If you've been around any sports fans from the Boston area, chances are they may have been a little arrogant and perhaps a tad conceited lately. And if they're fans of the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Bruins and even Boston College Golden Eagles like most fans from New England are, they probably rightly should be.
Right now in U.S. sports, Boston is going through one of the most successful periods for its sports teams that any U.S. city ever has. For a city to have two successful teams is rare. The success that Boston sports teams are having now is unprecedented in the modern sports era where every major professional league has around 30 teams
The Boston Red Sox won the World Series, sweeping the Colorado Rockies in four games. The New England Patriots are undefeated, blowing out just about every opponent. In college ranks, Boston College is undefeated and ranked second in the Bowl Championship Series. And, almost overnight, the Celtics went from bottom dwellers to legitimate title contenders.
If the Patriots and Golden Eagles win the NFL championship and the BCS title respectively, that would make three championships for the city of Boston in just over four months.
To prove how rare these types of years are for a city, consider who recently won championships in the major sports: Before the Red Sox clinched the World Series, the defending champion was the St. Louis Cardinals. In the NFL, the Indianapolis Colts won Super Bowl XLI. The San Antonio Spurs won the NBA championship, and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim won the NHL's Stanley Cup.
In the college ranks, the University of Florida men's basketball team has won the last two NCAA championships while its football team is the defending champ. In women's basketball, the University of Tennessee is the defending champion.
No city has won more than two championships in the past year, and the only city to bring home more than one championship title was the city of Gainesville, Fla., both of these being in the college ranks.
So what are some similar great years that U.S. cities have had with regards to sports? New York can lay claim to a couple of years.
In January 1969, the Jets won Super Bowl III after Joe Namath's infamous guarantee. Then, in October, the Mets won the World Series over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles. Finally, the Knicks won the 1969-1970 NBA championship in seven games over the Los Angeles Lakers, giving the city three championships in an 18-month span. However, these accomplishments are somewhat diluted as New York generally has two teams for each league, whereas most cities, including Boston, have just one team.
Teams from the San Francisco Bay Area had a great year in 1988. The NFL's 49ers won Super Bowl XXIII behind Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. The Oakland Athletics lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, and even the usually lowly Golden State Warriors made the NBA play-offs.
The closest that Boston ever came to a year as great as this was in 1975. That year, the Red Sox lost in seven games to the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series, while the Boston Celtics won the 1975-1976 NBA Championship the following spring.
So whether you hate Boston sports teams (like many of my fellow Yankees fans, I'm sure) or love them, you can't help but admire how dominant the city's sports teams are.
