E-Mail This Article to a Friend The third annual Best Sports City top-10 list BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

If it’s June, it’s time for "Sporting Eye," for the third straight year, to rank the nation’s top-10 sports cities. Two years ago it was our own fair city that won the honor; last year, the City of Brotherly Love emerged victorious. To whom will the 2004 crown be awarded?

We have a few parameters in place for this non-scientific rundown: to be considered, the metropolis must have at least three professional sports franchises, and only pro teams will be considered. We say that because last season The Sporting News chose LA as its top sports city, when realistically any venue that doesn’t even have (or seemingly doesn’t want to have) an NFL entity shouldn’t be considered for top honors (TSN factored SoCal’s prolific collegiate programs into the mix to reach its verdict). Our choice is based simply on teams that are winning right now, along with the perceived directions existing franchises are taking.

We eliminated a few significant cities right off the bat for assorted reasons. Surprisingly, Chicago didn’t make our list (the Blackhawks, Bulls, and Bears are all horrible), nor did Phoenix (three ultra-mediocre teams), Atlanta (only the Braves are relevant), and Baltimore (no noteworthy team), and the cities of Tampa, St. Louis, Seattle, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Houston, and Milwaukee also miss out because they don’t have enough marquee teams to offset the fact that they’re only three-franchise cities.

Let’s begin.

10. Denver. Overall, two consistently good teams are brought down by the struggles of the city’s other two squads, although the overall outlook is bright. The good news is the Broncos, who at 10-6 last season clinched the wild card before getting annihilated in Indy, but Mike Shanahan’s squad drafted well and will likely be projected as the AFC West winner this season. In hockey, the Avalanche had Stanley-Cup aspirations this past season, yet their 40-22-13-7 was only good enough for the fourth seed in the West, and the Avs were knocked off in the conference semis by San Jose. The Nuggets, long a putrid and questionably run hoops franchise, turned the corner this season by drafting guard Carmelo Anthony, and the team even made the playoffs with a 43-39 record. Alas, the baseball Rockies continue to be a source of disappointment to the region, and haven’t finished higher than third in the NL West since 1995.

9. Dallas/Ft. Worth. This city hasn’t been on our list the last couple of years, but things are looking up everywhere you look. Bill Parcells has rejuvenated America’s Team, and the Cowpokes took the wild card this season in what was only the Tuna’s second season at the helm. The Stars, five years removed from the team’s only Stanley Cup, had another impressive season (41-26-13-7) despite losing in the opening round of the playoffs, and the Mavericks, expected to contend for league honors, instead posted another strong regular season before once again folding in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Yet the area’s sole blight heretofore, its baseball team, has surprised many around the AL, and the Rangers, despite losing their marquee player (A-Rod) and sorely lacking in pitching, are 30-24 and improbably contending for the West crown.

8. NY/NJ. A lot of good teams in the region are seeing their great seasons cancelled out by the sub-par efforts compiled by the others, and that’s what costs the NY area a decent spot. Yankees? Super, although not a champion. Devils? Another solid year, but nowhere near the credentials posted by the Cup champ of a year earlier. The Nets? Another Atlantic Division crown, but dismissed in seven in the conference semis. That’s the news that New Yorkers love spreadin’, but it’s the other outfits that are underachieving, especially on the gridiron. The Jets and Giants combined for a 10-22 record and two last-place finishes, a simultaneous season of ineptitude unseen in these parts since 1996. Then you have the mediocre seasons turned in by the Knicks (39-43), Mets (28-28), and Islanders (38-29-11-4), and the stunning incompetence of the high-priced Rangers (27-40-7-8), and you’ve got some big-city blues.

7. Detroit. The Red Wings have in recent years been the cornerstone of Motown’s sports landscape, but the team couldn’t parlay its high payroll and outstanding record (48-21-11-2) into anything more than a second-round playoff ouster. Still, that disappointment has been more than offset by the postseason punch provided by the NBA Pistons, who as the Eastern representative haven’t been given much chance against the vaunted Laker dynasty in the Finals, but have already stolen Game One in the Staples Center and seem prepped to provide LA with a formidable foe. Meanwhile, the Tigers, while still a woeful representation of a pro baseball team, are off to a halfway decent start, and their 25-31 record is still better than what it was at this point a year ago (16-43). The football Lions had a decent draft and are viewed as up-and-comers, but they’ve still got a long trail ahead on the road to respectability.

