I love sports. Anybody who knows me or who reads this blog - a group that pretty much completely overlaps - knows that I love sports. So this COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in the complete absence of sports, has been very difficult for me. Usually, Spring is one of the best times of the year for sports fans. March Madness. NHL playoffs. The start of baseball season. This year, we're reduced to watching replays of old games because that's the only way we can get our sports fix. Heck, you can't even go to little league games!
So, to pass the time until sports return, I thought it'd be fun to rank and take a look at my Top 10 Favorite Sports Teams of All Time. I'm actually going to milk this and break it into two separate lists - favorite pro sports teams of all time and favorite college sports teams of all time. We'll start with the pro teams on this post. Advanced warning: these are all St. Louis teams, so all of you Texans or Southerners or folks from outside the Gateway City can feel free to roll your eyes. But, after all, this is my blog and my list, so deal with it. :)
Here we go, counting down from 10:
10. 2001 Rams - They went 14-2 while dominating not just the NFC West but all of the NFL...well, at least until running into Bill "Spygate" Belichick and Tom "Pretty Boy" Brady in the Super Bowl. While their loss to the Patriots was a HUGE upset at the time, looking back now, it just looks like the starting point of an incredible (yet despicable) dynasty. Prior to the Super Bowl, it was the Rams who appeared to be on the verge of becoming a dynasty. In spite of the painful end to the season, this was a team that seemingly scored points at will and featured a plethora of incredible offensive talent, including multiple Hall of Famers like Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce, Marshall Faulk and Orlando Pace. The offensive madness of Mike Martz was probably at its zenith with this team. We won't dwell on how the NFL screwed St. Louis a few years ago in moving the team back to L.A., but I do want to tip my hat to a team that was incredibly fun to watch and briefly made my much maligned hometown the center of the football world for a few years.
9. 2006 Cardinals - It might be a little surprising to see a team that won it all - and ended a franchise-record 24 year championship drought in the process - this low. However, you also have to remember that, prior to catching fire in October, this team was mediocre all season long, winning only 83 games and backing into the playoffs. Following back-to-back triple digit win seasons in '04 and '05, this team was a disappointment. At least until the playoffs started and the likes of David Eckstein, So Taguchi, Ronnie Belliard, Jeff Suppan and Scott Spiezio came up with huge, timely hits to spur series wins over the Padres, Mets and Tigers. Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS - with the game winning homer by Yadier Molina (who hit only .216 with 6 HR during the regular season) followed by the 3 pitch strikeout of Carlos Beltran with the bases loaded (froze him with a wicked curve ball) - remains one of the best baseball games I've ever watched. The fact that the Cardinals' worst team from 2000-2006 was the one to finally win the franchise's 10th championship is ironic but it helped heal the wounds from 1985, 1987, 2001, 2004 and 2005. It also marked my second championship parade and the first for my son, who was 3 at the time.
8. 1990-91 Blues - A regular season juggernaut that finished with the second best record in the NHL. This team was the pinnacle of the "Hull & Oates" era, with Brett Hull scoring a ridiculous 86 goals and Adam Oates notching 90 assists. Hull won the Hart Trophy as MVP and St. Louis area McDonald's locations sold the Brett Hull Hat Trick Triple Cheeseburger, which came with a special Brett Hull cup. In the playoffs, the team rallied and came back from a 3-1 deficit in the 1st round to beat the Red Wings - a series that featured Bob Probert punching Blues' goalie Vincent Riendeau in Game 2 and a Game 5 that featured numerous fights and nearly 300 penalty minutes during a 6-1 victory. I was at that game at the Old Barn and, as a 17 year old kid, it was one of the best games I'd ever seen. Unfortunately, they flamed out in the 2nd round and were upset by the North Stars. Still, this was the team that turned me into a true die hard Blues fan, as evidenced by the fact that I still own (and wear) my circa 1991 Brett Hull jersey. (Yes, Baylor friends, that's the one I wore frequently in college.)
7. 1987 Cardinals - This was last great team of the Whiteyball era and (not coincidentally) the last division and pennant winner under the team's Anheuser-Busch ownership. This was the team that gave us Tommy Herr's extra inning game winning grand slam on "Seat Cushion Night," when thousands of seat cushions were hurled onto the field to celebrate a come-from-behind win over the hated Mets. This was also the team that gave us The Secret Weapon - Jose Oquendo, who played all 9 positions over the course of the season while getting some key hits off the bench. Jack Clark mashed 35 home runs even though his missed more than a month of the season with a wrist injury. In the NLCS, the Cards rallied from a 3-2 series deficit to defeat Jeffrey "One Flap Down" Leonard and the Giants, helped in part by a clutch Game 7 home run from Oquendo, much to the delight of the cowbell toting fans. Unfortunately, they couldn't overcome the Twins' home field advantage at the Homer Dome in the World Series, leading to the second heartbreaking World Series loss in three years.
6. 2015-16 Blues - This team will forever hold a special place in my heart because it beat the Blackhawks in the playoffs (officially ending their dynasty) in a thrilling 7 game series that featured 6 one-goal games, including 2 OT games. My daughter and I were there for Game 7 when a 3rd period goal by Troy Brouwer propelled the Note past the Blackhawks and into the 2nd round and it was probably the most exciting game I've ever witnessed in person. In the conference semifinals, the Blues upset the Stars to advance to the 3rd round for the first time in 15 years. It was the last stand in St. Louis for fan favorites like David Backes and Brian Elliott.
