Los Angeles - "City of Titles"

Titletown, USA - Los Angeles, CA

It was announced that ESPN is doing a "Titletown, USA" analysis on 20 cities in America. Similar to what Sports Illustrated did about 9 years ago (results below in this blog) in 1999 with choosing a U.S. State with the best athletes (California, of course)....ESPN is taking a new approach in determining which US city can be labeled 'Titletown.'


Excerpt from ESPN:

Where is TitleTown USA?

This summer, "SportsCenter" will visit 20 towns that lay claim to the name of TitleTown USA.

You may nominate your championship city with a video or essay. We'll review the submissions and highlight the best ones. In May, a select nationwide panel to be determined by ESPN's "SportsCenter" will pick 19 of the finalists, including Green Bay, Wis.

The 20th finalist will be determined by online fan voting during the week of May 26. "SportsCenter" will announce the 20 finalists in June and will tour each during a 20-day span in July, culminating with online fan voting to determine which is truly TitleTown USA.

Objective Results - UCLA is King

When it comes to NCAA Championships, UCLA is at the Century Mark!

Stanford and USC....very close behind. Check it out below.

NCAA Championship Results

Objective Conclusion: With UCLA, Stanford, and USC taking down 1, 2, & 3 in the overall championship count (minus Div. 1 Football), it's safe to assume that Cali is King (as I predicted)!

And to all the Floridians that say Florida sports are the best and that "we are great and we are cool and we are awesome and we are unbeatable and we have DisneyWorld"...you didn't even make the list. Texans, nice 7th spot there, too!

Hypothesis...La La Land is King!

Back in 1999, I actively read the weekly Sports Illustrated featuring the greatest players from each of the 50 US States. This exercise, along with continuous trash talking from friends in college about how GREAT their teams are, peaked my curiosity into finding an objective solution. Obviously, this will be an evolving process, however, at least it will be a start.

Hypothesis of Greatest Region: The great golden state of California

Hypothesis of Greatest City: The City of Angeles...aka - Los Angeles

There is a semblance of logic behind this bold statement....it's not just because I happen to have been born and raised in Southern California (which can lead to many folks thinking that I'm speaking from a biased perspective). When I think of LA Sports and more importantly California Sports these are the championship teams that initially come to mind:

• Lakers
• Dodgers
• Angels
• Raiders
  
• 49ers
• Ducks
• Trojans
• Bruins
• Titans
  

Based on this knowledge, and understanding that there is probably no other state that can approach these numbers of championships, I've decided to make the bold claim in my hypothesis above.

Furthermore, Sports Illustrated ranked the state of California on top of all other states in ranking the greatest athletes of all time. Below is the list. You can click on the individual states which will take you to the comprehensive list of all 50 athletes per each state.

Hopefully, I can find a sports almanac to start the objective investigative process.

