Florida Pride
I don't intend to leave topic often, but I wanted to post briefly in the wake of the Miami Heat capturing the 2006 NBA title. Those who know me are well-aware of how much I enjoy supporting teams who play in the state that I call home. When I moved from New York, I quickly adopted the Georgia teams and supported them rabidly as I lived in the peach state for the next 7 years. I've now been living in Florida full-time for a year and am finding myself rooting more and more for our local teams. I look at it as an extension of civic pride - a fun way of blending into a community as it becomes your home too. Some prefer to cling to childhood memories of rooting for one particular team. Not me. I show about as much loyalty to them as your typical baseball player always in search of his next big free-agent contract shows us.
That said, I wanted to appalud the success that teams who make their home in Florida have enjoyed recently. Have you thought about this? In the past 4 years, the state of Florida has seen one of its teams win each of the four major American pro sports championships: a World Series (2003 Florida Marlins), a Super Bowl (2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers), a Stanley Cup (2004 Tampa Bay Lightning), and now an NBA Championship (2006 Miami Heat). And if we take the point a little further, Florida also has witnessed recent success in major college athletics with the winning of a NCAA Football Championship (2001 Miami Hurricanes), a NCAA Basketball Championship (2006 Florida Gators) and a NCAA College World Series (2001 Miami Hurricanes).
Off the top of my head, I can only think of 5 other states whose sports teams have approached such cumulative success: Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Michigan. But none of those states saw all the forms of pro championships within a mere 4 year span (actually some ended up accomplishing it over the course of nearly 100 years!). And none has done it so recently. It's hard to believe that only 30 years ago the Dolphins were Florida's only pro sports team. Things sure have changed. So congratulations to the Sunshine State! People tease us enough for our weather and our old folks....let's be proud of our sports!
posted by Jeff Briscoe @ 2:10 AM
4 Comments:
Don't forget the FSU Seminoles! And, though it's been a long time since they won it all (January 1974) The Dolphins have a HISTORY. I just hope the future brightens up for them too.
Good point. If you go back 10 years you can include the Gator's national title in 1996 and FSU's in 1999. It's been quite a decade for Florida sports. I agree about the Dolphins. I wouldn't be surpsied to see them win a Super Bowl in the near future.
Overall good analysis. As a Bucs fan too, I think you're maybe a little too harsh. Dolphin and Buc fans are the best Florida has, outisde of college teams. Heck, these days almost every team's fans can be described as "leaving early" or staying "quiet" when losing. Maybe less so with a few teams like the Pats or Skins, but then again I don't remember Pats fans being so dedicated about 12 years ago during the 1-15 Dick MacPherson years. Since the Glazers built Ray Jay and put a decent team together, the fan support has been good...even in bad years like the 2 seasons following the super bowl. People actually tailgate. And the local sports radio (the Animal) has a live call-in radio show with a Buc player every night of the week during the season except Sat and Sun. That's not bad.
Yeah, it was. It's hard for an MLB game not to be worth a $5 ticket here in 2006. Amazingly the game drew about 27,000 fans. The parking at the Trop is pathetic. The fans generally stayed quiet. Braves fans were well-represented. Probably a lot of S. GA/N. FL people made the trip since the Braves only visit every 6 years. When the Braves made it 3-2 in the 7th Braves fans started making some noise (even doing the Chop). Rays fans soon drowned them out. That was the only time it got loud all night...and it's a dome!
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