To the victors..

Congrats to the New York Yankees!!!! 27 world series wins in 40 attempts is damn near 70% success rate. When I was a kid the Oakland raiders used to brag about how they were the winningiest franchise in sports. They did not have the most championships by a long shot but their actual win loss record was the best in sports until about five years ago. Wild huh considering how horrible they have been recently. Actually right now, I believe that the Yankees and the Lakers are the top two. In my lifetime the Yankees have played in 11 world series and won seven. The Pittsburgh Steelers have played in seven Super Bowls and have won 6. The San Fransico49ers have played in 5 and won all five which is pretty impressive. The Celtics have won 8 titles out 10 in my lifetime. The Lakers have been in 20 NBA finals in my 41 years of living. They have won 10 of them. In the NHL, The Montreal Canadiens were is 16 finals and won 10 of them. They have not won a title since 1993. I was shocked to see that. I thought Detroit or The New Jersey Devils would have the most since it seems every year lately they are playing for the cup.
All of these teams have one common thread. Great players and Great coaches. Joe Girardi has won the manager of the year award and was promptly fired at the end of that season with the Marlins. Doc Rivers was a good player and has grown into a pretty damn good coach. Phil Jackson is Phil Jackson. Mike Tomlin got it done in his second year like Girardi. Both men have a long future ahead of them. The other teams had legendary coaches that roamed their sidelines for years. Bill Walsh, Chuck Noll, Red Auerbach, Scotty Bowman, Bill Cowher,Joe Torre, are just the tip of the coaching icon iceberg. The players they had were second to none!! I could list them all but you know they are. Jordan, Russell, Bradshaw, Montana, Rice, Patrick Roy etc... Now the names added to the list are Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Petitte. Winning 5 rings in a career is extraordinary. Kobe and Shaq are close with 4 each and I got a feeling one of them is going to get a 5th in the next few years.
I wont forget my individual sport star too. Tiger has 70 wins and 14 majors. Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova, Dale Earnhardt, Roger Federer and Pete Sampras have enormous accomplishments and multiple majors and championships. Pretty boy Floyd deserves some props as does the Golden Boy. In short as this blog is today, I have lived through a lot of good sports in my time. The Lakers and the Canadiens have the most rings. So here's to all of you.. thank you for giving me the distraction that keeps me going. We will see how much has changed at age 50. I cant wait!!!