Lol at baseball without a salary cap not being dead last. Where teams like the dodgers and yankees can just routinely buy a better roster than others
Define "hardest"... hardest for a small market team: 1. baseball, 2. basketball, 3. football, 4. hockey hardest for level of elite physical or precision skill: 1. basketball, 2. baseball, 3. football (QBs), 4. hockey hardest physically: 1. hockey, 2. football, 3. basketball, 9999. baseball
The Dodgers and Yankees have won 4* of the past 25 World Series. *if you count the Covid year The Dbacks, Marlins, White Sox and Royals have also won 4.
I don't think it's hard for small markets to win in the NBA, especially with the new apron salary cap. Oklahoma City won the last championship; Denver (who had never even appeared in the Finals for over 40 years) and Milwaukee have won two of the last five. Market size doesn't feel like a strong predictor of contention anymore if salary caps and TV deals impact revenue more than gate receipts. Baseball and hockey depend on ticket sales a lot more than the NFL or NBA, but MLB doesn't have a salary cap. Its big spenders are often impacted by the randomness of its playoffs. If it were truly easy to buy a World Series, the Yankees would have won more than one in the last 25 years. In regards to hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens are two of the three most valuable teams and located in massive markets. But, the Canadiens haven't won a Stanley Cup since 1993 and the Maple Leafs haven't even played for it since 1967.
Lol at comparing a team with 1 world series to 27 Yes teams with higher payrolls have historically had consistently better records. There are obviously going to be outlier seasons
I agree with all of that. But it's all relative. I think you see Cinderella teams in the conference finals or finals more often in hockey like 03 Wild, 2011 Coyotes, Ducks, Hurricanes, etc, but I could be wrong. Now the argument has shifted to whether low tax markets have the advantage.
You said golf? You might as well throw in darts, bowling, table tennis, monopoly, Grand Theft Auto=San Andreas, corn hole, beer pong, extreme Ironing and chess boxing!
Triple crown is one of the hardest... if you don't restrict it to humans. Only 13 horses won it in the last 150 years.
