Championship Cities since 2000

We've now completed two decades of sports championships since 2000, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at the data. Whenever you do something like this, there are certain judgement calls that have to be made. First, I went strictly by the date that the championship was won. So even though the 2019 NFL season is going on, we already know who won the Super Bowl that was played in 2019. Second, if the city was in the name of the team, I went with that city. So the New York teams are represented as New York, not anything in New Jersey. If the team goes by a state or region, I had to make a judgement call. I assigned the Patriots to Boston as Foxborough is a suburb there. I assigned the Warriors to Oakland as that's where they played at the time.

I also decided to only count NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. I'm sure Atlantans are upset.

Championship Cities this decade

Boston - 6
Chicago - 4
Los Angeles - 3
Oakland - 3
San Francisco - 3
Miami - 2
Pittsburgh - 2
St. Louis - 2
Washington D.C. - 2
Baltimore
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Green Bay
Houston
Kansas City
New Orleans
New York
Philadelphia
San Antonio
Seattle
Toronto

That's 40 titles dispersed across 22 different cities. That's pretty cool. But how many sports cities are there across the four major sports?

Wikipedia lists 49, but has bucketed Anaheim with LA, Newark with NYC, and Oakland with SF, which is a bridge too far for me. So that's 52 cities by my standards. 22/52 won a title this decade. Let's see how we do if we expand to 2000.

Championship Cities since 2000

Boston - 12
Los Angeles - 7
Chicago - 5
Pittsburgh - 5
Miami - 4
New York - 4
San Antonio - 4
St. Louis - 4
Detroit - 3
Oakland - 3
San Francisco - 3
Anaheim - 2
Baltimore - 2
Denver - 2
Newark - 2
Philadelphia - 2
Tampa - 2
Washington D.C. - 2
Cleveland
Dallas
Green Bay
Houston
Indianapolis
Kansas City
New Orleans
Phoenix
Raleigh
Seattle
Toronto

That's 79 titles (not 80 because of the NHL lockout) across 29 cities. The 7 cities we've added are Newark, Phoenix, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Detroit, Tampa and Anaheim. We're up to 29 out of 52 cities. Let's look at the cities without one, with the number of teams they have:

23 Cities without a title since 2000

Minneapolis - 4

Atlanta - 3

Cincinatti - 2

Charlotte - 2

Nashville - 2

Milwaukee - 2

Buffalo

Calgary

Columbus

Edmonton

Jacksonville

Las Vegas

Memphis

Montreal

Oklahoma City

Orlando

Ottawa

Portland

Sacramento

Salt Lake City

San Diego

Vancouver

Winnipeg

Wow. Right away Minneapolis sticks out as the only city with 4 teams not to win a title in two decades. And Atlanta with their 28-3 Super Bowl is not far behind. At least they won MLS. It's hard to give any crap to the cities with only one team. 

But for our cities with at least two teams, let's sort them by most recent title:

Atlanta - 1995
Minneapolis - 1991
Cincinatti - 1990
Milwaukee - 1971
Nashville - Never
Charlotte - Never

So if just went back one more decade we'd cover half of our multi-sport cities. Milwaukee, oof. Nashville and Charlotte only got their teams somewhat recently so it's not necessarily worse than Milwaukee. The Titans franchise won an AFL championship in 1961 as the Houston Oilers but that's definitely not a title won in Nashville.

Here's the raw data for the last two decades:

Some takeaways:
Boston is the only city to win cities in all four sports since 2000
LA is in 2nd place in titles but only from Lakers and Kings
St. Louis has titles in football, hockey and baseball, the only team with titles in three sports (and they don't even have an NFL team anymore)
Chicago is the only city to have two different teams win in the same sport (MLB)
San Antonio is by far the best single-team city
That 9-year NHL stretch where 8 titles were won by Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA
The only calendar year with multiple titles to the same city was 2004, Boston
For as many teams as they have, New York is underrepresented

Some other random takeaways:

I definitely don't think about Raleigh as a sports city

It's odd to think about the Florida Marlins and Miami Heat as representing the same city

Fixing Baseball with 3-Inning Games?

The Ringer had a Hottest Take last week that involved 3-inning games. Fennessey suggested it somewhat confusingly for the playoffs, when in my opinion it's not the playoffs that need fixing.

But it did give me an idea.

What if for the regular season, instead of going to see one 9 inning game... you got to see a doubleheader of 3-inning games. So you're still playing 162 a year. But only playing one-third of the innings, and you only need half the days, and the TV window is two-thirds of the time.

