AND THEN THERE WERE TWO: DETROIT 1935-’6 AND BOSTON 2018-’19…NOT.
As of this moment, the city of Detroit remains the only one in America to win three major sports championships in a single sporting year.
In 1936 Michigan Governor Frank Fitzgerald designated April 18 as “Champions Day” in Detroit to celebrate a fantastic run of success during which the Tigers won the 1935 World Series; the Lions were the 1935 NFL champs; and the Red Wings won the 1936 Stanley Cup.
All three titles were the teams’ first, prompting the Windsor Daily Star to describe it with acuity and conciseness as “the most amazing sweep of sport achievements ever credited to any single city.”
In the same time frame Detroit’s (Black Bottom neighborhood’s) legendary “Brown Bomber” Joe Louis was rising to prominence, recognized by the Associated Press as the “Most Outstanding Athlete of 1935.”
In 1937 he would begin his long reign (in fact the longest in boxing history: 1937–1949; 140 consecutive months; 26 championship bouts) as world heavyweight champion.
All of this was a very big deal.
The nation hailed Detroit as the “City of Champions” and the White House presented Detroit with a wooden plaque during the 1936 Traverse City Cherry Festival signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States’ 48 governors.
The inscription proclaimed, “A nation appreciative of those qualities of character essential to success in competitive athletics salutes Detroit, which in this year of 1936 richly merits recognition as ‘City of Champions.’”
The plaque is on display at the Detroit Historical Museum and 83 years later The Motor City still ranks favorably in professional sports championships won with 22. New York has 55, including 27 courtesy of the Yankees; Boston has 37; and Chicago owns 29.
Speaking of Boston, at this writing The Hub is poised to crash Detroit’s party.
The Red Sox won the 2018 World Series; the Patriots once again won the Super Bowl (February 3, 2019); and the Bruins are on the cusp, playing for all the marbles in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals tonight — June 12, 2019 — against the St. Louis Blues.
To achieve this unique milestone would seem fitting for Boston, arguably the greatest sports town in the world with apologies to among others those global football (soccer) titans in faraway places with winning pedigrees and their rabid fans.
Boston teams from the four major North American professional sports leagues have won a combined 12 championships since 2000: the Pats with six (2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016, 2018); the Sox boasting four (2004, 2007, 2013, 2018); and the Bs (2011) and Celtics (2008) with one apiece.
Only seven cities can lay claim to winning at least one championship in professional football, baseball, hockey and basketball; joining New York, Boston, Chicago and Detroit are Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
And no U.S. or Canadian city has ever won all four major sports championships in the same year.
“Game Seven,” perhaps the two greatest words in the sporting lexicon.
The needle on the excitement meter goes nuts in a seventh game scenario especially when a championship is at stake.
With the score tied in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 in the 1960 World Series, second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit Ralph Terry’s 1–0 pitch over the fence in left to give the Pirates a 10–9 walk-off championship-clinching victory over the mighty Yankees.
(It was the first time a World Series ended with a home run and the only time until Toronto’s Joe Carter duplicated the feat in Game 6 of the 1993 WS against the Phillies).
Perhaps no less impressive was the Cavaliers’ 93–89 Game 7 win in the 2016 NBA Finals against Golden State — the best regular season team in NBA history (73–9) — after staring down the barrel of a 3–1 deficit. That comeback clinched the city’s first professional sports championship in 52 years.
Luis Gonzalez and the Diamondbacks won their first and only championship in a thrilling Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.
The Cleveland Indians found themselves on the short end of the World Series Game 7 stick twice, in 1997 against the Marlins, a nip-and-tuck affair and in 2016 against the Cubs after leading 3 games to 1 — both in extra innings.
And how about the 1991 Series which ESPN dubbed the “Greatest of All Time” in their “World Series 100th. Anniversary” countdown?
Three games went into extra innings; four ended via walk-off; and five were decided by a single run.
The Twins defeated the Braves 1–0 in an epic Game 7 when Jack Morris heroically hurled 10 shutout innings.
This is not to suggest that there have been no Game 7 duds. Neither baseball, basketball nor hockey are exempt.
In 1909 the Pirates beat the Tigers 8–0 sending Ty Cobb home with his third consecutive WS loss. He never made it back to the Fall Classic.
In 1945 the Tigers dispatched the Cubs 9–3 scoring 5 runs in the top of the first off a tired Hank Borowy. This would be the Cubbies’ last WS game for 71 years.
And in 1956, the year after the Brooklyn Dodgers won it all against the Yankees in seven games capturing their first championship in franchise history, the Bronx Bombers exacted payback behind a pair of early HRs from Yogi Berra, vanquishing the Dodgers 9–0.
Interestingly, the Celtics have been on both ends of some notable Game 7 stinkers.
In the 1974 NBA Finals — a year after being thrashed by the Knicks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals 94–78 — the Celts turned the tables by drubbing the Milwaukee Bucks 102–87, holding the immortal ‘Big O’ to six points.
In 1982 they took it on the chin in the Eastern Conference Finals against Philly 120–106, succumbing to Andrew Toney, the Boston Strangler.
And in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals the Cs were blasted by eventual champion Miami 101–88.
But memories were still vivid of the 1960 Finals — the second of Boston’s record eight straight championships and the third of Bill Russell’s 11 — when the Green spanked the St. Louis Hawks 122–103 behind Russell’s double-double of 22 points and 35 rebounds in the close-out game.
In the 1992 Patrick Division Semi-Final round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Rangers and the Devils despite the bad blood and high stakes, Game 7 was a laugher.
The Rangers were up 6–1 midway through the second period and cruised to an 8–4 victory.
In the biggest blowout in NHL Game 7 history, the Red Wings and the Avalanche faced off in 2002 with no love lost, brawling goalies and a ton of talent on both sides. As the Hurricanes were waiting for an opponent to play in the Finals, the Red Wings chased Patrick Roy to the bench with four first period goals and two in the second on the way to a 7–0 shellacking.
And in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals the Canucks were winning close games in Vancouver and the Bruins were blowing them out in Boston. The team that scored first had won all six games so a little air was sucked out of Vancouver’s building when Boston drew first blood. Whatever oxygen was left in the arena disappeared when the Bruins added two more goals (including one shorthanded) on the way to a 4–0 yawner.
Vancouver fans however had enough energy to savage Commissioner Gary Bettman during the Cup presentation — and then head outside to riot.
Aaah, Boston. And Game 7. June 12, 2019.
Two nights ago the Bs forgot to show up when it really counted and were victimized by a hot goaltender at home in Game 7 of the Cup Finals against the Blues.
St. Louis won the game 4–1 — and it wasn’t that close — earning their first Stanley Cup in the 52-year history of the franchise.
The Blues’ painful recollection of 1970 was forever dimmed.
Rightfully Detroit still stands alone.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in June 2019.]
