122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

[CommAvHusky]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

9. San Francisco Giants

(a.k.a. New York Giants)

Why? One of the most successful teams the first 50 years of modern baseball then proceeded to take the next 50 years off. They have rebounded this decade.

The Good. 8 World Series Championships (1905, 1921, 1922, 1933, 1954, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016), 21 National League Pennants in the modern age (1904, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1923, 1924, 1936, 1937, 1951, 1962, 1989, 2002,

The Bad, 56-year gap between winning the World Series. Did not win the title in San Francisco until their 53rd season. Their 98 losses last year were the most since losing a 100 in 1985.

The Ugly: Refused to play in the 1904 World Series due to manager John McGraw’s disdain for the American League. Initially, he did not want to play for the upstart New York Highlanders, who ended finishing second on the last day of play to Boston. In 1905, it was now mandated that the National League winner and American League winner play in the World Series.
Won 103 games in 1993 and did not make the playoffs. After that season, wild cards were put into place.
Merkle’s Boner: This refers a notorious baserunning mistake by Giants rookie Fred Merkle. Late in the 1908 season, the Giants and Cubs are tied at one. With two outs and runners at the corners, Giants shortstop Al Bridwell hit a single to centerfield. What appeared to be a 2-1 Giants win did not happen. The runner at first, Fred Merkle never advanced to second. Merkle saw the fans rushing onto the field and just simply returned to the dugout. Cubs Second Baseman Johnny Evers noticed this and asked for the ball during the chaotic scene. When he touched the base, Merkle was ruled out. Unable to get the crowd to their seats it was initially ruled a tie game. The game had to be replayed because the Cubs and Giants were tied for first at the end of the season. The Cubs won the game, the pennant, and as we, all know the 1908 World Series.

Where they play. AT&T Park, opened in 2000 replaced Candlestick Park, home of McCovey Cove on San Francisco Bay, where they keep track of “splash hits”

Owner: San Francisco Baseball Associates LLC. Larry Baer is the CEO.

Manager: Bruce Bochy, just finished his 11th season managing the Giants, this comes after managing San Diego for 12 seasons. Bochy managed San Diego’s last pennant along with the Giants last three World Series titles.

Top Current Players: Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, and Buster Posey

Hall of Famers: Roger Connor, George Davis, Buck Ewing, Carl Hubbell, Monte Irvin, Travis Jackson, Tim Keefe, George Kelly, Freddie Lindstrom, Rube Marquard, Christy Matthewson, Joe McGinnity, John McGraw, Jim O’Rourke, Mel Ott, Bill Terry, Mickey Welsh, Hoyt Wilhelm, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, Willie McCovey, and Willie Mays.

[mookie1995]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

The sheer fact they lost to canesco and McGwire and eck should drop them to the mid 80’s

[CommAvHusky]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

The sheer fact they lost to canesco and McGwire and eck should drop them to the mid 80’s

That series did shake things up a bit.

[CommAvHusky]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

8. Dallas Cowboys

Why? Self-proclaimed America’s Team, yet douchiest banbase west of Boston.

The Good. 5 Super Bowls, 8 NFC Championships (1970, 1971, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1992, 1993, 1995). 32 playoff appearances.

The Bad, The 1980’s showed the Cowboys slide from contenders to pretenders. Went a combined 4-28 in 1988 & 1989. The Dave Campo era for three 5-11 seasons in the early 2000’s. Since 1996 have 3 playoff wins, The Jacksonville Jaguars have 6.