5. 1999 Rams - Prior to this season, St. Louis football fans had known nothing but misery. 32 seasons of pro football with the Cardinals and the Rams and not even a single playoff win. That all changed in 1999, thanks to Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce and an unknown Arena League QB named Kurt Warner. The Rams not only won 13 regular season games and the first playoff game in St. Louis football history, they used a high octane offense and an opportunistic defense to win the Super Bowl, giving St. Louis sports fans their first championship in any sport since 1982. It was one of the best Super Bowls played up to that time, sealed by The Tackle by Mike Jones as time expired. This team gave me my first championship parade (I was only 8 when the previous one happened, so I didn't get to go) and finally gave long suffering St. Louis football fans something to cheer about. It was one of the most incredible one season turnarounds in NFL history. This team would probably be ranked a little higher if they and their corrupt cabal of fellow owners hadn't violated league rules to move the team back to LA a few seasons ago. Even with the sour ending, I still have to love this team for the excitement and thrills they provided.
4. 2004 Cardinals - This is the best Cardinals team I've ever seen. They won 105 games during the regular season, led by the MV3 - Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen - who all 3 had 30+ HR, 100+ RBI and OPS of over 1.000. All five starting pitchers finished in double digits in wins and closer Jason Isringhausen had 47 saves. They rallied from a 3-2 deficit in the NLCS to beat Roger Clemens and the Astros in a series that featured heroics both at the plate and in the field from Jim Edmonds. While the team ran out of gas and suffered a brutal 4 game sweep to the Red Sox in the World Series, they still won their first NL pennant in 17 years and provided the Sea of Red at Busch with countless memories.
3. 2011 Cardinals - I could live to be 110 and I'll never again witness another baseball team like the 2011 Cardinals. Left for dead, they rallied from 10.5 back in August to make the playoffs on the last night of the season. Expected to promptly exit stage right in the playoffs, they shocked the Phillies in the NLDS (the Game 5 matchup between Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay was one for the ages) before pounding their way past the Brewers in the NLCS. The Fall Classic gave us the best World Series game ever (Game 6) in which the never-say-die Cardinals twice were down to their last strike, only to rally and win the game on an iconic 11th inning walk-off homer by hometown hero David Freese. It remains the only game in MLB postseason history in which a team scored in the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th innings. That game was really a microcosm of the 2011 Cardinals as a whole - just when you thought they were dead, they'd rise up and pull out some unexpected wins. This team gave us the Rally Squirrel, 11 in '11 and it marked the last time that Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols would wear the birds on the bat. It marked the end of an era and gave Cardinals fans an unbelievable come-from-behind story that featured a hometown hero as its centerpiece. This team gave me my third championship parade, my son's second (he was 8) and my daughter's first (she was 4).
2. 1985 Cardinals - For more than 30 years, this was my favorite sports team of all time. Part of that was my age at the time. I was 11 and so this was really the first time I was old enough to follow the team day in and day out. As my college friends can attest, I've had a love affair with this team and I can easily rattle off the stats, even when I'm inebriated. Willie McGee hit .353, won a Gold Glove and an MVP. Rookie Vince Coleman led MLB with 110 steals and won Rookie of the Year. Tommy Herr produced one of the most bizarre stat lines ever, driving in 110 runs despite only hitting 8 HR. John Tudor started the season 1-7 before going a ridiculous 20-1 after that. He won 21 games and had a sub-2.00 ERA. The only thing that kept him from winning the Cy Young and giving the Cardinals all of the major awards was Dwight Gooden's stupendous sophomore campaign. This was Whiteyball at its finest, winning 101 games while hitting only 87 HR but stealing 314 bases. This was "The Heat is On," "Go Crazy, Folks!" and Pedro Guerrero throwing down his glove in disgust after Tom Niedenfuer gave up game winning 9th inning homers in back-to-back game in the NLCS. Unfortunately, this was also baseball's fastest man getting run down by a slow moving automated tarp machine and Don Denkinger's blown call at 1st in Game 6 of the World Series. This was the team that really made me fall in love with baseball, while also teaching me how much sports can also break your heart. If I'd done this list a year ago, this team would still have been #1 on this list. But then a miracle happened...
1. 2018-19 Blues - ...and that miracle was the BLUES FINALLY WINNING A STANLEY CUP!!! If the 1985 Cardinals made me cry sad tears over sports for the first time, the 2019 Blues made me cry tears of joy over sports for the first time. Similar to the 2011 Cardinals, this team was left for dead and came back to accomplish what no one thought was possible. In last place in the NHL when the calendar turned to January, they caught fire in the new year thanks, in large part, to an unheralded 3rd string goalie who had been wasting away in the minors before getting called up in January. They went on an incredible run to make the playoffs and then JUST. KEPT. WINNING. They rallied to beat the Jets in the 1st round before coming back from a 3-2 series deficit to beat the Stars in the 2nd round in double OT in Game 7 on a goal by another hometown hero, Pat Maroon. They overcame a blown call (IT WAS A HAND PASS!) in the conference finals to beat the Sharks and advance to their first Stanley Cup Final since 1970. Prior to this, the Blues had never even won a game in the Cup Final in franchise history. This time, they fulfilled the hopes and dreams of a long suffering fan base by winning those last 4 games to finally bring Lord Stanley's Cup to the Gateway City. They were the oldest franchise to not have won a Cup. The 16th and final playoff win had me in tears because a part of me genuinely doubted whether I'd ever get to witness the Blues win a Cup. This was a gutsy, gritty team that was the perfect representation of what a hockey team should be - hard nosed, physical, unselfish and blue collar. This was "Gloria" and the biggest, craziest championship parade I've ever seen. This one was my 4th, my son's 3rd and my daughter's 2nd. Like the 2011 Cardinals, I could live to be 110 and I'll never again experience something like the 2019 Blues.
Honorable Mention: 1999-2000 Blues
There you have it - my list of my 10 favorite sports teams of all time! How many of these are on your list? I'd love to hear your picks.
Thanks for reading!
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