Most hated teams ever in sports

[agentsteel53]

The Phils will be in first by the end of the week.

they'd already be in first if they hadn't traded Cliff Lee.  Yes, Halladay is one hell of an acquisition (especially when he breaks with traditional baseball etiquette and refuses to allow baserunners to exist, which he has done once this season) but imagine a rotation led by Halladay and Lee.

[Michael in Philly]

Believe me, the topic comes up all the time here.

[huskeroadgeek]

^^ Actually, you guys could play Oklahoma every year (as Michigan and Michigan State play Notre Dame) in pre-conference play.  It would be ironic that you could play Oklahoma more often outside of the Big 12 than inside the Big 12.

We could, but it won't happen. There were talks when we joined the Big 12 about playing Oklahoma in the non-conference in years when we didn't play them in a conference game, but they never showed any interest in it. There's been no talk about playing them in the non-conference every year now that we are moving to the Big Ten, and I doubt they'd show any more interest in doing it now.

[74/171FAN]

The Phils will be in first by the end of the week.

they'd already be in first if they hadn't traded Cliff Lee.  Yes, Halladay is one hell of an acquisition (especially when he breaks with traditional baseball etiquette and refuses to allow baserunners to exist, which he has done once this season) but imagine a rotation led by Halladay and Lee.

They'd never lost first with Halladay and Lee no matter how bad their hitting was in May and June

[Eth]

The Phils will be in first by the end of the week.

Yeah, I'm gonna go with no.

Might as well weigh in here myself (my MLB allegiance should be obvious from the above, and you can probably guess my alma mater after the first few of these):

1. Georgia
2. New York Mets
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. Clemson
5. Duke (basketball only)
T6. New York Yankees
T6. Boston Red Sox
8. Notre Dame
9. Virginia Tech
10. Virginia, if only due to a tendency to lose to them way more often than we should

[Michael in Philly]

So you're looking for that Nats-Orioles World Series?  (The other day I was trying to remember the last time the Os made it.)

[agentsteel53]

So you're looking for that Nats-Orioles World Series?  (The other day I was trying to remember the last time the Os made it.)

'83 if I recall correctly.  At least, that's the last time they won it.  They haven't been the same since getting outplayed by a twelve year old.

[Michael in Philly]

1.  Yankees
2.  New York Giants
3.  Cowboys
4.  Yankees
5.  Mets
6.  Braves
7.  Yankees
8.  Duke
9.  Roger Federer
10.  Yankees.

The Phils will be in first by the end of the week.
And I went to Georgetown.

Oh.  I forgot:  Yankees.
And Cleveland rocks.  At least in June.

I also forgot Notre Dame.  Sense of entitlement only exceeded by that of the Yankees.  Although for New Yorkers, a sense of entitlement's in the water; don't know what explains it for Notre Dame.

[ctsignguy]

Several comments on many of the posts here....

Triplemultiplex: "You know why football is so much more popular now?  Parity.  Until just recently, the NFL enjoyed years of 'any given Sunday' where any team could could quite possibly beat any other team.  ESPN contributes to this Yankee hate from the rest of America.  I swear ESPN thinks the entire MLB consists of the Yankees and the Red Sox since it's usually one of those teams playing anytime they televise a game.  Like those teams need the exposure."   


Parity in professional sports generally is not a bad thing per se....unlike the NBA or baseball were 3/4 of the teams know at the very beginning of the season they have no shot at a championship, in the NFL, select the right players, get a coaching staff that knows its chops and you could have a winner in short order....see Arizona Cardinals and their last few seasons as compared to their previous 20 years in the desert...

Your comment also reminds me of back in the late 19760s....when CBS did the NBA and every damn Sunday, we got the Lakers, Sixers or Celtics...one March in 1979 or 80, they went to San Antonio to do a Houston-Spurs game...around halftime, a group of Spur fans paraded a banner that was impossible for CBS to not show on live national TV: "HEY CBS...BOSTON AND PHILLY ARENT HERE...WHY ARE YOU?"

osu-lsu: "But there's no "socialism." The best players go to the best teams.  No helping the "lesser teams" like the "socialistic" draft does with professional teams."

Perhaps, but this is why i hate college football....if you consider a game or athletic contest to be one where both sides have a reasonably equal chance at winning, then college football, esp the big-time levels fail miserably...a vicious cycle of crushball where the big boys duck each other outside of conference play, but schedule Div IAA or Div II for guaranteed wins to keep the whiny alumni drunk and happy....(at least college basketball gets it somewhat right, where the scrappy underdog can actually play for a championship like Butler did this past April, as opposed to the current rigged BCS system where if you are not among the anointed few, you have no chance at a title shot no matter how good you may be...)  The BCS has royally screwed college football over...back in the day, you WOULD have the best teams play each other early in the season, as opposed to what happens now

(I proposed a year or two back that the NCAA take over Div IA football scheduling...and schedule a rotating system of opponents where each year the BCS teams would have to play some games against one of the other conferences....such as ACC North against  Big 12 Souith, Big 12 North against Big East, Pac 10 vs ACC Souith, SEC West vs Big Ten , etc...and not at their choosing either....so it would be fun to see Florida or USC try to play Wisconsin in Camp Randall, or Minnesota in their new outdoor park....in late November when it gets a bit nippy....or see how well Ohio State copes in the Swamp....

amn, i could SO improve Sports if i was made Universal Sports Commisioner and Athletic Dictator for Life....

[Brandon]

I also forgot Notre Dame.  Sense of entitlement only exceeded by that of the Yankees.  Although for New Yorkers, a sense of entitlement's in the water; don't know what explains it for Notre Dame.

Two words: Touchdown Jesus.
/They're on a mission from God.

