Padres and Chargers Give San Diego Most Miserable Sports Town

The Padres have never a World Series. The Chargers have never won a Super Bowl. With the Cleveland Cavaliers winning the NBA Finals San Diego takes over the Sports Misery Index according to Bill Barnwell of ESPN.com.

Now the Padres have made it to the World Series twice – but of course lost both and haven’t been since 1998. They haven’t been the playoffs since 2006 and the Chargers always seem to fumble or miss kicks in the first or second round of the playoffs in the NFL.

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Essentially to create a formula that works he assigns a point per city for every professional sports team a city has that doesn’t win a championship. So teams with more bad teams accumulate points faster but of course there is more chances of winning that elusive championship. Chicago should be glad for the Blackhawks.

For context, Cleveland was all the way up to 100.5 points since they hadn’t won since 1965, and of course in 1997 they were one strike away. Seattle had been up to 66 points until the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, and they had to endure losing a NBA team. (Take note Chargers fans).

San Diego sits at a misery index of 83.5 points, the highest on the list above Buffalo at 76.5. The author states:

"And yet, there’s something undeniably weird about suggesting that San Diego fans are long-suffering. When we think of heartbroken cities, we almost always think of frigid cities that are past their economic prime. We think of Cleveland and Boston, of Buffalo and Minneapolis. The idea of fans suffering in perennially gorgeous weather by the beach feels wrong, like there’s something inherently more meaningful about losing when you have to trod back home and shovel snow for six hours."

I admit…I have to agree here. I think in the sports misery index there needs to be something that accounts for “heartbreaking losses”. Buffalo lost four consecutive Super Bowls. The Indians were one strike away. The Padres? The most heartbreaking loss was the play in game in 2007. The World Series in 1999 they were swept. The Chargers Super Bowl they lost by 23 points.

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The author disagrees as he answers his own question from the previous paragraph: “There’s not. San Diego fans have suffered for 53 years while barely sniffing a title; there are grandfathers who have spent their entire lives in San Diego rooting for local teams without ever feeling for a moment like they’re close to winning a championship.”

So for now, the city of San Diego takes the mantle as the official most miserable sports town. With the Chargers future in San Diego uncertain certainly they have question marks with an aging quarterback, tight end, and young running back. The Padres seem poised to sell 2016 with plans for 2018 at the earliest. Who knows though – sometimes the great sports moments happen when you least expect them.