Thursday, February 25, 1999
Los Angeles, once home
of champions, has only losers
COLUMN: World of sports dominated by bad teams, hyped-up
underachievers
Los Angeles is my hometown. Born and raised in Los Angeles, I
have loved nearly every minute of my twenty years in this city, and
sports have played a major part in that.
My L.A. pride was at an all-time high in 1988, when both the
Dodgers and Lakers won titles, and Los Angeles was known as the
City of Champions. Randy Newman’s song, "I Love L.A.," was my
personal theme.
But times have changed. As sports were once a source of hometown
pride for the natives, the City of Champions has evolved into the
City of High Expectations and Perennial Disappointment.
With the exception of a fluke national title for UCLA basketball
in 1995, the City of Angels has not won a major title since the
Lakers in 1989. That means that during this whole decade, we have
not hung a banner of any significance.
First of all, let me clear up the reason why our hoops title was
a fluke. We won with a coach who was expedited a year later,
survived the second round with a miracle dash by a minute point
guard’s prayer shot, and had a freshman as our Most Valuable Player
in the final game. And who did we beat on the way to the title?
Teams led by such players as Corliss Williamson, Bryant "Big
Buffet, I mean Big Country" Reeves and Erick Dampier. Hardly
superstars.
I know that our other early round exits don’t need to be relived
either, but I am proving a point here. Embarrassing first-round
losses to Princeton in ’96, Tulsa in ’94 and Penn State in ’91 were
just unacceptable. Harrick was a loser, and though Lavin may be a
great recruiter and motivator, he has yet to prove his coaching
prowess – see our 59 percent free-throw percentage this year as
evidence.
Speaking of UCLA sports not winning titles, let’s look at the
football team. A mediocre squad in the Terry Donahue era, at least
Bob Toledo came in and brought the university hopes of a national
title. After surviving a year of rebuilding, Toledo recruited his
way to a great team – but as evidenced by this year’s Rose Bowl,
this is a team that is not quite ready to be in the class of a
Florida State or Ohio State.
At least we have our crosstown rival to look down upon. We’ve
beat them eight times in a row in football and ten consecutive
times in basketball. But at least if they were good, the city could
be proud. Alas, their football team haven’t seen glory days since
Bruce Springsteen and their basketball team … well, let’s just
say that playing in the same building as the Clippers may be too
much of an influence.
Oh, those wonderful Clippers. Not only do they have as much of a
shot at bringing Los Angeles a championship as Al Gore does at
being the life of a party, but they are the poster child of how not
to run a franchise. Other teams in professional sports that are in
the doldrums can always revel in joy as they think, "It could be
worse. We could be the Clippers." Playing in the shadow of their
bigger brother has not hidden the fact that they suck. And that’s
on a good day. Billy Crystal should use his front row seats to have
material for years, doing routines on the Clips.
The Lakers haven’t been faring much better, either. Yes, they
are glamorous. They do have Jack Nicholson sitting courtside. And
they do have the superstars. Add that up and you have yin to the
Clippers’ yang. But both teams have the same number of titles this
decade – zero.
Every year, the Lake Show has all kinds of talent, high
expectations and great potential. Yet every year, they manage to
choke in the playoffs. Utah twice, the Bulls once and even the Suns
in the first round – it’s a roller coaster of emotions year after
year.
Los Angeles is also the home for the baseball version of the
Lakers. Since 1991, the Dodgers have been one of two teams favored
to win the National League every year, and we have two playoff
appearances (both sweep losses) to show for it. The Dodgers sign
every free agent on the market and they all bust. Darryl
Strawberry, Eric Davis, Todd Zeile, Mike Blowers, Todd Worrell,
Delino DeShields and Charles Johnson have all been acquired as "the
final piece of the puzzle" and all have fit in about as well as
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in China.
The Dodgers seem to be so close every year, but just cannot
rekindle the true blue magic that gave them their six World Series
titles.
The Angels are another team mired in a constant tale of woe.
Since Donnie Moore gave up Don Baylor’s home run in 1986, Anaheim
has been jinxed. They seem to be running away with the American
League West every year, only to find a way to give it away come
September. In ’96, they had one of the most infamous collapses in
major league history, squandering a 10-and-a-half game lead with 24
games to play. Last year, they gave the division to the Rangers by
way of playing sub-.500 ball for the last month of the season.
Is it a wonder that we don’t have a professional football team?
Any franchise that would consider moving here would have to take
into account our losing ways. The Raiders and Rams jumped ship when
they could, though they did hold on long enough to contribute to
our losing ways.
Los Angeles is the City of Broken Dreams, and nowhere is this
proven more true than in the world of sports. The Bruins, Trojans,
Clippers, Lakers, Dodgers and Angels have all shown that Los
Angeles is long on potential and short on fulfillment, thus leaving
diehard fans constantly disappointed.
Lovett led his IM basketball team, "Mediocrity," into the Sweet
16 of the C division. He will do his best to reverse the alarming
trend of a titleless Los Angeles and bring home a banner for the
city. He can be reached at [email protected]
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