Last week we took our first looks at determining which American city’s sports fortunes are the greenest. You can find part one of this three-part series here, and part two here. In those surveys, we pretty much ruled out Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Miami, LA, and Philadelphia as being superior to Boston right now in terms of our professional teams’ collective success. We are reluctantly skipping over some good sports towns (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, among others) for space considerations and because they have only three resident pro teams. However, some serious rivals are on deck, so let’s embark on the last leg of our alphabetical journey to find the US city whose franchises are strong, receive solid fan support, and whose outlook for the future — in terms of postseason play and potential glittering trophies — is brightest.

• New York. Now we’ve got some competition. If we include Greater New York’s metropolitan area, we’ve got to include the teams that play in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which include the Jets, Giants, Devils, and Nets. The Yankees go without saying. They are the dominant team in professional baseball, with 26 World Series titles — including three straight as we crossed over the millennium, along with a runner-up spot a year ago. They have been smack-dab in the middle of things for the last seven years, including this season. The Mets have won a couple of championships in their 40-year history and lost the Fall Classic two other times. They will be a factor again this year, although thus far they have underachieved despite an all-star lineup and a hefty payroll. Nevertheless, another Subway Series is not out of the question. The New York Giants were in the Super Bowl just a year ago, and their fans are among the most loyal and dedicated of any in all of sports. They have won two Super Bowls, and their organization is respected from the top down. They’re coming off a down year, but there is never an empty seat at Giants Stadium. The Jets were rejuvenated by the Bill Parcells regime, and they reached the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade under his tutelage. The Jets are the Pats’ number-one rival, and despite an aging QB and RB, they should continue to be decent. The Knicks were an embarrassment to their fans this year, as the team finished in last place in its division despite a high payroll, and the days of Patrick Ewing and fierce NBA-playoff encounters seem like eons ago. The Nets, on the other hand, are playing in the NBA Finals, and they’re the single-biggest surprise in the league this year. They are wildly exciting to watch, but that has not been their history, at least not since Dr. J won them an ABA crown in the early ’70s. Two of New York’s NHL teams, the Rangers and Devils, were disappointing this year in spite of their past glories. The Rangers, with the highest-paid roster in the league, missed the playoffs for the fifth-straight year, and the Devils, two years removed from a Stanley Cup — although they were finalists just last year — finished sixth in the conference and were blitzed by Carolina in the first round of this year’s playoffs. The Islanders are the sole bright light in this legendary hockey town, as the Lowng-Eyelanders finally put aside their thrifty ways and invested in high-priced talent along with promising youth. It added up to a long-awaited playoff berth, and though the Isles lost to the Maple Leafs in the first round of the playoffs, their future is ultra-bright. All in all, New York fans, like Bostonians, support their teams, are outspoken and sometimes obnoxiously so, and love a winner. The difference? The area’s teams have collected eight championship trophies in the last 10 years, and more are on order. We have had one in the last 15. In all fairness, however, New York/New Jersey has eight teams, and we have four, and New Yorkers’ allegiances are always divided — in other words, no one roots for both the Rangers and the Islanders, or both the Mets and the Yankees. Each team’s fans despise the other’s, and someday, depending on the match-ups, it could translate into civil outbreaks of supreme violence. We can only hope. Outlook for the region: seemingly bright for baseball, uncertain for football, and heading in different directions in hockey and basketball.

• Phoenix. Please. It has the world champions of baseball, but prior to the World Series, local media outlets had to offer fans a primer on the game’s basics, so D-back supporters would know when to cheer and when to boo. Arizona, like Florida five years earlier, hardly deserved a championship so soon after receiving an expansion team, but them’s the breaks. At least it prevented the hated pinstripers from taking their fourth-straight world title. The NFL Cardinals are routinely pathetic, and the Coyotes (NHL) and Suns (NBA) are just good enough to keep fans amused, but not quite good enough to evoke obsession. Outlook: who cares?

• Pittsburgh. Passionate football fans, overwhelmingly steadfast in their loyalty. This is not the case regarding the other two sports in town, however. The Steel City loves its Steelers, and the team got to the AFC championship game last year before being surprised at home by our valiant warriors. It’s the off-seasons that Pittsburgh sports zealots have to worry about. The National League Pirates are pretty much irrelevant, despite their new ballpark, and they have not had even a whiff of success since Barry Bonds played here in the early ’90s. The NHL Penguins are also an afterthought ever since Jaromir Jagr skipped town via free agency and GM/player Mario Lemieux’s playing status has become so maddeningly inconsistent (because of health concerns). The city has no basketball franchise, and maybe that’s just as well, because Pittsburgers can ignore only so many teams. Outlook: pretty good for the Steelers, and pretty damn dismal for the other two outfits.

