The Most Amazing year in Sports – EVER!
When Kansas City won this year’s Super Bowl, it culminated the most remarkable year in sports history for fans who come from cities that could be very fairly described as overdue, desperate and Championship-starved. The Chiefs played in the very first Super Bowl in 1967 and were thrashed by the Green Bay Packers 35-10. They did win the Super Bowl a few years later in 1970 but had not made it back to the big game in the last 50 years.
This followed on the heels of the miraculous Stanley Cup victory by another Missouri city (yes, Mr. geographically-challenged President, the Kansas City Chiefs play in Missouri where most of the Kansas City population is also located). The St. Louis Blues won their lone Stanley Cup in the team’s more than five decade history after being in the Stanley Cup Final their first three years and never winning a single game (0-12). The Blues did not make it back to the Final again until this past year (despite 41 playoff appearances) when they ironically played and beat the same team, the Boston Bruins, that they played the last time they lost.
Around the same time, the city of Toronto experienced their city (and country’s) first NBA Championship in history – a mere wait of a quarter of a century.
And during this same incredible year, the Washington Nationals won their first World Series in their history, after 48 years of fan suffering in the Nation’s capital, and for several years before that, in Montreal.
Not to be forgotten, my good friend’s beloved Virginia Cavaliers won their first NCAA basketball crown. The Wahoos have been bouncing the ball there since 1905 (though the NCAA tournament did not begin until 1939)! Moreover, they won the Tournament only one year removed from being the first Number 1 seeded team ever to lose in the first round to a Number 16 seed.
This year was insane. It was almost if the whole thing was orchestrated from above. All of these teams were naturally good, but not one was expected to win the Championship at the outset of the year or even at the time the playoffs started. Indeed, the St. Louis Blues, alone, were a 300-1 underdog nearly half-way through the season. For another shameless plug pick up your copy of 300-1 or buy one for a friend who loves sports and can read (I know that can be a tough combo!): https://www.amazon.com/300-1-52-year-Journey-Hockey-Championship/dp/1696000203/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36ICAKWZ4AEH1&keywords=mark+sophir+300-1&qid=1581780791&sprefix=mark+sophir%2Caps%2C216&sr=8-1
Can you imagine what the odds one could have received of ALL of these things happening in a single year? A parlay like that would have had to pay nearly a billion to one (that’s 1000 millions Mr. President)!
What can the Sports Gods possibly do this year for an encore? I suggest:
- The Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl (They have never won one and, indeed, between 1990 and 1993 lost four Super Bowls IN A ROW!);
- The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup (They have won many Championships, but it’s been over 50 years and hockey is more important there than football is in Texas)
- The New York Knicks win the NBA crown (It’s been 57 years, they are a storied franchise and like the Blues last year, were at or near the bottom of in the league at the half-way point)
- The San Diego Padres win the World Series (They’ve never won one in 50 years- went twice to the World Series and only won one game total and are a perennial losing team, with only 14 winning seasons. Besides it would feel good to see all the Los Angeles folks suffer a bit after spending so much more money for so long on the Dodgers without a Championship to show for it)
- And for the NCAA basketball crown, let’s have the Texas Longhorns win it (They have never won an NCAA Championship, I went to school there, Shaka Smart is a really nice guy, even if he hasn’t produced the teams expected since his hire, and it would be great irony to see Texas win a championship in something other than their beloved football- much like Toronto winning the basketball championship instead of hockey.
