My whole life I took for granted that Philadelphia has all four major professional sports. Having a local team is just the way it’s supposed to be, right? Well, by my count, there are only eleven other cities that can make the same claim. These are the 4 for 4s. I say “by my count” because some teams and their geographic locations make their candidacy not so cut and dried. We’ll get into that.
What I am proposing is a yearlong, month by month ranking to determine what is the best sports city. This is all about wins, losses, and championships with the lowest score winning and bonus points for being a current champion. To start though, we need to meet our contenders.
STANDINGS
| Ranking (last) | MLB | NBA | NFL | NHL | Bonus | Score |
In alphabetical order…
BOSTON: Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, and Bruins
It had to start with them, right? Boston is your basic 4 for 4 city even if the Patriots reside in Foxboro. This is an important because that thirty-mile distance would have a lot of non-Bostonians trying to disqualify them from 4 for 4 status. Since this comes up much more than you’d think, the simple test is whether that city’s fan base considers them their own. Without question, Boston claims the Pats. They’re in.
CHICAGO: Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, Bears, and Blackhawks
Wait a second, how is this going to work if a city has more than one team? We don’t want to give a city an advantage by excluding a better team or a disadvantage by doing the opposite. For now, the most fair way of doing this is to average their standings within the sport. Each sport will be given 25% of the total score. For Chicago, that means the average record of the White Sox and Cubs will be averaged first, then included.
DALLAS: Rangers, Mavericks, Cowboys, and Stars
The Rangers are in Arlington and the Cowboys are their neighbor. Still, Dallas counts, even if we hate them.
DENVER: Rockies, Nuggets, Broncos, and Avalanche
For as good as the Avalanche are year after year, the Rockies are just the opposite. This is a good way of showing that this will be a full city effort, with no one team being able to catapult a city to greatness.
DETROIT: Tigers, Pistons, Lions, and Red Wings
It’s important to note that playoffs count when the time comes. Just because a team like the Pistons finished with the 3rd best record in the NBA doesn’t mean they get the 3rd best score throughout the offseason. By not making the conference finals, they are stuck in the 5th through 8th range. However, they get the regular season tiebreaker and get bumped to 5th.
LOS ANGELES: Dodgers, Clippers, Lakers, Chargers, Rams, and Kings
There was a debate raging within me as to the eligibility of both the Angels and the Ducks. Even though the Angels go by Los Angeles, they are clearly just in denial that they are from Anaheim considering the various name changes they have gone through over the years. After polling some locals, I cannot within good conscience include them even though they are far closer to LA than some of the city decisions elsewhere on this list. If the Dodgers and/or Kings didn’t exist, things would be different.
MIAMI: Marlins, Heat, Dolphins, and Panthers
The Panthers are another tough one to include considering the team could easily be named the Fort Lauderdale Panthers instead of Miami if they so chose. That being said, even though Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and even the Keys could not be more different, they are all just South Florida and are considered Miami to everyone who doesn’t live down there.
MINNEAPOLIS: Twins, Wolves, Vikings, and Wild
Surprising, right? I didn’t figure Minneapolis as a 4 for 4 city. Maybe it’s because the Wolves still seem like a new team to me despite being 40 years old, the Wild are relatively new still, the Twins were nearly contracted 25 years ago, and the Vikings are anyone’s little brother who will have them.
NEW YORK: Mets, Yankees, Nets, Knicks, Giants, Jets, Islanders, and Rangers
NYC ends up being the biggest sports market with two teams in every sport. It also gives me the chance to show how important a championship is to the overall scoring. Since championships are literally the only things that matter in sports in the end and they should be appropriately rewarded. For the whole time a team is considered a defending champion, they will receive a -1 point bonus (lower score the better) from their cities final score. This bonus is in effect until that team is bounced from the playoffs the following year. Even if everything goes wrong and the Knicks miss the playoffs in 2027, they get the benefit until the playoffs start. Also, yes, I know the Giants and Jets are in NJ. NYC can have their sorry asses.
PHILADELPHIA: Phillies, Sixers, Eagles, and Flyers
All of our boys made the playoffs last year. I think only Boston can boast the same.
SAN FRANCISCO: Giants, Warriors, 49ers, and Sharks???
For awhile in thinking about this, there were only 11 teams. It wasn’t until right before publishing time that the San Jose Sharks were annexed to San Francisco for 4 for 4 purposes. I called up a local who said that SFians take ownership of the Sharks when they can be convinced to care about hockey. Would we have done the same for the A’s, Raiders, and Warriors if any were still in Oakland? Probably not. Considering the 49ers are closer to SJ and still considered SF, SJ counts as SF too.
WASHINGTON D.C.: Nationals, Wizards, Commanders, and Capitals
Yikes! I think we know which city is going to finish in last place. No bonus points for parlaying being terrible into the #1 pick in the draft.
This was just an intro. The first full rankings will come out on September 1 and then on the first of the month thereafter. Assuming the raging popularity that will no doubt swell beneath the wings of the monthly standings, a champion will be crowned next August.1 See you on September 1.
- Not sure how we will make this work if Atlanta or Phoenix get their hockey teams back, Las Vegas or Seattle get a basketball team, or Columbus somehow moves close enough to Cleveland for the Blue Jackets to be adopted ↩︎
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