The Pain of Being a Northern California Sports Fan

I'm from Stockton, CA. My favorite teams are the Raiders, A's, and Kings. Although the Raiders and A's have won it all during my lifetime, I was just a one-year old when the Raiders beat the 'Skins and only seven when the A's won the "Battle of the Bay."

The Kings have come close but couldn't get it done.

My Raiders did have a very strong team at the start of the millennium. In 2000, we made it to the AFC Championship only to have our dreams crushed by Tony Siragusa doing a belly flop on Rich Gannon, knocking him out of the game.

In 2001, we got burned in the snow. We all remember Brady's fumble that never was. In 2002, we made it all the way to the big show but our MVP QB had his worst career game. That was three consecutive years that our season was ended by the eventual Super Bowl Champions.

My A's have been equally disappointing. We made a few runs as of late. We can't seem to catch a break though. We had the Yankees all but eliminated in 2001. We were up 2-0 in the series but ended up losing three straight.

The exact same thing happened against the Red Sox in 2003. In 2006 we swept the Twins but then we were swept ourselves by the Tigers in the ALCS. The one that hurts the most is against the Yankees. If Jeter doesn't make that miraculous play at the plate, things could have been different.

Now on to my Kings. My Kings are horrible right now but we did have a championship caliber team earlier in the decade. Webber, Bibby, Chistie and Stoyacovic were the cornerstones of a very good team over a few years. The 01-02 season was our best chance at an NBA Title.

We were 61-21 that season. We made it to the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers and were up 3-2 headed into Game Six. I truly believe the referees cost us that game. The Lakers were awarded 27 free throws in the fourth qtr of that game while the Kings only shot nine free throws.

The Kings also had Game Five and the series won but Vlade Divac tipped a loose ball directly to Robert Horry and he nailed the game winner. 

Anybody else feel my pain? It hurt me just writing this article.