The Bird was the Word

Once again, the passing of a Tiger legend.
I was too young to be following sports the Bird's rookie (and really only) season, and only heard stories of it when I came to sports fandom age a few years later. Part of me never really understood what the big deal was about him. So he talked to the baseball, big deal.
But a few years back when the All-Star game was in Detroit, I saw a piece on him on the WWL, and I started to get what made him so special.

The 70s were not a very good time for the Detroit sports fan. The Lions made one playoff game in 1970, and then moved out of the city to Pontiac, which must have seemed like another world at the time. The Red Wings were in the midst of a 20 year swoon which saw them make the playoffs only twice, despite the NHL expanding the post season to 16 out of the 20 teams in the league. The Pistons were still a non-entity in the NBA, and the Tigers, despite having won a championship in '68, and a division with Billy Martin in 72, lost 102 games in 75, their first losing season since 1952.

It hadn't always been that way. In the fifties and early sixties, Detroit was one of the centers of the sporting world. The Lions won four championships in seven years, playing at Briggs stadium. The Red Wings won four Cups in six years. And the Tigers, although not a powerhouse like the Yankees (or even the BoSox) were still a consistent top half of the division. Kids growing up in that era had it good around here.

So the downfall of the 70s must have seemed like the end of the world to those kids. Then along comes Fidrych, this non-roster invitee to spring training in 76, who didn't started his first game until mid-may, and wound up finishing 2nd in the Cy Young voting. He went 19-9 with 24 complete games and 250 innings pitched. He was a breath of fresh air to a town that was desperate for a hero.

And then, almost as quickly, he was gone. His career only lasted four more years, he only pitched 162 more innings in the majors after 1962. He was like that girl you dated once in high school that you were crazy about, but moved away before you could learn all the mundane things about her. He was a shooting star, whose peak came at just the right time in Detroit sports history

A Radical Suggestion

From time to time the subject of Big Ten expansion comes up at the office. Usually it's brought up by one of those quasi-sports fan, who knows when the Super Bowl is, but not much more. The question gets tossed at the sports fans in the group, "Is the Big Ten ever going to add another team to make an even number?"
A discussion usually ensues about how any school that might be considered would have to meet a myriad of qualifications, including geographic proximity, academic reputation, and profile of the university. We talk about all the various candidates, and why they don't fit, wouldn't leave their current conferences, or are just too far away. Of course this topic has been covered in much greater detail by the professional Michigan bloggers.
The other day while we were rehashing this, a thought occurred to me: What if The University of Chicago had never left the Big Ten? Would MSU have been invited to join if there were 10 and not 9 members? Would they have looked to Penn State? Would we have 12 teams in the Western Conference now?
If you think about it, the addition of Chicago make sense in a lot of way. Geographically they fit perfectly, and would fit in the western division with NU, Ill, Wisc, Minn, and Iowa. They could play their games in Soldier Field and would be a southside Chicago private school counterpart to the northside Chicago private school Northwestern. The resulting Big Ten championship game could be played in Chicago, which is just teeming with Big Ten grads. Academically they are a perfect fit, as they already belong to the CIC, the academic arm of the Big Ten. Historically, they would represent a return to the roots of the league, as they were one of the founding members of the league, and the league probably wouldn't exist without Chicago. Plus their colors (maroon and white) would be unique in the league.
Of course there is the small problem of them being a Division III athletic program that offers no scholarships, and has facilities that are woefully inadequate for the Division I, let alone a BCS conference. But if Michigan can make the Big Dance, and State can make it to two straight bowls, anything can happen

Titletown

After watching the Red Wings skate away with their 11th Cup last month, and the Celtics win their 17th NBA title, I started to wonder which city has the most championships won over the course of history, or more importantly, which city had the best "championship percentage". So I put together the chart below, with data courtesy of the official league websites, supplemented by Wikipedia.
A few notes:
-I included seasons and championships from the NFL, AAFC, AFL and CFL for football; NBA and ABA for basketball; NHL for hockey; and World Series champs for baseball.
-I only included cities that had more than 50 total seasons and at least one championship.
-Seasons were assigned to city, not to the franchise. So for example, the Dodgers had 55 seasons and 1 championship in New York (Brooklyn), and 50 seasons and 5 championships in LA.
-The years / championship ratio is based on the current number of teams in that metro area. So for example, the NY/NJ metro area, which averages a championship once every 11+ seasons, should win about four championships every five years, based on the nine teams it currently has.
-I did not include college football or basketball for two reasons:
1) The football championships are mythical, and no one can agree who won in which year. Alabama claims 12 national championships, I'm sure Auburn doesn't recognize any of them;
2) The difficulty in assigning college towns to metro areas. Sure USC, and UCLA are clearly part of the LA metro area, but what about towns like Athens, Ann Arbor, or South Bend?

So, without further ado, here it is:



-Edmonton wins the prize with 18 championships in 88 seasons. Boston, not New York, is the top American city.
-Obviously the addition of the CFL helps the Canadian teams a lot. Edmonton, for example, has won 13 Grey Cups in 59 seasons.
-No surprise that the Original Six cities take four of the top seven spots. Much easier to win championships with only five opponents than in modern leagues of 30 plus teams.
-Seven U.S. cities have won championships in all four sports: New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Philly, Pittsburgh (won an ABA championship) and most recently, LA, with the Ducks' Cup in 07.
-This list further emphasizes a point I was making earlier this year when talking about why SEC football has such a hold on citizens of the south. Professional sports in this country, were, until the last 50 years or so, a phenomenon limited to the Northeast and Midwest. The successful teams on this list are there in part because of the traditions they have established. a young kid growing up in Boston learns about being a Red Sox fan from his parents, who learned from their parents, and so on. That fandom translates to ticket sales, merchandising, and big television contracts. In Atlanta,a young fan learns about being a Tiger fan from his dad who grew up in Michigan, and takes the Braves as an adopted team.
-Finally, as far as long suffering fans, it's hard to argue with Cleveland as the biggest losers on the list, who has only seven championships in over 200 seasons. Of those championships, one came from a team no longer there (the Rams), and four were from a league that no longer exists (the Browns in the AAFC. Philly also has a pretty dubious history, with only 15 championships in 332 seasons, 7 of which came from now departed teams (Warriors and A's). And of course, New Orleans, which has yet to win a professional championship.