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Notes:
For
baseball, mere
appearance
in the playoffs is considered here
because it is harder to get in to begin
with and easier to win at least one game
in a series. For football,
at least one playoff win
is considered because it is easier to
get in but harder to win at least one
playoff game. Wins are counted in
football also because, most times,
getting into the divisional playoffs
where four teams compete requires a
wild-card win, whereas in baseball
getting that wild-card win (to set the
field of four playoff teams) essentially
happens in the regular season in the
wild-card race.
Houston's
NFL team is now the Texans, though they
have been in the league for such a short
time. This is why the
now-defunct Oilers are listed here for
Houston's last pro football playoff win.
Washington
is not on the list because the baseball
Nationals have been in D.C. for such a
short time and have never appeared in
the playoffs. The last Redskins playoff
win was in 2005.
The New
York teams were divided into two pairs.
This division is the result of the
reasonable consideration of the football
Giants and Yankees having been much more
established by years, while the Jets and
Mets both entered the pro ranks much
later and at about the same time, 1960
and 1962 respectively.
Both the major league baseball
clubs from Chicago, the Cubs and White
Sox, earned a trip to the playoffs in
2008.
All locations are classified here as
cities in contrast to considering them
within their
metropolitan area. (For instance, the
"New England" Patriots are considered
the team from Boston.) The
notable exceptions are Milwaukee and Green Bay,
and the Tampa-St. Petersburg teams which are both
known as "Tampa Bay."
The second largest market in the
country, Los Angeles, is not represented
because it has no pro football team,
though its baseball teams, the Dodgers
and the Angels, regularly make
the playoffs.
This page is designed to demonstrate
that a team may be successful with a
small market but terrific management,
such as the Pittsburgh Steelers or
Minnesota Twins. A team will also be
successful with with any kind of
management but have a distinct advantage
of playing in a large market, such as
the Philadelphia Eagles or New York
Yankees.
It is competitive agony, however, for a team to
have bad management and play in a
small market. Behold Kansas City's
Chiefs and Royals. Both clubs have
suffered through notoriously inept front
office management and a market that the
media loathe having to showcase.
Kansas City's perpetually long misery is
highlighted by the fact that two-thirds
of the teams on this list have team-year playoff
droughts that are at least
one-third the length of Kansas City's.
Its drought is twice as long as any
other city's except Cincinnati, Houston,
and Detroit. Just for comparison, here
is Boston's playoff activity since the
last Kansas City postseason victory (a
period from 1993 to 2010): Patriots: 17
wins, Red Sox: 12 appearances (five
championships between them). The Harry S
Truman Sports Complex is the most barren
place on the sports planet in October
and January.
As if it can't be more excruciating, at
the time of this writing (January 2010) the
Chiefs just finished their season with a
4-12 record, and over the past three
seasons have had a cumulative 10 wins
and 38 losses. The Royals finished
the '09 season again in the cellar of
their division with the second worst
record in the American League. Believe
it or not, in the 1960's the Chiefs were
truly in the elite class of pro football
excellence, and the Royals were the same
in the majors during the 1970's.
For
another look at team success, go to
Current Pro Sports Team Success.
NFL Team
Names |