Boston Sports Before Brady
Starving for Success
The Colorado Avalanche are back in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2001 and this reminded me of the story of Boston Bruins legend Ray Bourque bringing the Stanley Cup to Boston after winning it with Colorado to celebrate with the City of Boston.
I am 22 years old and have known nothing but success for Boston sports but in 2001 Boston sports were not the symbol of success nor the city of champions. Our last title as a city was the Celtics back in 1986, while the Bruins last title was in 1972. The Red Sox’s last title was in 1918, and the Patriots had never won a title.
I will go through the last ten seasons before the Patriots’ Super Bowl XXXVI win and see how close they got to a title.
The Boston Red Sox
We had an 809–745 record (.521 win percentage) from 1992–2001, the eighth-best record in baseball in that span. We had three postseason appearances. The first in ’95 was a sweep by a dominant Indians team (we shouldn’t have played in the first round as those were the two best teams in the AL, but I digress). In ’98 we managed to win one in a rematch with Cleveland and lost two games by one run. In ’99 we won the third ALDS matchup in five years when Pedro Martinez pitched six no-hit innings of relief but lost to the Yankees in the ALCS 4–1 when we lost the first two games by one run. The year 2001 was the Sox’s fourth straight winning season.
The New England Patriots
The Patriots had a 72–88 record (.450 win percentage) from 1991–2000 but made four playoff appearances and even made a Super Bowl but lost to Brett Favre and the Packers in Super Bowl XXXI. New England was not a true Super Bowl contender in any other year and won only one other playoff game (in ’97) but lost 7–6 to the Steelers in the Divisional Round. The Patriots went 5–11 in 2000.
The Boston Celtics
The Celtics had an awful decade going 340–448 (.431 win percentage) and had the disastrous head coaching stint of Rick Pitino. The Celtics had just two winning seasons and three playoff appearances while winning just one playoff series (although it would have taken a miracle to win a title in that decade). Boston went 36–46 in 00–01 which was actually tied for our best record in the last eight seasons.
The Boston Bruins
The Bruins had a 360–306–108–14 record for 842 points and a .534 points percentage (ninth-best over that span) while making seven playoff appearances. Made one conference finals (swept by the Pens). The Bruins missed the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons.
