Last week we took our first look at determining which American city currently enjoys the greenest sports fortunes. You can find part one of this three-part series here. In that survey, we pretty much ruled out Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, and Denver as superior to Boston right now in terms of our professional teams’ collective success. However, some of the heavy hitters are on deck, so let’s embark on the next leg of our alphabetical journey to find the US city whose franchises are strong, receive solid fan support, and have the brightest outlook — in terms of postseason play and glittering-trophies potential — for the future.

• Detroit. The Tigers, the city’s long-time baseball club, launched its season with an 11-game losing streak. They’ve played .500 ball since then, but they are in no danger of challenging anyone for a wild-card berth, much less a pennant, anytime soon. The Tigers have not been remotely successful since 1987 despite a long, proud history as one of the best teams of the modern era; the 1984 squad won 104 games en route to the world title. They play in one of baseball’s newest facilities, but they rarely draw as many as 20,000 to Comerica Park. The Lions were the NFL’s worst team last season, and gave the Tigers a mark to shoot for when they dropped their first 12 contests. They finished 2-14 and failed to make the playoffs for the fourth-straight year; it’s been 11 years since the Lions even managed to reach the second round of the playoffs. The team has never been in the Super Bowl. It has played for the NFC title only once (in 1991) and has not won a football championship of any kind since the ’50s. Detroit fans are loyal, though, and still packed the Silverdome to capacity last year despite the team’s lack of success; nearly 80,000 attended the team’s 1-14 finale against Dallas. That steadfast support has been rewarded, as the team will move this fall into Ford Field, its new domed stadium, and will host Super Bowl XL in 2006. On the brighter side, Detroit is first and foremost a hockey town, and the Red Wings are right there in the conference finals again this year. The Wings, like the Bruins, were one of the NHL’s Original Six teams, and they have won nine Cups during their storied history. They had a long dry spell in the last century, and their back-to-back titles in 1997 and 1998 were the team’s first in over 40 years. But under coach Scotty Bowman they’ve been solidly in contention every year. If they rally to beat the Avalanche in the Western finals, they’ll be favored to wrap up their third Stanley Cup in six years next month. Finally, the city’s basketball team, the Pistons, returned to prominence this year under rookie head coach Rick Carlisle, winning their division and advancing to the conference semis before losing in five games to the Celtics. They are a team on the rise after a lengthy stretch of mediocrity that followed the Pistons’ back-to-back titles in the ’80s. The teams’ outlook: the Tigers’ hopes are fairly bleak but depend on the blossoming of their younger players; the Lions should be better, but are still a long way off; the Red Wings are an older team that will probably begin its decline next season, barring an influx of new talent; and the Pistons will be a force to be reckoned with in the future if they continue their present course.

• Los Angeles. To imagine a city of this size without an NFL franchise is beyond comprehension, but that’s what it’s been like for the region since the Rams and Raiders left the area in the mid ’90s. And nobody seems to be complaining too much! The Dodgers have baseball’s fourth-highest payroll, and while they’re doing okay, they’re still only third in their division, and their $15-mil-per-year pitcher (Kevin Brown) is on the shelf indefinitely with elbow problems. The organization has a very distinguished and successful history, but the fans that root for it have a reputation for arriving late and leaving early, even if a no-hitter is in progress. The same can be said for the cross-town Angels, who also are playing well but suffer from a finicky fan base that is par for the course in Southern California. The area has two pro-hoop teams, with the Lakers garnering most of the attention for their prowess, and the Clippers gaining theirs through their ineptitude. Nonetheless, the Lakers seem headed for their third straight NBA title, and the Clippers actually played nearly .500 ball this season, so both teams are sitting pretty and drawing well in spite of their disparate histories. The Kings, the city’s NHL franchise, have made the playoffs the last couple of years and have a somewhat loyal following supporting a team that may soon be regarded as a championship contender, despite reaching the Cup Finals just once in its 35-year history. Outlook: generally good for all the teams, although without a concerted and ardent effort by area football fans, the wait for an NFL expansion team could drag on for a few more years. The Lakers are the only team that has deeply passionate supporters, and LA cannot be considered a great sports town until football returns and the area’s baseball aficionados show that they care.

