city with no winter including snow won an ice hockey championship, while a state with a passion to hockey comparable to Canada sat without a professional hockey team.
With losses of potential happiness and glory, upsets after upsets in the playoffs, Brett Favre playing good but not good enough, the Yankees stomping our dreams, the unacquired lottery picks, and the lack of hockey superstars on a team with fans that actually do care, we Minnesotans have grown accustom to misery. Most likely it is because we are indeed Minnesota nice, and just hope for better the next year. Most likely thinking, “it’s ok M&M boys some athletes get injured a lot”, “My palms get sweaty when I work hard too, Adrian”, “Hey Timberwolves maybe we both can win the lottery for once,” or “Hey at least we still have the state hockey tournament to look forward too every year”. As fans of sport, this is the best we can and should do and like my dear friend Bobo said recently, “this is the year” should be thought year after year just to make the seasons that much better. Because sooner or later something great will happen and like the fortunate undeserving fans of Boston, New York, or Los Angeles we too will be able to say where we were when the Timberwolves and their roster of up and comers won their first championship, the Stanley Cup finally reached its real home (not Canada), the best running back in the game carried the Vikings on his back to a Lombardi trophy, and hometown hero Joe Mauer helped win us the World Series. So maybe this is the year something awesome happens, so don’t fret or whine keep watching and cheering, because you don’t want to miss out when something glorious occurs.
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