6. SF/Oakland. Despite seemingly always having contending teams, the Bay Area still hasn’t celebrated a championship of any kind in a decade. Still, as a sports fan there’s a lot to enjoy. In baseball, both area teams are in the thick of things, with the A’s off to a nice 31-24 start, and the Giants finally back to .500 and climbing after a miserable spring. In hockey, the NHL franchise to the south, the Sharks, took the number-one seed in the West and made it all the way to Game 6 of the Conference Finals before bowing to upstart Calgary. Yet the area takes a bit of a hit because of the disappointing season submitted by the 49ers, who at 7-9 missed out on the 2003 playoffs a year after reaching the NFC semis, and the tiresome Warriors, who seemed to have taken steps to right the listing ship but instead missed out on the NBA playoffs for the 10th straight season.

5. Minneapolis/St. Paul. The city’s NBA franchise has nearly returned to the pinnacle of the sport, where its original "Lakers" team won five world titles in the late ’40s and ’50s. The T-Wolves had the top seed in the league’s rugged Western Conference, but they were ultimately dispatched by the West Coast Lakers incarnation. The NHL Wild were also in the Western Conference finals, a year ago, but this season they sagged to a last-place divisional finish (despite finishing above .500). The Twins are chugging along in the weak AL Central (where a 30-26 record is good for a game out of first), and the team is favored to take the division. Yet this sports hotbed does not register higher because of the continuing disappointments of the NFL Vikings, who this season got off to a 6-0 start yet still managed to miss the playoffs (at 9-7). This is truly a long-suffering organization.

4. Miami. Having a world champion counts for something, and the Marlins’ unexpected 2003 title propels the city into the upper echelon of this exclusive list. Yet South Floridians have even more reason to feel optimistic, including their football team, which despite the Dolphins’ 10-6 record failed to qualify it for the playoffs, and especially the hoops team, which provided the season’s best story. The Heat, which started the campaign 0-7, finished strongly and not only made the playoffs as the fourth seed in the East, but established a tremendous home-court advantage and gave the Pacers all they could handle in the East semifinals. Finally, new management in the front office of the Panthers organization should help lift the hockey team out of its four-year playoff drought. Right.

3. LA/Anaheim. A tough call, because there’s plenty of peaks and valleys. The Lakers are in the NBA Finals for the fourth time in five seasons, but the cross-town Clippers put forth their usual season of disgrace (28-54). The Mighty Ducks were in the NHL Finals a season ago, but stumbled to a 29-35-10-8 finish this season — only slightly worse than the Kings, who finished just five points ahead of the Ducks. Without that football team, we have little to highlight in that area, but first place is inhabited by both the Dodgers and the Angels in the world of MLB, and that’s noteworthy in our eyes.

2. Philadelphia. The defending Sporting Eye champs are riding high again, but continue to suffer from championship deprivation. The Flyers reached the Eastern Finals, but will go Cup-less for the 29th straight season. In a similar vein, the Eagles reached the NFC title game for the third straight year, but again missed out on only the second Super Bowl berth in franchise history. The Phillies, projected as the NL East champ, are plugging along at a so-so 29-26 clip and are clearly in the hunt, but the sole reason the region isn’t atop the list is the free-fall taken by the 76ers, who just four years ago were in the NBA Finals but this year stumbled to a 33-49 record.

1. Boston. It’s not a slam-dunk, but ... You’ve got an NFL champion — for the second time in a three-year period — that’s riding a 15-game win streak heading into its title defense. You’ve got a baseball team that’s again expected to return to the AL playoffs, and perhaps contend for a glittering trophy. You’ve got a hockey team that finished 41-19-15-7 and took the Northeast Division and the conference’s second seed. But you’ve also got a basketball team that is seemingly lacking direction despite "qualifying" for the playoffs with a woeful 36-46 record. Should one team overshadow the accomplishments of the others? Not when it joins the other three teams at the post-season table in the same sports year, which is more than any of our other cities can say. You might suspect we’re being provincial here, but there are fewer negatives here than in the other competitors résumés, and that Lombardi Trophy, the accompanying streak, the Sox' ALCS berth, and the Bruins' Northeast Division crown are the clinchers.

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