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Let's talk about championships in general among the four major professional sports.
Longest Total Championship Drought by Metropolitan Area
With the Cleveland Cavaliers winning this year's NBA title, Cleveland's long (very long) championship-less nightmare is over. Before the Cavs' victory, Cleveland had racked up 144 consecutive seasons without a championship, as follows:
Cleveland Indians, 1966-93; 1995-2015 (49 seasons)
Cleveland Browns, 1965-1995; 1999-2015 (48 seasons)
Cleveland Cavaliers, 1971-2015 (45 seasons)
Cleveland Barons, 1977-78 (2 seasons) - an NHL team which, to add to the ignonimity of the streak, is the last franchise in any of the four major sports to fold
Let's look at the next longest active streaks, by metro area:
San Diego - 108 seasons
Buffalo - 103 seasons
Minneapolis - 90 seasons
Washington - 84 seasons
Atlanta - 73 seasons
Since the Minneapolis area has four teams to San Diego and Buffalo's two apiece, Minneapolis is on pace - barring any interceding championships, expansion/franchise shifts, or cancelled seasons - to catch San Diego in nine years and surpass them in ten.
Longest Total Championship Drought by State
The state of Ohio also had the longest streak of consecutive seasons without a championship, accumulating a total of 137 in a row by six different franchises (really, seven, but the NFL likes to pretend that the current Browns are the same as the previous Browns) between the Cincinnati Reds' World Series title in 1991 and the Cavs' victory this year. The longest current state streak is Minnesota at 88, racked up by five different franchises. I think Georgia is probably in second place, but I haven't looked that close.
Longest Streaks Without a Championship, by Individual Franchise
106 seasons - Chicago Cubs, 1909-93; 1995-2015
68 seasons - Chicago/St. Louis/Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals, 1948-2015
66 seasons - Cleveland Indians 1949-93; 1995-2015
65 seasons - Rochester Royals/Cincinnati Royals/Kansas City Kings/Sacramento Kings, 1952-2016
58 seasons - Detroit Lions, 1958-2015
58 seasons - St. Louis/Milwaukee/Atlanta Hawks, 1959-2015
55 seasons - Minnesota Vikings, 1961-2015
55 seasons - Philadelphia Eagles, 1961-2015
54 seasons - Washington Senators/Texas Rangers, 1961-93; 1995-2015
53 seasons - Houston Colt .45s/Astros, 1962-93; 1995-2015
The Cubs' lead is massive. It's also interesting that they have the current futility record for not even making it to the championship round the last 69 times it has been held (since 1945). Amazingly, the Cubs have thus failed to even make it to a championship longer than any other franchise has failed to win a championship. Could it all end this year with a Series title? We'll find out in about four months.
Miscellaneous
Finally, the NBA and NHL play their championships at about the same time each year. This year, teams from the same region - the Bay Area (Golden State Warriors, San Jose Sharks) - lost both championships. This had not happened since the Philadelphia 76ers and the Philadelphia Flyers both lost in 1980.
I guess I'm a snob though as I don't worry about such things. I happen to be a sports fan in Boston for which the titles taken home between the four major sports in the past decade+ is not rivaled by any other city. So for now I just revel in the success of our pro sports teams.
Cleveland Indians haven't won a World Series since 1948. It's been over 60 years. They are doing really good this year. If they are good enough they might have chance.
This total seasons vs. years seems pretty silly. I also think college championships would be good to include. At least in some states. For all of Cleveland's woes, people there take pride in OSU's championship last year.
This total seasons vs. years seems pretty silly. I also think college championships would be good to include. At least in some states. For all of Cleveland's woes, people there take pride in OSU's championship last year.
Hardly. It speaks to futility.
The New York metropolitan area has nine franchises. Portland has one. It's glaringly obvious that if New York went a decade ten years without a title, it would be a far greater exercise in futility than if Portland went half a century.
OSU? When speaking about titles in Cleveland, I have no idea what you're dragging Columbus into this conversation. It has no bearing on titles by Cleveland-based teams. And college sports? I couldn't care less. If you're interested, feel free to start a thread about their titles.
If you're talking about people feeling dejected in an area because of their sports woes, this can often be mitigated by success in college sports. People all over Ohio care about OSU, including Cleveland. They would be happy, no matter how difficult their lives, as long as OSU crushes Michigan. Now if Xavier won March Madness, I doubt people in Cleveland would care much.
Regardless of college, years is a good enough metric. I didn't even know Cleveland used to have an NHL team (how many Clevelanders do?). I don't think those 2 seasons should really contribute to anything.
Let's look a little closer at recent championships. In this case, championships of the past decade.
First, by metropolitan area* (championships won-lost**):
Boston, 5-4
Los Angeles, 5-1
San Francisco, 4-3 [this metro area comprises the entire Bay Area]
New York, 3-3
Pittsburgh, 3-2
Chicago, 3-1
Miami, 2-2
San Antonio, 2-1
St. Louis, 2-1
Detroit, 1-3
Cleveland, 1-2
Dallas, 1-2
Denver, 1-2
Philadelphia, 1-2
Indianapolis, 1-1
Kansas City, 1-1
Seattle, 1-1
Baltimore, 1-0
Green Bay, 1-0
New Orleans, 1-0
Charlotte, 0-1
Oklahoma City, 0-1
Orlando, 0-1
Ottawa, 0-1
Phoenix, 0-1
Vancouver, 0-1
Tampa, 0-2
Clearly, the metro leading the way is Boston. Five championships and nine appearances, and they won at least one championship (and had at least two championship appearances) by each of their four franchises.
Los Angeles did pretty well, too, especially in the number of championships. Of course, during this time they had two more franchises than Boston.
Also, the Bay Area saw a team in each sport make it to a championship round.
The biggest no-shows? Minneapolis and Washington, each with a team in all four sports - and not a single championship appearance.
San Antonio made the most with the least, having only one team ad thus playing only ten seasons. Then again, if you have only one franchise and it's really good, this is what happens.
As far as states go, it's been a great year for California, with nine titles in thirteen championship appearances. But then, California does have the most franchises of any state (by far).
* - So this includes not only teams that play in the core city of a metro area (such as Minneapolis, for the Twins) but teams that play elsewhere in the same metro (such as the Wild, who play over in St. Paul).
** - I include championships lost because, hey, such seasons were usually highly rewarding from a fan's point of view, at least, until the very end.
I wonder what it would look like if we look at conference or league championship droughts. Failure to even make the big game?
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