Woe Canada: The Rough Life Of Toronto Sports Fans

(Image thanks to Dolighan Cartoons)

I read an article a few years ago about how the city of Philadelphia is considered one of the worst sports cities in North America. That was before a consecutive World Series win and runner-up finish.

Also on that list is Tampa Bay, who won the Stanley Cup in 2004 and now have one of Major League Baseball's hottest teams.

The list gave a few more options, and I apologize to those sports fans attempting to gain sympathy for their teams, but the award goes to the great city of Toronto. 

One would think that being the biggest (and in my opinion, best) city in Canada, home of the most devoted fans in hockey, would be in better shape. We even have teams in three of the four major sports leagues! Nope, not the case here.

The NHL's Maple Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1967, haven't made the playoffs since 2004 and finished dead last in the Eastern Conference. With the most devoted fans in possibly all of sports (the season ticket waiting list is around 60 years long) you might think the organization would try to bring back some glory. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon.

The Toronto Raptors, celebrating their 15th season in the NBA failed to make the playoffs this year after sitting in fifth place only a few weeks before. They have only reached the playoffs five times, and in those years never made it past the second round. A terrible run of poor drafting and a laughable attempt at picking up solid free agents in the off-season show how the Raptors aren't going to change their losing ways in the near future.

The Toronto Blue Jays have been the only winners in recent Toronto sports history winning back to back World Series championships in 1992 and 1993. However, they haven't made it to the playoffs since then. Classic, Toronto. The Jays manage to draft superstar players only to waste their talent, let them go and watch them thrive on other teams around the league. In the toughest division in baseball, the Jays are just not doing what it takes to even make it to the playoffs.

In theory, that's it. No one really follows lacrosse and Toronto FC, who play in the MLS, are too new and too terrible to even talk about next to the Leafs, Raptors, and Jays. The thing is, that's not even the worst part. Toronto doesn't even have an NFL team! We only get the Buffalo Bills for a few games a year because people are giving up on them down there!

But there is hope! The Raptors almost made it to the playoffs and they definitely looked sharp this year. The Jays, like I mentioned, are in the hardest division in baseball so it's not really their fault. They just need to step it up a little and maybe a wild card win could be in the cards sometime soon...please? The Leafs, well, they can only go up from last place and with Brian Burke at the reins, things could shape up pretty soon.

As for the NFL, I think we deserve a team. The city of Toronto has great fans and the facilities to support it, so why not? We need something fresh to cheer for.

So next time you feel like putting a brown bag over your head when your team loses a game, think of us Toronto sports fans and you'll feel good as new. Or you can do what we do and hate on New York, Boston, and every other city that beats us all the time.