Rock Bottom?

Seriously, I wish I was talking about this.

But I'm not. I'm talking about Seattle as a sports town. Last night, watching the Zombie Sonic's undress Lebron and the Heat (even though they only played three good quarters of basketball - goddamn, imagine if they played well from the start. They would have won by 20) on one channel while the Padres (PADRES!!!!) beat up on King Felix, it occurred to me that this might be the lowest point in Seattle Sports History. 

Let's look at this. In the past five years:

• Sonicsgate - enough said. I will get really upset if I dive deeper
• The Mariners have lost 74, 101, 77, 101 and 95 games (and are playing a blistering .429 brand of baseball this year), have burned through six managers and have an ongoing post season drought of 11 years. 
• The Seahawk's went from a Super Bowl Screw Job in 2006 (2005 season, of course) to jettisoning the greatest coach in franchise history all while posting four consecutive losing seasons
• UW and WSU went through the greatest stretch of futility for either program - UW endured a WINLESS season in 2008 while WSU won only three games over a two year stretch.

As bad as all of that is, it isn't the absolute gut punch that watching the Thunder dominate the playoffs is, especially considering that while OKC is basking in the fruits of Seattle's labor, our fearless leaders have a once in a lifetime arena deal in front of them and they are doing everything they can to kill it. Don't forget the completely one sided reporting by the Seattle Times and lead hatchet jobber Lynn Thompson (who will reply to emails, and actually pitches a fit if you don't like her reporting. I have the emails to prove it). Throw into the mix the Mariner's and their absurd objection to the project and the ludicrous argument being made by the Port of Seattle, and my head is about ready to explode. 

There are other cities with longer title droughts, and there are individual teams who have suffered massive injustices, like the Baltimore Colts:

or the Cleveland Browns:

So I feel their pain, and I know that those cities feel ours. I also feel that in those instances, while one catastrophic sports related event happened, it was offset by something good. The Colts left Baltimore in the dead of night on March 28th 1984 - but do you know who won the World Series in October of 1983? The Baltimore Orioles. Art Modell made the announcement that he would move the Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore on November 4, 1995. Two weeks earlier, the Indians were playing the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. 

It doesn't take the pain away, but my God, at least it's SOMETHING. 

We, in Seattle, have nothing right now. Oh wait! How COULD I be so stupid??? We have the Storm!

Point of Order - I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the early success of Sounders FC. They are the model MLS Franchise, but unfortunately, until Soccer becomes one of the major sports in America (and don't argue with me, it's not there....yet), the success of a pro soccer team will not outweigh the heartbreak of 40 years of what this city has been through.