The Ugly: The Firing of Tom Landry. The Cowboys are easy to hate, but it was hard to hate Tom Landry who was the head coach for the Cowboys first 29 seasons. Landry was the former Defensive Coordinator for the New York Giants (Vince Lombardi was the Giants Offensive Coordinator before going to Green Bay). Landry’s achievements as head coach rival few and his innovative strategies made the Cowboys contenders every year until the mid-1980’s. Starting in 1986, the Cowboys started to slip. By 1988, the Cowboys had the league’s worst record at 3-13 and the #1 pick in the draft.
In February 1989, owner Bum Bright sold the Cowboys to Jerry Jones. Jones fired Landry and General Manager Tex Schramm, so that he can hire his former college teammate at the University of Arkansas, University of Miami Head Coach Jimmy Johnson. Landry did have one year left on his contract and the quick firing was quickly criticized around the league and by Cowboy fans. Schramm was in tears, he started at the franchise’s birth just like Landry. Years later Jones, admitted that he should have handled the situation much better. While the Jones/Johnson partnership started off at 1-15 in 1989, they were in the playoffs again in 1991, and won the Super Bowl the season after that.

Where they play. AT&T Stadium, also known as “Jerry’s World”, it was originally christened Cowboys Stadium in 2009. It replaced Texas Stadium, which opened in 1971, before that the Cowboys played in the original Cotton Bowl.

Owner: Jerry Jones, probably the most controversial owner in the NFL, it not all of North American sports. Bought the Cowboys in 1989, and general manager as well, a very hands on owner who initially had success but have had problems winning in the playoffs. Jones was co-captain of the 1964 NCAA Champion Arkansas Razorbacks. While Jones is controversial, he has made himself and other NFL owners a ton of money.

Coach: Jason Garrett, his Jones’s current puppet head coach. Garrett was a backup quarterback in the 1990’s, and just finished his 7th season as head coach of the Cowboys, by far the longest tenure in the Jones era.

Top Current Players: Ezekiel Elliot, Dak Prescott, and Dez Bryant

Hall of Famers: Troy Aikman, Larry Brown, Tony Dorsett, Bob Hayes, Michael Irvin, Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro, Emmitt Smith, Roger Staubach, Randy White, and Rayfield Wright.

[FreshFish]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

10. Pittsburgh Steelers
Hall of Famers: Jerome Bettis

Still gives me a chuckle that "The Bus" was MVP of Super Bowl XL....

[CommAvHusky]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

7. Los Angeles Dodgers

(a.k.a. Brooklyn Dodgers)
Why? From Dem Bums to Chavez Ravine, from Trolley Dodging to Freeway Dodging.

The Good. 6 World Series Titles 1 in Brooklyn (1955), 5 in Los Angeles (1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988). 19 National League Pennants in the modern era. (1916, 1920, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 2017). Signing of Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947. Stability only one manager change from 1954 to 1996.

The Bad. The third to last original team to win the World Series. The Dodgers are not known for having really bad seasons, there were two 100-loss seasons in 1905 and 1908. In the more modern era, the Dodgers lost 99 games in 1992.

The Ugly: The move from Brooklyn. It would be easy to say that most people in Brooklyn, Walter O’Malley was as revered as Stalin or Hitler for moving the beloved bums to Los Angeles. O’Malley bought the Dodgers in 1950; he knew that Ebbets Field was small and dilapidated. The Dodgers were relatively strong in the 1940’s and 1950’s there were only so many fans that could cram inside. As fans started moving away from Brooklyn and on to suburban Long Island, there was very little parking near the ballpark.
O’Malley wanted to build a bigger ballpark in the Atlantic Yards in another section of Brooklyn. New York City Buildings Commissioner Robert Moses refused to help via eminent domain. Moses countered with offering the Dodgers city land in Queens to build a dual-use stadium for the Dodgers and the Giants. O’Malley refused saying the team is the Brooklyn Dodgers, not the Queens Dodgers.
In 1956, the Dodgers decided to play several games at Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium. City officials decided O’Malley was bluffing thinking O’Malley would not leave New York. By the 1950’s, air travel was more accessible than taking the train, it meant teams travel very far, very quickly. Officials from Los Angeles offered everything New York City would not offer. Buy land cheaply, have control over his own ballpark and giving him complete control over revenue. To help get approval from the National League, O’Malley convinced Giants owner Horace Stoneham to move his team to San Francisco instead of Minneapolis. Both teams moved after the 1957 season.
It should be mentioned the Atlantic Yards is now where Barclays Arena is for the Nets and Islanders. The City owned land in Queens is where the former Shea and current Citi Field is for the Mets.