Sean's point of late-inning/extra-inning situations being more dramatic is correct. It would definitely speed up the game, make it more accessible to younger audiences / TV windows.

Owners would lose half their ticket gates as each fan's ticket would be for two games. And baseball is all about tradition, so they'd never go for it in a million years. But hey, more perfect games.

Defining My Wheelhouse

Similar to how I defined my beer palate last year, I thought I would explore what is my "wheelhouse" in terms of media that I enjoy. As in, if there was a new movie or show coming out, just by knowing the genre will I be interested? This was partly inspired by the new whodunit movie Knives Out. Once I heard about it, I've avoiding even seeing a trailer as I know I'm going to see it and I don't want to know anything about it.

The first bucket is a big one with lots of components, but all sharing a common thread:

Mystery/Deception

• Murder Mystery/Whodunits: From live murder mysteries where I play a role to the aforementioned Knives Out to the ABC show Whodunit?, I love trying to solve a murder mystery or seeing the detective solve it. Even The Mole fits into this category.
• Detective Shows: Sherlock (with Benedict Cumberbatch) is top tier. But I liked Monk too.
• Heists: What I love about heists is not knowing exactly how they're going to do it and then watching them pull it off in an unexpected way--Inside Man and Ocean's 11 are great examples. 
• Escape Rooms: Big fan. Love being in charge of solving my way out of something. Also the same reason I like solving the puzzles in the Portal video game series.
• Magic: From Derren Brown to Penn & Teller or even the Now You See Me movies, I'm in on illusions
• Mystery thrillers: So here's the thing, Seven, The Prestige and Get Out are all good movies. But one of the ways you know something is in your wheelhouse, is when you like something that you know is bad like Liam Neeson's Unknown. See also Whodunit? (lol) Movies with twists are basically in this same category, although so many people like twists I don't know that it's a definable part of my wheelhouse.
• Mission Impossible franchise. These movies are very popular, in part because of the great action. But what I love just as much if not more than the action scenes, are the scenes to break in to the Kremlin or the Vatican or Langley, the mousetraps where they deceive the bad guys, or the masks. 

Video Games with Freedom or Stealth

• Freedom is one of the reasons we play games, to be in control. Despite this trend for games to be cinematic experiences, I'd still rather play a game that tells less of a story that allows me greater choice. An obvious example of freedom is the open-world sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto or Just Cause, but also I described this in the Tony Hawk series.
• Another component that I just love in video games is stealth. I first discovered my love for stealth through Metal Gear Solid and then leaned into the Assassin's Creed universe.
• You probably saw where this was going. But Hitman (2016-2018) has basically become my favorite game ever by combining freedom and stealth (not to mention deception disguises and even a heist) and doing everything right along the way.

Time Travel

• I love time travel stuff. I love interesting paradoxes and how changing one thing can change the future. Back to the Future, Looper, Deja Vu, even the bad Timecop show on ABC
• Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Source Code, even 50 First Dates, it's fun to repeat the same day over again. 

Nolan/Fincher

• I'm not sure if this is a really a category that's in my wheelhouse as movies that make you think, or if they're just two of our top directors and they make good, popular movies. It's not just that they have a twist, it's the way movies like Fight Club, Inception, The Game, Memento, Seven, Interstellar, and others explore things you haven't thought of and send your mind reeling. 
• I loved Nolan's Batman Trilogy but stopped going to see Marvel movies. Eventually I realized what I loved about the Dark Knight is that it was a Nolan movie, not a superhero movie.

Offbeat/Awkward Comedy

• This one is harder to pin down. But I think it's fair to say that some of the stuff that hits my funny bone has a bit of awkwardness to it. When Letterman is running the Taco Bell drive-thru, Norm Macdonald, Jake and Amir, and Galifianakis. I Think You Should Leave sometimes went even farther than I wanted it do, but was great as well.

Smart, Layered Comedy

• The other thing that cracks me up is when jokes have multiple layers, often setup far in advance. I love a good callback.
• Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Community all are great examples of this
• In Seinfeld,  I love it when seemingly separate storylines merge in the final act

I think that's my wheelhouse. If you start listing every thing you've ever enjoyed it becomes more nebulous. There are other things that I can recognize as good and enjoy them a lot, without them being in my wheelhouse. Like I enjoy Goodfellas without being into mob/crime movies. I like Inglorious Basterds without being into war movies. And then there's things that seemingly everyone else likes that I'm not into at all, such as Game of Thrones or Marvel movies. And co-workers will be surprised and act like you just need to give it a chance. My reaction is, I've got enough stuff in my wheelhouse. No need to try to force something just because it's popular.

