04/24/24
May 11, 2003
Greatest Teams:
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel took a poll of sports writers and broadcasters to see who they thought was the greatest sports team of all. You can't say the paper rigged the voting because the Green Bay Packers didn't win (they placed third). In defending the New York Yankees' selection Frank Deford said, "They've been around so long. You can make arguments for teams in certain eras, but the Yankees go for the last 80 years."
I'm a little surprised that the Cowboys are so low. Well, I mean they are in the top 10 but 'points-wise' for the purposes of ranking the teams they are less than half the totals of the first three teams. I guess their stories aren't good enough (or, as the piece points out, they are a relatively new franchise compared to some of the others). As far as the Habs, fourth place, sure. But only named on 19 of 20 ballots? Who the heck was the 20th voter? How could you NOT name the Habs as one of the 10 more storied franchises? As Frank Deford said that if you ask people to "Name a hockey team, they'll say Canadiens". Apparently not that 20th voter. Fair enough, ice hockey does not have the same profile among the presumed voters in the poll. But even that voter would have been better served to put the Habs on his ballot as 10th. Or has he not heard of the Habs? At least one title in every decade? Does that matter?
posted by gspm at 09:25 AM on May 12, 2003
Glad to see the Cardinals in the top 10 where they belong (bias duly recorded). But how the hell can anyone put the Cubs in there? Not winning a World Series in nearly 100 years makes you a great franchise? Man ... next thing you know, "Gunsmoke" will one of the 10 greatest TV shows. Longevity doesn't mean a damn thing if you don't do anything with it. Oh, yeah, and the Yankees deserve first (puke).
posted by wfrazerjr at 10:46 AM on May 12, 2003
From the article - The mission was to determine the 10 most storied franchises in professional sports. I read that as a poll of to find the franchises with a storied history (charm, respect, history, "greatness" as in how great they seem to people and how they make them warm and fuzzy inside), but not necessarily the most successful (a number crunching exercise which would have the Habs above the second place Packers). The Cubs have a lovable-ness (or something) that serves them well in a poll that is not confined to comparing penants and World Series trophies. I dunno.
posted by gspm at 04:54 PM on May 12, 2003
It's a good job they only considered North American teams. It would have been pretty galling for them to discover the greatest sports team of all came from Madrid. Seriously, can anyone else even come close to that 1955-60 side?