Where they play. Dodger Stadium, built in 1962 is sometimes known as Chavez Ravine. It is the third oldest ballpark after Fenway and Wrigley. While the stadium was being built, the Dodgers played in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for three seasons, the dimensions were very ill suited for baseball. At 56,000, it is one of the largest baseball stadiums.

Owner: Guggenheim Baseball Management, acquired the Dodgers in 2012, one of its partners includes Magic Johnson. The Dodgers stayed in the O’Malley family until bought by NewsCorp (i.e. Fox News) in 1998. Frank McCourt bought the team in 2004. However, a messy divorce led to the selling of the team and having the commissioner run the team in 2011.

Manager: Dave Roberts played ten seasons in the majors. Finished his second season managing the Dodgers, first Japanese-born manager in the majors.

Top Current Players: Cody Bellinger, Clayton Kershaw, and Yaisel Puig

Hall of Famers: In Brooklyn, Roy Campanella, Leo Durocher, Burleigh Grimes, Willie Keeler, Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Wilbert Robinson, Duke Snider, Dazzy Vance, Zach Wheat. In Los Angeles, Walter Alston, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Tommy Lasorda, and Don Sutton.

[Ralph Baer]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

8. Dallas Cowboys

Why? Self-proclaimed America’s Team, yet douchiest banbase west of Boston.

The Good. 5 Super Bowls, 8 NFC Championships (1970, 1971, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1992, 1993, 1995). 32 playoff appearances.

The Bad, The 1980’s showed the Cowboys slide from contenders to pretenders. Went a combined 4-28 in 1988 & 1989. The Dave Campo era for three 5-11 seasons in the early 2000’s. Since 1996 have 3 playoff wins, The Jacksonville Jaguars have 6.

The Ugly: The Firing of Tom Landry. The Cowboys are easy to hate, but it was hard to hate Tom Landry who was the head coach for the Cowboys first 29 seasons. Landry was the former Defensive Coordinator for the New York Giants (Vince Lombardi was the Giants Offensive Coordinator before going to Green Bay). Landry’s achievements as head coach rival few and his innovative strategies made the Cowboys contenders every year until the mid-1980’s. Starting in 1986, the Cowboys started to slip. By 1988, the Cowboys had the league’s worst record at 3-13 and the #1 pick in the draft.
In February 1989, owner Bum Bright sold the Cowboys to Jerry Jones. Jones fired Landry and General Manager Tex Schramm, so that he can hire his former college teammate at the University of Arkansas, University of Miami Head Coach Jimmy Johnson. Landry did have one year left on his contract and the quick firing was quickly criticized around the league and by Cowboy fans. Schramm was in tears, he started at the franchise’s birth just like Landry. Years later Jones, admitted that he should have handled the situation much better. While the Jones/Johnson partnership started off at 1-15 in 1989, they were in the playoffs again in 1991, and won the Super Bowl the season after that.

Where they play. AT&T Stadium, also known as “Jerry’s World”, it was originally christened Cowboys Stadium in 2009. It replaced Texas Stadium, which opened in 1971, before that the Cowboys played in the original Cotton Bowl.

Owner: Jerry Jones, probably the most controversial owner in the NFL, it not all of North American sports. Bought the Cowboys in 1989, and general manager as well, a very hands on owner who initially had success but have had problems winning in the playoffs. Jones was co-captain of the 1964 NCAA Champion Arkansas Razorbacks. While Jones is controversial, he has made himself and other NFL owners a ton of money.

Coach: Jason Garrett, his Jones’s current puppet head coach. Garrett was a backup quarterback in the 1990’s, and just finished his 7th season as head coach of the Cowboys, by far the longest tenure in the Jones era.

No one in the HoF?

[CommAvHusky]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

No one in the HoF?

Re-Edited

[JF_Gophers]

No one in the HoF?

No one deservring (sic).