Derren Brown: Secret!

After ten years of being a big fan of Derren Brown, I got to see him live in New York.

The show was amazing and the absolute mind-blowing thing was...I got to go on stage and be a part of the finale. 

Derren requested everyone not to spoil the contents of the show, but of course I wanted to preserve what happened in my own memory. Since I respect him too much to publicly spoil it for anyone who might google this, I've put my full spoilery review in a private document. 

LINK to my personal Derren Brown experience

If you're a loyal Hoagie Central reader, I've given you access in case you want to read the uncensored experience.

Big Game on Thursday

Chiefs have lost two in a row. Broncos have won two in a row.
Last year, Chiefs lost by 1 to the Chargers in a Thursday Night heartbreaker.
Chiefs are banged up and have to play and travel on short rest.

If the Chiefs win, they're 5-2 and have 10 days to rest up before the Packers come to Arrowhead.
If they lose, they're 4-3 on a 3-game losing streak and the division is wide open again.

Last year, Mahomes needed some magic in Mile High including a left-handed pass to pull out a hard-fought win. With injured lines on both sides of the ball, the Chiefs might need even more magic this year.

Separation Sunday results

The 49ers and Seahawks did separate themselves.
The Vikings and Packers are made their case in the NFC North.

The Eagles, Chiefs and Rams all lost key conference games and lost ground in their paths to the postseason.

Washington outlasted the Dolphins, with Miami separating themselves in the tank race.

Calcutta Update #2

Time to check in on our Calcutta picks and get a sense of the league through 6 weeks. 

AFC

1. Patriots

2. Chiefs

3. Ravens

4. Texans (I know Texans own the tiebreaker over Chiefs, but I think Chiefs and Ravens are more locks to win their divisions. Texans could still be a wild-card easily.)

5. Colts

6. Bills

7. Raiders (I'm not a believer yet)

NFC

1. Saints

2. Packers

3. Seahawks

4. 49ers

5. Panthers/Vikings/Eagles/Cowboys/Rams/Bears

Still a logjam in the NFC with the Lions, Bucs and Giants still capable of making a run. 

LOSER MONEY

1. Dolphins

2. Bengals

These two teams play each other on December 22 and loser wins. 

POWER RANKINGS

1. Kirat

2. Dave

3. Niraj

4. Mark

(medium to large chasm)

5. Matt

Chargers Catch a Break

This is a petty post.

Here's the AFC West division standings from last year:

For the 2019 season, the AFC West matchups vs AFC East and AFC North are assigned based on your division place. Normally this works out evenly and fairly.

This year here are the matchups:

Chiefs vs Ravens, Chiefs at Patriots
Chargers at Dolphins, Chargers vs Steelers
Broncos vs Browns, Broncos at Bills
Raiders vs Bengals, Raiders at Jets

The 12-4 Chargers have a much, much easier pairing than even the 6-10 Broncos, and arguably at Jets is tougher than the Steelers with the 3rd string QB.

In one way, it sucks for the Broncos which is always good.
But it really is a gift to the Chargers. If they were 4-1 I'd be a lot more upset than I am now.

Separation Sunday

Separation Sunday is a classic album by The Hold Steady. It's also happening this week in the NFL.

Who's good in the NFC? Lots of teams in that conversation. The only undefeated team is the 4-0 49ers. But are they the best team in their division? We'll get closer to an answer when they play the Rams on Sunday.

Then there's the Seahawks who have to go on the road to struggling Cleveland. If Seattle wins, they belong in the conversation of best NFC teams and we can stop taking the Browns seriously this year.

The Eagles play the Vikings and one of them will be .500 and the other will be firmly in their division winner race.

If the Panthers can beat the Bucs in London, it's time to take the Panthers seriously. If not, then both will become 2nd fiddle to the Saints.

And on Monday Night, the Packers can bolster their case as the best team in the conference with a win at home over the Lions.


In the AFC, the marquee showdown is Texans at Chiefs. If the Texans win, they'll have the same record as KC and own a tiebreaker for playoff seeding. Watson could gain steam and hype as a top 3 or top 5 QB. If the Chiefs win, they reassert themselves as an AFC favorite along with the Pats.