• St. Louis. The single-best baseball town in the country. I will not argue this. That being said, the city’s team has not been to a World Series in 15 years — as if we’re ones to talk. The Cardinals’ manager, Tony La Russa, is for some reason considered a genius even though he’s won only one World Series in his lengthy career, and this year’s team got off to a horrible start. They’ve picked it up a notch since, and preseason some favored them to advance to win the NL pennant. They just might do it. The Rams, the football team that the city stole from LA, won the Super Bowl two years ago and was on track to win their second this past February before you-know-what happened. They’ve got the best two players in the NFL at the key offensive positions, and they will be favored again this season despite some salary-dumping. The Blues, the city’s NHL franchise, have loyal but long-suffering fans, as the team makes annual visits to the playoffs but always disappears early. The Blues have not been in the Stanley Cup Finals since Bobby scored in OT at the Garden in 1970, and have never captured the silver chalice. There are no pro hoops in town, but the city’s sports fanaticos don’t seem to mind. Outlook: bright for the Redbirds and Rams; probably more blues ahead for the Blues.

• San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose. They’ve got a pretty good thing going on up there on the Northern Coast, which makes up for the lack of enthusiasm for anything non-Laker-related in the southern half of the state. The Raiders and 49ers have rich and successful histories, and their fans can only be described in terms of their madcap devotion. The two franchises have won eight Super Bowls between them and lost only once. Both reside near the top of their respective conferences, and they’ll even have a cross-town battle on November 3. Both of the area’s baseball teams are also doing well, with the Giants battling the D-Backs for the Western Division lead, while the A’s, off to a shaky start in the AL, may soon be forced to retool the roster. The Giants, housed in beautiful new Pac Bell Stadium and caught up in the Bonds home-run watch, have a much more loyal following than do the A’s, who are lucky to draw 15,000 even in a pennant race. The Bay Area’s basketball team has been a huge disappointment over the years, as the Warriors have had only five winning seasons in the last 20, and none in their last eight. Their only championship was in 1975. Down the road in San Jose, where the NHL Sharks play, the team has improved year by year, but the Pacific Division champs had their high hopes dashed with a second-round playoff loss this year. The team has been run and marketed well, and its fans love the Sharks. Outlook: bright for every team except for the one that dribbles.

• Seattle. Another great sports town that’s a team short, as the area lacks a professional hockey team. Nevertheless, the town does not lack for excitement, as last year’s Mariners had baseball’s best record since the 1906 Cubs, and the NFL Seahawks are preparing to move into the city’s second state-of-the-art stadium. There’s also a forgettable NBA franchise in town, but the Sonics haven’t really been a factor in the grand scheme of things for quite a while; despite averaging 57 wins for five straight years in the mid ’90s, they’ve been a mediocre bunch in the last four seasons. Outlook: the Mariners could have the tools to take it all this season, the Seahawks could return to the playoffs, and the Sonics are a player or two away from greatness.

So, let’s decide. I think we can realistically eliminate all comers except for the New York metropolitan area and the Bay Area. However, New York right now has eight teams and no current world champions. The Nets and Knicks cancel each other out, and both NFL teams are merely above average. Two of the hockey teams underachieved, but both of New York’s baseball teams are daunting foes. A great sports area, but not the best right now. Northern California boasts two pretty good baseball teams, but no championships — or even close to it — since the two teams’ cross-town earthquake-marred Fall Classic of 1989. Both NFL teams are forces to be reckoned with, but again, there’s an absence of recent Lombardi trophies. The Sharks are good, but the Warriors are bad, and putting all the teams together, the six franchises in the area are not as strong as our four.

In Boston, we’ve got one world champion, a second team with the best record in baseball, a third team that reached the NBA semifinals, and a fourth that was a 100-point NHL conference champion. The votes are in, they’ve been tallied, and — you knew it was coming, didn’t you? — Boston has earned the crown of the nation’s best sports town — for now. Fame is fleeting, but we’ve waited a long time for this honor and should savor it while we can. Who knows? In a month or so, the Celtics’ roster could be could be completely overhauled because of luxury-tax concerns, Pedro could be shutting it down for the year, Tom Brady could hold out of training camp, and Billy Guerin and Byron Dafoe could be Gotham-bound. Could happen.

In the meantime, the stars have aligned properly for the first time in 15 years, and we are top of the list, king of the hill, A#1.

Little-town blues, indeed.

We are the champions. Case closed.

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