In the past, being a sports fan in the Valley of the Sun wasn’t easy. The area only has one world championship to its name among the four major professional sports, a shocker when the Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees in the 2001 World Series. Other than that, the state of Arizona has thrown up a giant doughnut (unless you want to count the Phoenix Mercury’s two WNBA titles and UA’s 1997 college basketball title, the latter of which we’ll forget ever happened).
But now, we’re entering a golden age of Arizona professional sports. More teams in the Valley have been successful in the past year than ever.
The Suns and Coyotes are each headed to the playoffs, looking like they are at least going to win a round or two and possibly advance further. The Cardinals wrapped up their second consecutive division title and have won four playoff games in the past two seasons. Let’s repeat that: The Cardinals have won two consecutive division titles.
While the Suns have always been reliable, having made the playoffs in 19 of the past 22 seasons, they were often a one-man play, lacking any supporting actors.
Now the Coyotes, who were on their way out of town and to bankruptcy only six months ago, have the third-most points in the Western Conference and will have home-ice advantage for at least one round of the playoffs. With three games left in the season, the ’Yotes have set the franchise record for wins in a season. They just may have saved professional hockey in the Valley with their performance.
The Diamondbacks are coming off a last-place finish last year, but they are only two seasons removed from division title and an NLCS appearance.
In the past calendar year, three of the Valley’s four sports teams have earned a playoff berth. That has happened only three times in Arizona history, as the Coyotes, Diamondbacks and Suns all made the playoffs in 1999 and 2001, while the Cardinals, Suns and Coyotes each made it in 1998.
Phoenix is one of only four cities that has had teams from three different sports make the playoffs in the past calendar year, the others being Boston, New York and Philadelphia. (Anaheim is not L.A. — heck it’s not even the same county, so no, L.A. does not count). That’s right. The quality of Phoenix professional sports in the past year was equivalent to those traditional powers. Maybe ESPN should give the Valley its own full-time personal reporter. Oh wait, we’re not along the eastern seaboard, in Chicago or owned by Jerry Jones. Never mind.
The point is that something special has taken place, and is currently taking place, in the Valley. While we’ve been beaten over the head with bad news locally (real estate bubble collapsing, tuition increases, anything involving student government in general), the Valley’s sports teams have given us hope and entertainment. Now, if only people would notice Phoenix had a better sports year than Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco or every other city other than the three listed above, we could come together and root our teams to victory.
Or see them break our hearts. Either way, it’s fun to see them winning.