Even the Miami-Washington game has relevance for our Calcutta loser money race. Who will stake their claim as the true winless team and the inside track for $$$. (That's three dollars.)

Road to Super Bowl LIV: Chapter 2

When you're at the game, you're not hearing the announcers or seeing stats or even being notified of injuries. It's hard to have a sense of the game. So I'm diving in, mainly so I can understand.

Before we get into last night's game specifically, let's look at some numbers from this year.

I'm going to look at meaningful possessions. What I mean by that is, I'm not going to count kneel downs/or running out the clock. I'm trying to track points per possession, so any time the offense isn't trying to score, or doesn't have enough time to score isn't helpful.

Possessions
Week 1: Chiefs 9, Jaguars 9
Week 2: Chiefs 10, Raiders 10
Week 3: Chiefs 9, Ravens 9
Week 4: Chiefs 12, Lions 12
Week 5: Chiefs 9, Colts 9

Points per Possessions
Week 1: Chiefs 4.44, Jaguars 2.88
Week 2: Chiefs 2.8, Raiders 1
Week 3: Chiefs 3.66, Ravens 3.11
Week 4: Chiefs 2.83, Lions 2.5
Week 5: Chiefs 1.44, Colts 2.11

(Nerd footnote: I counted the Chiefs fumble return td vs Lions as both a possession and points.)

Two more stats:
yards per Brissett pass attempt: 5.2
yards per Mack run attempt: 4.6

What do all these numbers mean?

Well, first every game this year, both teams get the same amount of possessions. And it's usually going to be 9 or 10. The Lions game featured a ton of fumbles bumping it up to 12 each. So the idea of keeping using the run game to keep Mahomes on the sideline is overrated. The most points scored this year was against the Jaguars, 40 points, on 9 possessions.

Despite being porous against the run, the Chiefs are like any team in that passing gains more yards than running. QBs average 5.5 to 9 yards per pass attempt and RBs average 3 to 6 yards per run.
So like every team, the Chiefs want you to run.

The Chiefs pass defense actually held Brissett to a low average/attempt (like Trubisky low).
And while I'm not going to praise the run defense, the defense as a whole only allowed one touchdown. Going by points per possession, it was the 2nd strongest defensive showing of the year. And most importantly, if the Chiefs had been anywhere as effective on offense as they usually are, the score would have been closer to the 28-10 victory over the Raiders.

- - -

So now that we know this loss is squarely on the offense and not the defense, let's dive in and try to figure out what went wrong.

Drive 1: The Chiefs rolled down to the Colts 13 with ease, only needed to convert one 3rd down. But then there was an injury timeout that appeared to give the Colts time to adjust. Holding penalty and the Chiefs settle for a field goal.

Drive 2: Mahomes converts a 2nd and 16 with a beautiful cross body throw to Kelce. Two plays later gets sacked bringing up a 3rd and 18. Mahomes makes something out of nothing on the best play I've ever seen live. Through 2 possessions, Chiefs averaging 5 points per and everything is gravy.

Drive 3: A rare 3 and out, all incomplete passes. I was walking the suite and missed these plays.

Drive 4: The Mathieu interception sets up the Chiefs at the 37. 4 plays later and they're in the red zone, but McCoy fumbles.

Drive 5: Chiefs convert a 4th and 1 but squander it by stalling at midfield and punting.

Halftime

Drive 6: Chiefs have 3rd and 2 on the Colts 37. Mahomes throws a pass that hits the ground but is not whistled dead, instead treated like it's an interception. On the return, the Chiefs OL commits late hits out of bounds. It's overturned, but instead of 4th and 2 from the 37, it's 4th and 17.

Drive 7: Another 3 and out, all incomplete passes.

Mahomes Injury

Drive 8: Down 16-10 with 7 minutes to go, the Chiefs needed to score on this drive. On first down, there's a questionable face mask call on Robinson doing a stiffarm. 1st and 20. Sacked. 2nd and 30. Draw play. 3rd and 28. Deep pass interference but wiped away by holding penalty. 3rd and 28 again, Mahomes finds Pringle who gets 27. He absolutely had the angle and needed to get the first down, but couldn't. 4th and 1, run up the middle and stuffed.

Drive 9: The game was out of reach, but Mahomes scrambles for 14 yards on his hobbled ankle anyways. Get down and score a field goal, but without on the onside recovery, it didn't matter.


