Inaugural class is Jamie Quirk and Mike Jorgensen, as outlined in point 3 of my New Year’s drivel (linked). Anyone may put forward new names on a rolling basis.
6shutouts we turn to you to select the city from the options offered in response here, or propose a final vote. Your call.
Let's pick a baseball city with one or fewer championships and without major success in other sports. Although it doesn't need another world-class institution and is a new city, let's locate the HoSm in San Diego.
As a sop to disappointed Chicago voters, we need a wing for mediocre management ( a really big wing at that). You can add Reinsdorf and the Halas spawn after I put in Alex Spanos
as a percentage of total seasons played.
55 Seasons as Kansas City Royals
12 seasons in the .500 zone
2 WS Champions
4 AL Champions
7 Division Titles (1981 2nd half)
1 Wild Card (+1981)
1 MVP
4 Cy Youngs
4 RoY
1 MoY
9 Middle place finishes (4th place in 7 team div, 3rd in 5 team)
Didn't finish last until 1996 (27 seasons)
1 season of .600 baseball (1977)
1 season of 100 wins
9 second place finishes
11 last place finishes (all in 5-team div era)
7 seasons below .400 (first in 2002)
7 seasons of 100 losses
Interestingly, a lot of the good Royals teams only had 90 - 92 wins. I expect division winners to be at 95+
Aside from the recent World Series teams, the late 70s - mid 80s teams were so strong. They made an imprint on my mind, as those were my early years as a fan. Brett, Wilson, Porter, Mcrae, Gura, Splittorf, Quis. And don't forget HOSM's own Jamie Quirk. Great rivalry with the Yankees over those years.
during that time frame for all of sports (49ers-Cowboys just emerging as well as Lakers-Celtics, older traditional rivalries didn't seem to be running as hot at that moment). Even better than the Pine Tar incident was the fight between Brett and Nettles in the ALCS. Brett slid hard into 3rd and got tangled up with Nettles. Nettles didn't like it and kicked Brett, who immediately leapt to his feet and punched Nettles. Huge brawl. NO EJECTIONS!
One other thing about the Royals is people think they sucked the entire time from 1986 to 2014 but that really isn't the case. They finished 2nd 3 more times from 1986 to 1995 and had 2 very good 3rd place teams in 88 and 93. They also finished 6th in the AL West one year with an 82-80 record which was tied for their worst positional finish until 1996.
Kansas City can be a really great baseball town, if management would just look like they are trying.
The drought between major sports championships stands at 120 seasons..give or take
from indoor soccer*, and three of our four major franchises have skipped town entirely: the Chargers in the NFL and the Rockets and Clippers in the NBA.
* the San Diego Sockers absolutely dominated the NASL/MISL, winning ten championships in eleven seasons from 1982 to 1992.
San Diego.
There's no one around to still be mediocre
And the number of seasons of mediocrity isn't as high
47 SD Chargers seasons
54 SD Padres seasons
4 SD Rockets seasons
6 SD Clippers seasons
111 seasons
Minnesota has spent 32 years in the darkness with 4 teams playing the 4 sports almost (7 years without hockey) every season. That's 120 straight seasons ending without a trophy/parade/etc
I don't believe they even have a conference/league title in those 32 years to celebrate. If you remove the Twins 2 titles in 4 years you have to go all the way back to the Minnesota Lakers in the mid-50s. That team was far too successful to stick in Minnesota and rightly headed to Hollywood.
(117 seasons).
I had no idea New York City was 4th on the list.
I've hand calculated that number several times for no reason I guess.
it's probably too crappy to be considered merely mediocre.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the message that appears on the city's welcome signs.
He was in the fuckin crease!!! What the fuck does Texas know from hockey?!?
Just kidding. We get it all the time.
It just sounds mediocre. But I've never been there, so maybe it's lovely, even though I assume there are Packer fans there.
If we want to go with a major league city past or present I would vote for Anaheim. I hear your arguments about Seattle but Seattle does not strike me as a mediocre city.
I feel like Indianapolis should be another contender. They are AAA, never making much noise I can recall in terms of major league consideration. Right now they are the Pirates affiliate and it looks like over the years they have changed affiliation more than a dozen times. Pretty mediocre.
The Chicago Bears for the early part of the 20th century and the Bulls in modern times.
Chicago's longest season drought is probably under 100 seasons in a row.
And started their new century long droughts
2 titles in 106 years for 2 teams.
I am not sure that rises to mediocrity
It was in the late 70s and I think it was a Chicago Tribune item.
They added up the W-L totals of all the Chicago professional teams (I can’t remember if they include teams like the Cardinals, Zephyrs and Stags). Out of north of 25000 contests at that time, the combined totals were somewhen around 20-30 games over .500.
That’s mediocrity.