Yesterday, in what could be considered the most exciting baseball game a team representing San Diego has played all season took place in South Williamsport, PA as our Chula Vista All-Star Little League team won the Little League World Series beating Taiwan 6-3. In front of an electrifying crowd which included Vice President, Joe Biden, the boys from Chula Vista battled back from an early 3-0 deficit to defeat the heavily favored Taiwan team. As the boys at Petco look to officially find themselves eliminated from contention (they were never really in it, but there is just something about seeing that “E” next to games behind that really stings), at least San Diego can enjoy this glorious moment and welcome home the boys from Chula Vista with great enthusiasm and pride. Unfortunately, the boy’s title does not remove the curse that San Diego (professional) sports has found itself under since 1963 when the Chargers won the AFL Championship.
There are some who doubt there is a curse and even I chalk it down to incredible bad luck, but for arguments sake, let’s use the term curse. The fact remains that San Diego is the largest city to have never had one of its professional teams (I am talking about the Big 4, NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA) win a championship. We had the San Diego Sockers, an indoor soccer team that dominated their league(s) by winning ten championships. The San Diego Buds of World TeamTennis won the Billie Jean King Cup in 1984 and 1985 and of course, our very own San Diego Gulls hockey team were the champions of the International Hockey League in 1993, then became members of the West Coast Hockey League which they won five titles from 1996 – 2003 and finally, before ceasing operations (in 2006), the Gulls brought home a championship as members of the East Coast Hockey League in 2004. We’ve seen our minor league and exhibition teams and now our little league team achieve glory, but the pro’s continue to break our hearts.
Firstly, when talking about the professional teams, people may want to forget or have actually forgotten, but San Diego had not one, but two professional basketball teams. From 1967 – 1971, the San Diego Rockets (now residing in Houston) never won a title and, shockingly, the San Diego Clippers (now the Lakers red headed step brother) also never brought home an NBA trophy. They competed in San Diego from 1978 – 1984. What we are left with is a “rebuilding” Padres club who has come oh so close and our only hope, the Chargers (more on my thoughts about the upcoming season next week). All we can do is wait and see and continue to hope that one day we’ll see a ticker tape parade up Friars road.
In the mean time, my new book, San Diego’s Finest Athletes discusses some of the greatest individual athletes to come out of San Diego and their accomplishments both on and off the field. I recommend checking it out if you are a true fan of San Diego sports or just a history buff. Their stories are inspiring and prove that even though we may not have a professional team that has claimed a championship yet, we have these exceptional stars who have certainly made us proud. You can check out more details at http://www.joeyseymour.com/ (I promise I won’t use every blog to pitch the book).
A couple thoughts on sporting news in other parts of the county; The United States Tennis Open began today in New York and it is one thing to see either Venus or Serena winning the women’s title, but if one of the U.S. men, specifically Andy Roddick who came one bad shot away from winning Wimbledon this year, cannot overcome Nadal or Federer, it will be yet another tennis season in which our boys were thumped by international competition. The Bret Farve Revenge Tour continued tonight as Bret had an impressive outing vs. Houston. It’s all leading up to the away game in Green Bay. It’s amazing what spite can make a person do…by the way, he’s already complaining of an injured rib. Beyond the rib injury, the twin cities got some more bad news today when over hyped Spanish guard, Ricky Rubio decided to stay in Spain and play for team Barcelona through 2010. Finally, former Marlin, Dodger, Red Sox pitcher, Brad Penny, claiming all he was drinking was “ice water” while leaving a Los Angeles bar on Sunday night, said he would never play for the Dodgers again. Today he made it quite clear the he did not enjoy the way things ended at Chavez Ravine by signing with the Giants. Maybe Brad can help the Giants to close the gap on the Dodgers? It would certainly be sweet justice for us Padre fans.
Until next Monday…please feel free to share your thoughts.
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