• Miami. Let’s get it right out in the open and say upfront that Miami is a football town, and that’s about it. Sure, the Panthers (NHL), Heat (NBA), and Marlins (MLB) also provide interesting distractions, but the area is above all Dolphin Country. The Fins are perennial playoff contenders, but they haven’t really been a factor in the postseason since the mid-to-late ’80s. They had one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history in Dan Marino, but the team rarely advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs in the ’90s, and lost its first-round game at home, 20-3, to the mediocre Ravens this past season. Yes, the Dolphins always seem to be right there, but are you aware they haven’t been in the Super Bowl since 1985, and haven’t won it since 1974? The Patriots, despite their wildly inconsistent history, have been in the Big One three times since the Fish last got there. Nonetheless, Dolphin fans continue to fill up Pro Player Stadium — 75,000 strong every Sunday — despite the tease that the franchise annually offers its loyal patrons. The other three teams in the region are almost an afterthought. The Marlins, just five years removed from that inexplicable World Series title, draw around 10,000 fans (if that) per game despite the team’s impressive start this year, and they could be one of the first teams contracted unless new-stadium issues are resolved. The Panthers stink, period, despite Iron Mike Keenan behind the bench and a Stanley Cup–finalist berth just six years in the rear-view mirror. The Heat are also dismal, even with five-time NBA-championship-ring bearer Pat Riley coaching the team. Outlook: the Dolphins will again be competitive in the NFL’s toughest division this year, and they’ll go another year without a crown. The Marlins could make the playoffs this year, but will anyone notice, or be there to see it? The other two teams have problems much deeper than we can address here and will continue to fight their ways out of their respective sports’ cellars.

• New York. Well, since eight teams play in the New York City metropolitan area, perhaps we should save this area for last.

• Philadelphia. It seems Philadelphia fans are always angry. In some ways they have a right to be, but from what I gather, Philly’s sports fans are ferocious in their loyalty, but can be extremely critical and negative when their team’s fortunes are falling. Philadelphia’s Phillies are mediocre — maybe even bad. They are last in the NL East, behind even the low-budget Marlins and Expos, and the biggest story of their season will most likely center around whether their only real star, third baseman Scott Rolen, is traded before the deadline this summer, or leaves for free agency at the end of the year. It’s hard to believe that less than two years ago Curt Schilling was the Phillies’ ace, but they decided to trade him away — a transaction that changed baseball history. The football Eagles had a surprisingly successful year, winning the NFC East and advancing all the way to the conference title game before losing a heartbreaker to the Rams. They have one of the league’s most explosive players in Donovan McNabb, and their fans are die-hard. The Flyers are consistently one of the NHL’s most underachieving teams, particularly in the playoffs. Since their last Cups — consecutively in 1974 and 1975 — the Flyers have nearly always been in contention, and have even been to five Finals, but have yet to raise the Cup since the days of the Broad Street Bullies. Kinda like the Bruins’ history. This year the second-seeded squad lost in the opening round to seventh-seeded Ottawa, but that wasn’t the half of it. Philadelphia scored one goal in regulation the entire series, got shut out in three others games, and lost meekly in five games. And you thought B’s fans were pissed. The 76ers, just one year after losing gallantly to the Lakers in the NBA Finals, coasted to a sixth-place conference finish this year and were eliminated by Boston in the first round of the playoffs. Their team is a good one, but their lone star is a head case, and showdowns between point guard and coach are inevitable and expected. Stay tuned. Outlook: the Phillies are in trouble, the Flyers and Sixers are again heading into transition years, and the Eagles have a good shot of making some noise again in the NFC this season.

Our final installment will include looks at Pittsburgh, St. Louis, the Bay Area, Seattle, and you-know-who.

To be continued ...

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com.