I spend/waste a lot of time watching sports...and I mean a LOT. During the baseball season, I watch, attend, listen to virtually every Orioles game (except for those West Coast trips thanks to my early-morning wake up times). As a life-long Skins fan, I spend fall and winter Sunday afternoons glued to my TV set. I also follow Terrapin football closely as a proud season-ticket holder, and every year I become more and more of a Capitals fan.This season, I find myself wondering: what in the world is wrong with me? The Orioles finished another horrific season of futility. My beloved Skins are working on finding new and exciting ways to display their dysfunctional ways. Terrapin football is...well they're Terrapin football. And my recently dependable Caps are off to a slow start.
The above graph displays the winning percentages (since 1990) of the 4 teams I follow the closest in addition to the comprehensive winning percentage. The Os had a nice run until around '97. The Skins started the 90s strong, and have been alternating between .500 seasons and disaster ever since. Terrapin football had a nice peak around 2002 (thank you Scotty McBrien) before returning to their pathetic ways. The Caps have been pretty solid the entire time (with a few exceptions along the way (like '03).
The moral of the story? Over the last 20 years, the four teams I follow day after day after day have combined to win 45.6% of their games (a combined record of 2412-2552). To be honest, that's better than I expected it to be. The WP is dominated by the Os due to the length of their season compared to the others. But, I think that's fair in my analysis since they are - by far - my #1 team. I've watched the majority of these 2500 losing games over the last 20 seasons, and yet I still remain a devoted fan. There's always hope for next year, right?
In closing...a brief summary of my teams.
Os: Terrible '09 season, but there's finally hope with an exciting core of young players and a GM who seems to have a steady plan of development in place.
Skins: No hope in sight. None. Danny Boy and his bug-eyed, racket-ball-playing, pseudo-GM Vinny have no clue what to do. This isn't the NBA...a few "sexy" signings accomplishes nothing (except for straining the salary cap). They just brought in a bingo-calling retiree to undermind the authority of their incompetent head coach (who is also the OC and QB coach). These guys don't get it, and they'd rather hang out with Tom Cruise than figure it out (I'd be OK with this if they hung out with Tom Kruse instead).
Terp Football: They are what they are: a mediocre, ACC football team. They can't recruit well. They'll have a Top-25 season on occassion. But the success of the McBrien Years was an aberration.
Caps: They have the best owner in the area. They have a great fan base. They are loaded with young, exciting talent. They just need some defensemen...this is a model franchise.
1 comments:
The best owner in the area is Bisciotti, not Leonsis. Of course, it's not hard to get that title when you're going up against Angelos and Snyder. I don't know who the Wizards' owner is because I don't care about the NBA, so I'm not counting them.
My biggest problem with Leonsis is that he will not fire McPhee, who is the reason our defense is the weak point of our team and it has been for several years now. Essentially, they're the Wizards on ice. He's done little right as a GM, and if the best player in the world hadn't fallen into his lap 5 years ago, there's no telling what state the team would be in right now.
Leonsis needs to fire him and get somebody that knows how to build a Stanley Cup contender. Until then, we'll be settling for 1st and 2nd round exits.
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