I'm not a person that makes bucket lists. I've also been blessed to have the same lady put up with me for 20 years who is also kinda crazy with adventure ideas, to which I say YES. Autobus to Mayan ruins? Of course. Speed boat up the Mekong to see Angkor Wat? Why not? Fly with the three-year old over the North Pole to go to Italy? Well...duh.
Anyway, it was an earlier pair of trips---Spring Break '04 in Thailand and Summer '05 in Europe---that inspired me to try to accomplish something: I wanted to live in a city where the major sports team won that country's, or a major league at least, championship.
Like what if we moved to Guadalajara and Chivas would win La Liga's championship; or Milan and Juventas; or Barcelona; or Sao Paolo...I was mostly thinking soccer, since it's pretty global, but I would have settled on something like Tuscaloosa for college football. But I would never live in Alabama, so that was out. But we did live in Austin, and UT football is sacrosanct.
But then things got weird, as they do with us. The timeline I considered this goal to be accomplished was generally in terms of lifetimes, and yet it only only took a few years. And it was my team, in MY city, with arguably the greatest Super Bowl in history, when Eli beat the perfect Pats, in February of 2008.
It happened again in the next calendar year, again my team and MY city, but for baseball, with the Yankees beating Philly.
After moving to Long Beach, you learn how the Southland views possession of teams, and the sense blooms of how many teams here could count. USC college football; UCLA college basketball; Fullerton college baseball; two NFL teams, two MLB teams, two NBA teams, an NHL franchise...two MLS teams...
And if we look at the Four Major sports in America (Baseball, Basketball, Football, and Hockey), we first have to recognize we're talking about professional sports proper. I'd like to include soccer, and the WNBA, but we must grow their profile...
Anyway, I got the Giants in '08, the Yanks in '09, then the LA Kings won the Stanley Cup in '12 and '14. So basketball was all I needed at this point. And the Lakers delivered.
See, we choose to live in huge metropolitan areas, and those attract premium talent and dollars. The LAFC were in the MLS cup last year (their finals). The Rams made the Super Bowl (albeit in the most boring game imaginable (still butthurt that the only game I made time to watch that year was still 3-0 deep in the 3rd quarter)). And the Dodgers have made two World Series' since we moved here, have won the division almost every year we've lived here, and have the generally considered "best team" currently in baseball. Even the Clippers had some shine for the championship, and the Angles have the best player in baseball.
I can't say this was really an "accomplishment", or like it was anything I did per se, but it's something.
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