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

(a.k.a. Brooklyn Dodgers)

The Ugly: The move from Brooklyn. It would be easy to say that most people in Brooklyn, Walter O’Malley was as revered as Stalin or Hitler for moving the beloved bums to Los Angeles. O’Malley bought the Dodgers in 1950; he knew that Ebbets Field was small and dilapidated. The Dodgers were relatively strong in the 1940’s and 1950’s there were only so many fans that could cram inside. As fans started moving away from Brooklyn and on to suburban Long Island, there was very little parking near the ballpark.
O’Malley wanted to build a bigger ballpark in the Atlantic Yards in another section of Brooklyn. New York City Buildings Commissioner Robert Moses refused to help via eminent domain. Moses countered with offering the Dodgers city land in Queens to build a dual-use stadium for the Dodgers and the Giants. O’Malley refused saying the team is the Brooklyn Dodgers, not the Queens Dodgers.
In 1956, the Dodgers decided to play several games at Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium. City officials decided O’Malley was bluffing thinking O’Malley would not leave New York. By the 1950’s, air travel was more accessible than taking the train, it meant teams travel very far, very quickly. Officials from Los Angeles offered everything New York City would not offer. Buy land cheaply, have control over his own ballpark and giving him complete control over revenue. To help get approval from the National League, O’Malley convinced Giants owner Horace Stoneham to move his team to San Francisco instead of Minneapolis. Both teams moved after the 1957 season.

My father grew up as a diehard Brooklyn Dodgers fan. 1955 was his greatest sporting moment.

Don't even mention the name Walter O'Malley ... unless you are at least 10 feet away from him...

He is now starting to understand the role Robert Moses played in the move, but he still has trouble transitioning his anger.

As far as my father is concerned, 1) baseball ceased to exist after 1957 and 2) Los Angeles is not the Dodgers.

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

O'Malley's stadium plans included a retractable roof designed by Buckminster Fuller. That concept wouldn't come to fruition until over 40 years later in Toronto.

[joecct]

O'Malley's stadium plans included a retractable roof designed by Buckminster Fuller. That concept wouldn't come to fruition until over 40 years later in Toronto.

IIRC it was to be built about where the Barclays Center is.

[mookie1995]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

Robert Moses was the devil (D as in democrat)

[Kepler]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

Robert Moses was the devil

He was indeed.

[CommAvHusky]

Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:

6. San Antonio Spurs


Why? The best team nobody ever talks about.

The Good. Five NBA Championships (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014). Six Western Conference Championships (2013). Arguably, the most successful franchise in the 21st century not named the Patriots.

The Bad. No winning seasons from 1983-1989. Poor play and attendance started rumors of relocation.

The Ugly: This is really a reach, in 1987; the Spurs won the draft lottery and selected David Robinson from the Naval Academy. However, Robinson had to fulfill a two-year commitment with the Navy before playing. The Spurs lost 60 games in 1989. With Robinson in, the Spurs won 56 games the next season and were among the elite of the NBA until an injury plagued 1997, saw the Spurs lose 61 games, they won the lottery again and selected Tim Duncan, they have been in the NBA elite ever since.
Ugly, the Spurs acquired Dennis Rodman in 1993. Rodman was already a gifted defensive player and great rebounder, however, the Dennis Rodman look that we know today started in San Antonio, with the frequent hair color changes, the head-butting, clashing with management, an affair with Madonna, and a motorcycle accident. Although Rodman led both seasons in rebounding, he proved to be too hard to control and was traded to Chicago.

Where they play. AT&T Center, Built in 2002. Well known for its rodeos, and force the Spurs to go on long road trips when the event is held in February.

Owner: Spurs Sports & Entertainment, with Julianna Hawn Holt as chair & CEO.

Coach: Gregg Popovich, who would have thought that after being blown out by Golden State on December 8, 1996, would start pro sports longest current coaching tenure. On February 4, 2017, Popovich’s won his 1,218th game with the Spurs the most for one coach on one team.

Top Current Players: Kahwi Leonard, Tony Parker, and Manu Genobli

Hall of Famers: George Gervin, David Robinson, and Artis Gilmore