Let me start this out by saying that I'm a huge Detroit Sports fan. We all are, by the fact that we're all posting on a message board about our favorite Detroit teams. And because of that, I cannot remember a more painful year and a half for Detroit Professional Sports. It's not that they're bad, it's that they're bad and have expectations of being good. It's that they get our hopes up only to crush our dreams in spectacular ways. It's that each team is raising the bar for disappointment.

Each team has come up with their own historic stat of disappointment this season that is unmatched by any other team:

Detroit Lions
This is the most obvious one. No team had ever accomplished a winless season before. Leave it to the Lions in the city of Detroit's most desperate time to accomplish that feat. 0-16. The second worst defense in history. Thank you Mr. Ford.

Detroit Red Wings
A team known for being our only hope. They win and keep winning when they're not supposed to. They are the heart of Detroit. But last season is still the most painful season that I have ever had to endure. No team had ever lost a game 7 at home in the Stanley Cup Finals. Not anymore. Not only did they lose the game, they should have lost that series in 5. And they lost it to a group of guys that they are known for silencing: prima donnas.

Detroit Tigers
I knew when they said it, it was destiny: "No team has ever lost a three game lead with four to go." Unfortunately, they didn't realize the team resided in Detroit, where dreams go up in flames. The problem with this season is the fact that everyone knew it was going to happen, and they still got their hopes up. People should have been excited about a first place team, but instead, they knew a collapse was going to incur, and just waited for it. Lucky for us, it happened.

Detroit Pistons
I can't say that there was a historic moment, but starting off 4-0 to winning 35 of your last 78 games is pathetic. Hiring Michael Curry is pathetic. Having that team be the last Pistons team the Bill Davidson got to watch was pathetic. The offseason was also pathetic.


Since we're pretty much all Michigan fans at WTF, I will give an honorable mention to the Wolverines who won a fantastic 3 games last season, lowest in school history. All in all, the football teams that we cheer for went 3-25 last season.


This thread was created to let off some steam, to say how you really feel, and to throw a slight pity-party. We need a team to step up and give us something to be proud of. I don't even care about a championship, just give us a team that doesn't have some fatal flaw, that has a future (or at least looks like it does). I want a Detroit team to cheer for, not one where I'm just waiting for it to disappoint us.


Detroit is turning into Cleveland.

Never should have let Zekyl post here. No way. Not Ever.

tl,dr;mto

I'm not concerned, things are cyclical.

Of course, I'm not a Lions or Wings fan, either, so my opinion doesn't mean jacksquat.

But as the great Butthead once said, "You need the parts that suck to make the awesome parts that much better". Or something like that.

I don't see how they compare to Cleveland. How many championships do they have in the last 25 years?

Detroit has a WS title, 3 NBA titles and 4 Stanley Cups. (plus a few WNBA titles if you count that).

No comparison.

They have the best NHL franchise, good franchises in MLB and NBA, and a bad franchise in NFL.

What other city has 3 franchises in the top 1/3 of their sport?

Boston (Celtics, Pats, RedSox)
LA (Lakers, Angels, Dodgers)


Pittsburgh, Philly, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta you could all say have a couple teams in the top 1/3, but some of those are sketchy even.

I took those cities and did a tally on championships (4 major sports) in the last 25 years and this is what I came up with:

8 - Chicago, Detroit, Boston, LA
7 - NY
5 - Pittsburgh
3 - Dallas

Sure, but keep in mind that I was talking about the last 18 months. Sure we've had great teams here in the last 25 years, but we've also had the biggest disappointments very recently. It wasn't long ago Detroit was the center of the Sports world (2006 being a very good year), but this year was AWFUL.

Stanley cup finals, worst to first in division again (almost) in MLB, NBA playoffs (granted no success).

Cleveland on the other hand is in danger of losing the only legit star in the entire city next year. NFL team sucks just as bad. Columbus (closest hockey) sucks. Indians suck. Aside from the Cavs they have no hope in any sport, and Lebron might bail in a year.

Again, I see no comparison.

I'm thinking you're putting a little bit too much emphasis on being like Cleveland. I don't actually think Detroit Sports is there, but I'm thinking there needs to be a thread on the historic collapses by each of our teams this year. They each did something that no other team has ever done... in a negative way.

Depressing, depressing year.

And Cleveland has Ohio State to cheer for. But enough about Cleveland...

Well, the Tigers overachieved this year. Sure, they collapsed down the stretch, but who had them winning the division at the start of the year. All the experts had them 4th or 5th in the division.

Considering they got nothing from 3 major starters (Bondo, Willis, Galaraga), lost their setup man again, had major hitters hurt all year...they did pretty well. Most just see the last month, but take the season as a whole and they did quite well.

Same for the Wings. In fact the Sharks were the favorite in the West last year. Most predicted the Wings as the 3rd or 4th best team out West. Again, they came up short at the end, but exceeded expectations of most experts overall.

The Pistons certainly regressed. Most thought they were a 4th-5th best team in the East I would say. They underachieved for sure. But they weren't a total disaster like say the Indians were (favorites to last place).

The Lions were a total disaster. Nothing to defend there. However, they already were a disaster, so not much regressing there.

Detroit doesn't have, and never will have, that stench that peeps tell me Cleveland has.

No major body of water in Detroit has caught on fire yet. right?

Until you accomplish that feat you're just not Cleveland, even if we are talking sports here.

I don't know about the whole Cleveland thing, but at the same time agree with Motown on the idea of all the disappointment this year. Expectations aside, it's like we, as Detroit fans, just couldn't catch a break and had to have our high hopes spanked hard. The Wings losing the way they did, MSU getting destroyed in the finals, the Tigers choking...It's not been a bad year, it's just been a lot of highs with even lower lows, making this one of the more emotionally painful years I can remember as a fan.

Yeah this year has sucked for Detroit, but even with some bad times/luck you cannot say that, in 1.5 years, they are becoming Cleveland. That's too rich.

This thread is as close as it'll get after today to express that we (michigan) is sucking right now.

MSU gets beat by Minni, UofM by Illinois, Lions, Tigers tanked, Pistons don't look toooooo promising, Wings?, this is bad folks.

A dark time in the inter-Michigan sports world indeed. I can't remember a darker time in my 18 years of living on this scorched, mitten-shaped piece of land.

Weekend of 10/30/09-11/1/09:

Pistons, Lions, MSU, U of M: 0-5

Red Wings: 1-0