Sports Illustrated Issue date: December 27, 1999

Ranking the States
Having drawn up rosters of the top 50 sports figures from each state, we couldn't resist ranking the states themselves. Weighing the magnitude of talent at the top of each list and the depth of talent throughout each list, here's how the states stack up.
Rank	States
1	California You should see the list of athletes who didn't make its top 50.
2	Texas The state where football is king -- and Babe is queen -- is a formidable second.
3	New York And it didn't even get credit for Brooklyn-born Michael Jordan.
4	Pennsylvania Want a quarterback? Six of the greatest keyed the Keystone State.
5	Alabama This football-crazy state bred plenty of baseball legends.
6	Louisiana A rich source for the three biggest U.S. sports: baseball, basketball and football.
7	North Carolina Tobacco Road is the fertile crescent for basketball players and stock car drivers.
8	Ohio A powerful mix: It's home to greats in most every sport.
9	Illinois Land of Halas is well represented by Butkus, Grange and Nitschke.
10	Florida Speed rules here, from Bullet Bob Hayes to Big Daddy Garlits.
11	Maryland Birthplace of baseball royalty: Ruth, Ripken, Grove, Foxx and Kaline.
12	Mississippi An awesome NFL offense could be assembled with its stars.
13	Oklahoma Nothing unlucky about a state that produces both Jim Thorpe and Mickey Mantle.
14	South Carolina An all-around effort: Top 50 athletes hail from more than 30 hometowns.
15	Virginia Need an NBA center? Malone, Robinson, Sampson and Mourning grew up -- way up -- here.
16	Indiana Not surprisingly, it's glory is basketball, from the Wizard of Westwood to Larry Legend.
17	Arkansas Won record eight world calf roping titles and three world all-around championships (1963, '64, '65).
18	Kansas A winning environment: Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp had 1,755 coaching victories.
19	Missouri Home to sports sages Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel and Bill Bradley.
20	Michigan State's best include a President (Gerald Ford) and a General (Pete Dawkins).
21	Georgia Talk about diversity: from terrible-tempered Ty Cobb to the gentlemanly Bobby Jones.
22	Kentucky The greatest horses (Man o' War, Citation) run far behind the Greatest.
23	West Virginia Emerging stars like Randy Moss and Jason Williams could raise its status in the next century.
24	New Jersey The Garden State has cultivated a bumper crop of track and field stars.
25	Connecticut Surprisingly fertile state edges out its more populous neighbor to the north.
26	Massachusetts Bay State goes into battle with boxers, hockey stars and Leo the Lip.
27	Nebraska A few superstars and a whole lot of Cornhuskers lead the way.
28	Oregon Numerous notables who performed feats of the feet include Steve Prefontaine and Dan O'Brien.
29	Minnesota Many on this list stayed at home to play for the Golden Gophers.
30	Wisconsin Fittingly, many gridiron greats populate Curley Lambeau's frozen tundra.
31	Tennessee A liberated list: Women are ranked first, second and fourth.
32	Washington Set 'em up (John Stockton, No. 1) and knock 'em down (Earl Anthony, No. 2).
33	New Mexico The auto racing Unsers (Al Sr., Bobby, Al Jr. and Robby) all make the top 25.
34	Arizona The desert delivers righthanded pitchers: Jim Palmer, Curt Schilling, John Denny.
35	Iowa The only state list topped by a wrestler, the fabled Dan Gable.
36	Nevada A duo of unique doubles: two Madduxes and a pair of boxing referees.
37	Idaho Unpopulous state impressive at the top: Harmon Killebrew, Jerry Kramer, Picabo Street.
38	New Hampshire In a land of snow, the hottest stars are a baseball player and a swimmer.
39	Colorado Mecca for U.S. Olympic training has turned out pioneering Olympians.
40	Utah List gets a big boost from a pair of homegrown BYU quarterbacks.
41	Hawaii More than just surfing and sumo: 12 NFL players are on the list, too.
42	North Dakota From the far north came a home run king and a six-time NBA champion coach.
43	South Dakota Billy Mills and Frank Leahy aren't only the best in the state; they're also among the best in history.
44	Rhode Island A prized pair of second sackers head the smallest state's list of biggies.
45	Montana Big Sky's best includes a cowboy, a rifleman and a daredevil.
46	Vermont A century of snow and ice has produced a blizzard of winter warriors.
47	Wyoming The top 10 of this list is heavy with guys who threw their weights around.
48	Maine Leading the way Down East is marathoner supreme Joan Benoit Samuelson.
49	Alaska Would clearly be No. 1 on list of century's alltime dog-sledding states.
50	Delaware It's a constitutional thing: The first state has the last list.

Purpose of this blog...

I will use this site to analyze which city and which region ranks the greatest in the United States when it comes to athletic dominance.

I'll attempt to leverage the scientific method to obtain objective results as I know my biased opinions will definitely get in the way.

I'll approach conclusions iteratively gradually expanding the analysis to go beyond the 4 major professional sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL) into the college ranks (SEC, ACC, PAC-10, Big Ten, etc.) and beyond (Golfers, Tennis Players, MLS, WNBA, etc.).

This might be a major undertaking...but I'll attempt to get this going during my free time.

So, who will be crowned the "Greatest Sports City?" Let's see where this takes us....