Top Five Major League Underdog Towns

This slide show is an introduction to a series of articles about the greatest underdog venues in U.S. pro sports. The criteria are simple: these are the small-market towns—communities that get no respect, that personify the under-rated, that constantly challenge the giants of the world, and/or that have suffered some terrible devastation but are rebuilding.

No. 5: Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City is the newest and smallest market in the NBA. That would be enough to qualify them as underdogs, but add the fact that their new team, the Thunder, is a gutted version of the once mighty Seattle Sonics. The Thunder finished their first season in the cellar, but what seals the deal is the city's ability to come back from a devastating act of domestic terrorism.

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Top Five Major League Underdog Towns: No. 5, Oklahoma City

No. 4: Milwaukee

One of the smallest markets in MLB and the NBA, Milwaukee has two expansion teams. The Brewers came to town after the original Milwaukee team, the Braves, left for Atlanta. The Bucks came to town in 1967, won the NBA title in '70, and it's been down hill since then.

Add the Rust Belt, Brew-town stereotypes, and misunderstood Milwaukee is truly one of the top underdog venues in the U.S.

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Top Five Major League Underdog Towns: No. 4, Milwaukee

No. 3: (Tie) New Orleans and Green Bay

New Orleans and Green Bay are underdogs in decidedly different ways. It's Big Easy vs. Big Cheese. Frozen Tundra vs. Sultry Bayou. Lutheran Wisconsin vs. Catholic Louisiana.

What makes Green Bay a top underdog town is its ability to survive as a franchise since its entry into a league of the Decatur Staleys and Akron Bulldogs. Those franchises and many others from Kenosha, Racine, Evansville and elsewhere are all gone, but the Packers remain—original colors, original name—in the smallest market in major league sports. The metro area has 900,000 fewer residents than the next smallest major league town, and still they compete.

New Orleans as a city is equally resilient as it still exists in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Add to that the fact that the Saints have only played in six playoff games in their 41-year history, with just two postseason victories. That's about as much of an underdog as you can be.

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Top Five Major League Underdog Towns, No. 3 (Tie) New Orleans and Green Bay

No. 2: Cleveland

The town is derisively known as "The Mistake by the Lake." Despite some revitalization, Rust Belt images of blight prevail in popular impressions of the town. Add to that a history of frustration, disappointment and defeat of all major sports teams for the past 40-plus years and you have an underdog venue that is second to only one...

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Top Five Major League Underdog Towns: 2. Cleveland

No. 1: Buffalo

According to the phrase from "A Chorus Line," "to commit suicide in Buffalo would be redundant."

Consider this: There exists a wonderful mid-market city with a dynamic cultural life, vintage architecture, network of parks, parkways, and traffic circles, an avenue of historic mansions called "Millionaires Row" with a world-class university, museums, and orchestra. Would you ever guess this is Buffalo?

If you're like most people outside of Buffalo, you think of Rust Belt blight, belching smokestacks, chicken wings and crass provincialism. You also think of sports teams that can't win in the clutch and haven't won it all in modern history.

Combine the frustration with a collective sense of inferiority that only a world championship can heal, and you've got the No. 1 underdog town.

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Top Five Professional Sports Underdog Towns: No. 1 Buffalo