I "dunno"--is it really worse in Cleveland than it is here? At least the Indians made it to the World Series not all that long ago (and, of course, guess who was their manager when they did--yep, one in the same, the Human (B)rain Delay--the current manager of the M's).
I wasn't here for Heathcliff Slocumb, so he really is not a persistent nightmare for me, but the 2001 ALCS surely was and is. How on earth can you tie the record for the most games ever won in one season, then lose the championship series in such a stupid manner (Oh, wait, ever since then, the Evil Empire version 1.0 has been doing the same thing, haven't they? Well, then, maybe the curse of 116 rubbed off on them that year).
And the author of this piece forgot a few things....the Huskies' fall from football grace; the oh-so-close trip to the Sweet Sixteen a couple of years ago; the new ownership of the Sonics turning their backs on the city mere days before/after getting the second overall draft pick in the NBA lottery (yeah, yeah, I know that they really turned their backs on the city the day they bought the team, but they only just made it official this week); the rumor of the M's being bought by Pat Gillick and friends/associates. I'm sure there is more, I'm just too depressed to think about it right now, is all.
It's like...did you notice that every time you get up just a little tiny spark of hope and start to nurture it into bigger brilliance someone comes along and blows it out? That's pretty much what it's like to be a sports fan in Seattle right now.
Maybe it would be better to live in someplace like, say, Las Cruces NM (yes, I AM talking to you, sir) where you don't have a team of your own, so you can be a fan of a team or teams somewhere else (like, maybe, Pittsburgh, or something).
Meh, I'm going to go up on the roof and watch the raindrops fall, and the new building that is cutting off my view of the Puget Sound get even taller as I am sitting there.......Sorry, Cleveland.
I believe that, among the cities with teams in all four professional sports, Philadelphia has suffered the longest collective championship drought.
The Eagles haven't won it all since 1960 (46 seasons).
The Flyers haven't won it all since 1975 (32 seasons).
The 76ers haven't won it all since 1983 (24 seasons).
The Phillies haven't won it all since 1980 (26 seasons).
That's 128 collective years of stagnation.
Let's go elsewhere... Seattle.
The Mariners have never won it all (29 years).
The Seahawks have never won it all (30 years).
The Supersonics haven't won it all since 1979 (27 years).
Without a hockey team, that is 86 collective years of stagnation -- 42 less years of futility than Philly.
Ultra: Oops, sorry. We DO have a hockey team. Granted the NHL left here shortly after the team here won the Stanley cup in 1916-17 season (91 years ago), and the current WHL team hasn't won it all ever since their inception in 1977 (30 years). According to my calculator that all adds up to 207 years of total drought. Guess we have you beat by about 79 years in that department.
I am a 50 something health care professional transplanted to Seattle from SoCal in 2001 (and, before you ask, no, I don't want to go back). My tastes in sports are pretty eclectic, but in order of preference, I guess they would be baseball, hockey, basketball, football--col lege and pro/men and women alike. Teams I "HATE": USC (I went to UCLA); University of Michigan (born and raised in Columbus OH to a large family of OSU alumni/alumna e), and--probably most of all--the d***ed Yankees. I have worked in a variety of capacities at the MLB, NBA and NFL venues here in Seattle and at UW (hey, what true sports fan could pass up the possibility of getting paid to do something you would have done anyway (and had to pay for it)?)
