Houston Sports: Top 5 cities that must be conquered or bust
What a time for Houston Sports. Even though the city of Houston will probably not be one of America’s favorite cities for some time, it still feels great to see our sports teams defeat the most elite sports teams. The recent success of the Astros in 2017 makes it awe-inspiring to know that Houston teams can beat anyone if the biggest of markets.
Houston Sports fans — you know, there are a lot of things I can remember about the 2017 Astros. We can sit here and talk about the impact they had post-Harvey or the incredible Game 2 and the epic Game 5 of the World Series. We can also talk about one of the greatest victories in Game 7 (Someone tell the president to clarify). But you want to know what I’m most impressed with. With our theme being #EarnHistory, our city beat the most elite of American cities during our run. We took down Boston, New York, and Los Angeles.
If you may recall, I wrote an article prior to the series against the Boston Red Sox about how Houston had yet to beat Boston in a playoff situation. Well, that finally happened and the Boston misery is out of the way for now. Now, we also had beaten New York and Los Angeles before. We beat the Knicks in the NBA Finals and the Lakers and Clippers in the NBA Playoffs before.
So this brings me to this question. What city in the United States have we not conquered? By that, I mean what city have we not beaten in any sport in any playoff scenario? Well, I did some thinking about that and I have concluded that there are at least six cities in America that we have yet to beat.
Can You Name Them?
I’ll eliminate a few of them.
New York – Knicks in 1994, Yankees in 2015 and 2017
Los Angeles – Lakers in 1981, 1986, and 1996, Clippers in 1993 and 2015, Dodgers in 1980 (one-game playoff) and 2017
Dallas – Mavericks in 2015
Atlanta – Braves in 2004, 2005
Kansas City – Kings* (They were in Kansas City then) in 1981
Denver – Nuggets in 1986
Seattle – Sonics in 1997
Salt Lake City – Jazz in 1994 and 1995
Phoenix – Suns in 1994 and 1995
San Antonio – Spurs in 1980, 1981, 1995
San Diego – Chargers for AFL Title in 1961 and 1979.
Okay, now you might have an idea of which cities I will be discussing. But first off, I want to name a few cities that we should beat more.
Denver
For some reason, I love the city, but I feel we should beat Denver more. Maybe it’s because John Elway’ magnificent drive against the Oilers still reigns on us or perhaps it’s because it’s personal remains beyond me. But we have beaten a Denver team one time back in 1986. So I certainly wouldn’t mind a series or a playoff game with the Broncos, Nuggets or a World Series with the Rockies.
Kansas City
While Houston did beat a Kansas City team in 1981 with the Rockets, that Kansas City team moved to Sacremento later where they are now the Sacremento Kings. But aside from that, we are still haunted by 30-0 in 2015 and blowing a 20-7 lead in 1993 from the Chiefs and the eighth inning of Game 4 against the Royals in 2015. A rematch with those teams and a win will almost all but erase the nightmares of past misery.
San Diego
With the Chargers back in L.A, the Padres are all the city of San Diego have left. Unless the Padres were to wake up and start winning the NL West and get to the World Series while we do the same thing, we’re not going to face them. We’ll have to live with the memory that our best team (102-60) prior to 2017 got eliminated by the Padres in the 1998 NLDS. I just only hope 2018 sees us win 103 games and the World Series.
Houston Sports fans — let’s begin the countdown of the top 5 cities that we need to beat and get a win against them in playoffs.