Sportsmeat

So I got stuck at the gym last night under the two TVs showing Entertainment Tonight, which means I had to come up with something else to do to waste 30 minutes on a treadmill. For my answer, I decided to figure out which was the biggest (i.e., most important to fans) sports team in every city that has at least two major sports franchises. Feel free to disagree, but here’s what I got:

Atlanta – Braves
Baltimore – Ravens
Boston – Red Sox
Buffalo – Bills
Charlotte - NASCAR
Chicago - Cubs
Cincinnati – Reds
Cleveland - Browns
Dallas – Cowboys
Denver - Broncos
Detroit – Red Wings
Houston - Astros
Indianapolis – Motor Speedway
Kansas City - Chiefs
Los Angeles - Lakers
Miami – Dolphins
Milwaukee – Bob Uecker
Minneapolis – Twins
Nashville – Hank Williams’ MNF song
New Orleans - Saints
New York – Yankees
Newark, NJ – Devils
Oakland - Raiders
Philadelphia - Eagles
Pittsburgh – Steelers
Phoenix - Suns
San Diego – Chargers
San Francisco – 49ers
Seattle – Supersonics
St. Louis – Cardinals
Tampa – Buccaneers
Toronto – Maple Leafs
Washington - Redskins

The final score, assuming my quick count is correct, is: NFL – 16; MLB – 9; NBA – 3; NHL – 3; Racing – 2.

The toughest choices were Chicago (a three-way race between the Cubs, Bears and Bulls, in that order), and Boston and Los Angeles (the Red Sox were a clear winner, but the Celtics are huge, too; you could say the same with the Lakers and Dodgers in LA). Others were tough because no one really cares all that much (Atlanta, San Diego, Nashville – though Vince Young will change that). In others, I went with the Chiefs over the Royals in K.C. because they Royals have nearly faded from consciousness and the Astros over the Rockets pretty much solely based on the fact that Bad News Bears II was filmed in the Astrodome.

I’m really not so sure on Seattle, but since the Sonics are the only team with a title, they get the nod. And the most surprising is probably Baltimore – logic would say the Orioles but people down there seem to get a lot more fired up over the Ravens. Go figure.

As to the largest, that was an easy call. New York City has the Giants, Islanders, Jets, Knicks, Mets and Yankees, but the Yanks are easily No. 1. I’d probably put the Knicks at No. 2. I will now light myself on fire.