[Michael in Philly]

How do you explain their association with those commie-pinkos at NBC, then?
(I'm joking - I lean Democrat myself and get way too much of my news from MSNBC.)

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

or see how well Ohio State copes in the Swamp....

Not counting bowl games (or bonus preseason games in New Jersey), 1-0-1 in the last 25 years.
Defeated NC State in 2004
Tied LSU in 1987

[Brandon]

How do you explain their association with those commie-pinkos at NBC, then?
(I'm joking - I lean Democrat myself and get way too much of my news from MSNBC.)

It's Notre Dame, not Oral Roberts.   

[Eth]

So you're looking for that Nats-Orioles World Series?  (The other day I was trying to remember the last time the Os made it.)

Not exactly - just moved here last year; I'm a Georgia native (and thus Braves fan).

[Stephane Dumas]

-Pittsburgh Penguins (touch Sid the Kid and get a penalty BS)

If that was the case, everybody on Motreal would have been in the box at the same time...

Or would had been walking on St. Catherine Street wrecking anything.... *sigh* as they did once the Pens was eleminated last season, imagine when they could win the Stanley cup again, shades of 1986 and 1993...

[hm insulators]

I'm glad to see the hate for Notre Dame! As a Purdue alum, it makes me happy to know that the rest of the country hates them just as strongly!

Rest assured there's a bunch of USC Trojans fans who feel the same way about Notre Dame. I'm not a Trojans fan myself but my friend in southern California has a son who's such a rabid USC fan that his bedroom walls are painted the school colors!

[agentsteel53]

I've never understood the appeal of USC, when UCLA is right down the street.  twice the education at 1/3 the price.

[hm insulators]

My most hated teams: The New York Yankees, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants (as a Dodger fan), Dallas Cowboys (way back in the day when the Rams were in L.A., the Cowboys would always beat them in the playoffs), the Boston Celtics (as a Laker fan) and the San Antonio Spurs (as both a Laker and a Phoenix Suns fan--about five years ago, the Lakers were little more than "The Kobe Bryant Show" before the guy actually wised up and realized that you have to share the basketball if you want to win rings! About that time, having moved to Phoenix, I discovered the Suns' free-wheeling style of basketball was more fun to watch than "The Kobe Bryant Show." Now that the Lakers are good again, I'm a fan of both teams--but I'd like to see the Suns win the NBA title more than the Lakers).

[Michael in Philly]

I've never understood the appeal of USC, when UCLA is right down the street.  twice the education at 1/3 the price.

'cuz they have bitchen fight music.

Edit:  I have no natural football loyalties - I grew up in a state where there was no football power, no university bearing the name of the state (and no self-service gas )  And went to a college where you only attended football games (at a high-school-sized facility on the roof of the athletic house), against the likes of Anne Arundel* Community College, if you were (1) bored or (2) like me, a member of the band:  attendance at football games, like attendance at band practice, counted in your favor when it came time to determine who went to the NCAAs, including two Final Fours during my years there.

*Some wiseass in the band once came up with the cheer "Fumble, fumble, Anne Arundel."  

[mefailenglish]

Anne Arundel* Community College

Ah, good ol' Harvard on the Severn.   

[algorerhythms]

I've never understood the appeal of USC, when UCLA is right down the street.  twice the education at 1/3 the price.

'cuz they have bitchen fight music.

Edit:  I have no natural football loyalties - I grew up in a state where there was no football power, no university bearing the name of the state (and no self-service gas )  And went to a college where you only attended football games (at a high-school-sized facility on the roof of the athletic house), against the likes of Anne Arundel* Community College, if you were (1) bored or (2) like me, a member of the band:  attendance at football games, like attendance at band practice, counted in your favor when it came time to determine who went to the NCAAs, including two Final Fours during my years there.

*Some wiseass in the band once came up with the cheer "Fumble, fumble, Anne Arundel." 

The college I went to had no football team, so the band went to the basketball games. And not many people in the band actually showed up. Usually we just had two trombone players and a percussionist. I'm fairly certain the basketball coach hated us.

[triplemultiplex]

Parity in professional sports generally is not a bad thing per se....unlike the NBA or baseball were 3/4 of the teams know at the very beginning of the season they have no shot at a championship, in the NFL, select the right players, get a coaching staff that knows its chops and you could have a winner in short order....see Arizona Cardinals and their last few seasons as compared to their previous 20 years in the desert...

Yeah I like parity.  It's more fun that way.  If we can expect the same teams in the playoffs year after frickin year, that's boring.  The whole league becomes about those few anointed franchises.  And everyone not in those markets loses interest.  That means less revenue.  So it's more profitable for everyone involved to keep the sport interesting by giving last season's losers a chance to claw their way out of the basement.

[agentsteel53]

giving last season's losers a chance to claw their way out of the basement.

explain the Raiders.

[mightyace]

Yeah I like parity.  It's more fun that way.  If we can expect the same teams in the playoffs year after frickin year, that's boring.  The whole league becomes about those few anointed franchises.  And everyone not in those markets loses interest.  That means less revenue.  So it's more profitable for everyone involved to keep the sport interesting by giving last season's losers a chance to claw their way out of the basement.

I disagree.  Having grown up in the era of the Steelers and Cowboys of the 70s, et. al., I miss dynasties, even if it's a team I dislike.  And, players being associated with a franchise.  Only a few players do that today.

As it seams that winning the Super Bowl today is almost as much lucky as good, I've lost interest in the NFL.

[kurumi]

giving last season's losers a chance to claw their way out of the basement.

explain the Raiders.

It's a reverse dynasty. Imperious owner, appeals to tradition, exceptionalism, the "Raider Nation"... there's everything a dynasty has except victories. (Recent victories.)