Only 4 Teams Play in New York City.

New Jerz, so close....yet so far. I aint crossing that river unless there's a damn good reason.

The New York Post's Mike Vaccaro's highlighted the Sporting News' list of the best American sports cities this past Sunday. NYC placed 6th, behind Titsburgh, Ill-Will-y (R.I.P.), Beantown, the Shy, and the City of Compton (it's where it takes place). L.A. should only outrank such sports towns as Hotlanta or the M.I.A. No doubt, this town loves its Lake Show, but when the "low point" over the past 50 years of the Lakers were the highly-entertaining Nick Van Exel-Eddie "Butter"Jones-Cedric "Ball-O" Ceballos-Vlade "Feta+Marlboros" Divac years, well then, they are an easy bunch to love. (I highly recommend peeping the video linked in the previous sentence. Moreover, hard to say which NBA Live 95 team was more G, the Lakers, or the G-State Warriors of Chris 'T.O." Webber, Chris "Oh You Got A" Gatling, Latrell "It Aint Hard to Tell" Sprewell, Chris "Derek Jeter Stole My Haircut" Mullin, Billy "Oh No" Owens, and Tim "Sold My Soul to Pat Riley" Hardaway. Man, you know what, PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO. MORE IMPORTANTLY WATCH THIS ONE.)

So, other than L.A., I can't see much justification for placing New York much higher. Vaccaro deads the Shy and the Detroit (#10 on the list) for including outlying areas like Evanston and Ypsilanti, yet only four of New York's 9 (10 if you include the Red Bulls) play within the city limits. Moreover, Vaccaro contradicts his anti-suburb-inclusive-point when he states that, since 1996, New York teams have won 8 titles versus Boston's 6. First, his math seems off by one. Second, if you subtract the two Cups won by the Jersey Devils and the one Bowl won by the Jersey Giants, we are left with the four titles won by the Yankees.

Nitpicking aside, New York will always suffer on these kind of lists because New Yorkers cannot unite behind any one team in any sport. No team, not even the Yankees, especially the Yankees, can speak for New York. The only team that can come close is the Knicks. They haven't been relevant since 2000. Plus, the Bucktown Nets now seem that much closer to reality.

I suppose a more important question is why we can't support a united New York, as in, why shouldn't we support any New York team when it faces a team from another city? I know my answer, it's because Hov rocks Yankee fitteds aka the Yankees suck. Your answers?

Thanks to sportslogos.net for the source logos.