I only started following sports with any seriousness in the mid-1980's, and to the extent I followed professional hockey at all, my favorite team was the Calgary Flames. I had never been to Calgary (still haven't), and didn't know anybody who was, but I stuck with them because I absolutely despised the Edmonton Oilers. Well, maybe "envied" is better than "despised," but I just couldn't believe how ridiculously good those Oilers teams were -- Glenn Anderson, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr, Andy Moog, Paul Coffey, Kevin Lowe -- oh, yeah, and some guy named Gretzky...The fact that my homeroom teacher was from Edmonton didn't help, either...
Calgary did get a ring in 1989, although Edmonton still leads that rivalry 5-1. Meanwhile, as a Sox / Pats / Celts fan, it's great to see the Bruins pull of this victory over Vancouver. They've had some good teams and some great players over the past 39 years, but couldn't get it together until now, so congratulations to them on a hard-fought victory.
This also brings the New England-area professional franchises full circle, as each has won at least one championship over a 10-year period (or, more accurately, 9 years and four months), or a total of 7 titles, not to mention some runner-up finishes. On top of that, with a few exceptions, the Pats have been serious contenders every year since 2001, the Sox since the Henry group bought the team, the Celtics since the Garnett trade, and now the Bruins.
Maybe somebody with more time to research this can correct me, but I don't believe that any major sports market has held all four major titles within the span of a decade. Pretty remarkable. Now back to baseball...
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