City of Champions

Now that the Bruins have officially raised the championship banner it seems like a good time to take a look back at the past decade in Boston sports. How fortunate are we to have witnessed 7 world championships across the 4 major sports? Especially considering those teams hadn’t won any titles since 1986 (Celtics), 1972 (Bruins), 1918 (Red Sox), EVER (Patriots).

2001 – Patriots
2002
2003 – Patriots
2004 – Red Sox, Patriots
2005
2006
2007 – Red Sox
2008 – Celtics
2009
2010
2011 – Bruins

Most cities would be happy just seeing their teams make a deep run in the playoffs. Let’s not forget that the 2003 Red Sox lost in Game 7 of the ALCS, the 2007 Patriots lost in Super Bowl XVII, the 2008 Red Sox lost in Game 7 of the ALCS, the 2010 Celtics lost in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and the 2002/2005/2006/2007 New England Revolution lost in the MLS Cup final. See, it isn’t all champagne wishes and caviar dreams. The Revolution became the Buffalo Bills of Major League Soccer.

Remember when our teams were underdogs? The Patriots defeating the Greatest Show on Turf; the Sox coming back from a 3-0 deficit to mount the greatest comeback in history; the Celtics assembling the new Big 3 to bring their first title since the old Big 3; and the Bruins rebounding from their own 3-0 collapse the year before. Nowadays you can’t even discuss championship hopefuls without mentioning a Boston-based team.

TANGENT: The Pittsburgh Pirates are terrible. I’m sorry but it’s true.* However, this year they actually led their division at the All Star Break and it was extremely riveting. I was excited and I have no rooting interest in them. MLB was excited and voted 3 Pirates to play in the All Star Game. Of course, they faded in the second half and finished way out of contention but it was enthralling to see that the possibility for greatness was there, however short that time was. That’s what I miss in Boston: being the surprise team, the buzz team, the fun team.

Winning is great but suspense and surprise are what make sports truly fun.


*The Pirates set a record with 19 consecutive (and counting) losing seasons.