So that's Drives 3 through 8 with no points.
1 fumble in the red zone
2 three and outs
2 midfield punts
1 turnover on downs

A hodgepodge of committing penalties, drive stalling on incompletes and a turnover too.
In other words, the offense just wasn't very good on six drives in a row.

- - -

It wasn't the Mahomes injury. He was doing good stuff on the last two drives.

But the injuries all over were a huge factor. The Chiefs were missing their top 2 WR and had 2 OL injuries. The OL didn't give Mahomes time and hurt the team with holding penalties. The McCoy fumble was huge. Despite all that, Mahomes threw over 300 yards and they had a chance when it was 16-10.

The good news is this was pretty fluky from the Offense. They've never done this poorly so there's reason to think they can bounce back.

The bad news? They are injured and missing key players for more time.

Now would be a good time for a bye week, but instead they have two games next week: Sunday and Thursday. Their bye is 6 games away.

Next week is likely a shootout against the Texans who just put up 53. And I'm not feeling confident in KC like I was 24 hours ago.

Instead of thinking about homefield advantage in the AFC, they need to get healthy and find their offensive groove and figure out how to improve the run defense too.

Chiefs vs Colts: I Was There

I bought tickets to a Chiefs game for two primary reasons: I had never seen Mahomes play in person and I had a feeling this could be a Super Bowl year and I wanted to be able to say I went to a game in person during their Super Bowl run.

Well, couldn't have picked a worse one to go to.

Was the lowest points put up under a Mahomes offense and the loss is putting a serious question mark on this team's potential to make a Super Bowl run. But that will sort itself out.

I got there early because there were things that I wanted to see...

Before I could get park though, it took me 30 minutes after I scanned my parking pass to be routed along the outside stadium track. I used Gate 5 (Stadium Dr off 435) and I should avoid that in the future. Next time I should try Gate 4.

Eventually I did park, as you can see by the Royals right field entrance.

Inside I headed to the Chiefs Hall of Honor. Ever since I researched trophies and realized that there's exactly one trophy for every Super Bowl and the Chiefs display theirs from Super Bowl IV in the stadium, I knew I had to go.



The case and trophy itself are so reflective, it's hard to get a good shot. Especially one without my dumb fingers in it.

It's kind of funny, this whole drive to win a trophy, when there's one sitting right there, no? Hahaha.

From here I wanted to see how close I could get to the field, even though my seats were in the upper deck. Turns out, pretty close!

An hour before the game, no one is checking tickets. So I got to get along the front row and take pictures. Here's Butker #7 warming up.

#17 Mecole Hardman

Skycam

Instant Replay Booth

GM Brett Veach in the gray suit

Our run defense

Kelce and Sherman

Robinson and Hardman



And of course, from Texas Tech, QB1, Pat Mahomes

That was all super cool, but eventually I had to head up to my seats in the upper deck.

Good view of the field. Though I spent so much time in the lower deck that it felt like I was at a sharp angle downward. Guess that's on me. Also, I was in seat 3 and didn't realize that the railings would be a problem. Blocked some of the endzone, but if I leaned forward or stood up it was fine.

Sunday Night Football so they had a 6-man paratroop entrance.

It was here that I saw the best play I've ever seen live...




In the second quarter, my friends in Suite 231 texted me and told me to come over, so I watched the rest of the game from there.

I don't love the corner/endzone view as it's so hard to tell if a running play is successful. But maybe that was for the best.

Unfortunately I don't get to cross the Colts off the Hit List. And I got to sit in my car not moving for 40 minutes because the parking is just as bad leaving. Can't win 'em all.

Wish I could run the ABC network just so I could bring back Whodunit?, The Mole, and Celebrity Mole.

The Week After

Last year, the Chiefs broke the Jaguars.

The Jags were 3-1 and coming off an AFC Championship appearance. Mahomes and Co. beat them 30-14 and the Jaguars were never the same. It was the start of a 7-game losing streak and they'd finish 5-11.

- - -

I've noticed a trend. It seems that teams give the Chiefs their best shot, lose, and that either demoralizes them or they're out of steam and lose the week after.

Jaguars lost to Chiefs and then lost the week after.
Raiders lost to Chiefs and then lost the week after.
Ravens lost to Chiefs and then lost the week after.
Lions lost to Chiefs and are on the bye this week.

(It's also worth noting that all those teams either won or tied all their other games not accounted for, so it's not a matter that these teams are just junk.)

We'll see if the Lions' bye week allows them the chance to regroup or if they fall victim to the curse as well.