People are attracted to winning and successful teams. They like it when teams consistently compete for winning World Championships and here I will list 15 teams: last 3 champions in each of the pro sports leagues in North America. I will list them in alphabetical order with their regular season record.
Major League Baseball (MLB)
2018: Boston Red Sox (108-54)
This team all year led baseball in almost all the major categories. They had the best pitcher in the American League in Chris Sale and stayed free of injuries all year. They put together their best baseball in the playoffs and dominated a very good pitching staff in the Dodgers for the World Series.
2017 : Houston Astros (101-61)
This team along with the Dodgers were in a race for best season and hardly any other teams competed. It appeared to be a lock for a Dodgers vs Astros World Series and it was. Many baseball writers felt the Astros lacked another starter and they signed Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander literally 2 seconds before the trade deadline on August 31st at 11:59:58 pm. Had they waited 2 seconds longer, he would have been ineligible for playing in the playoffs that season. The Houston area was also going through Hurricane Harvey and it felt like divine intervention that the Astros would win the World Series and they did in Game 7 over the Dodgers.
2016: Chicago Cubs (103-58-1)
https://medium.com/@zachbernard29/103-58-1-3a45298360f7
For those who doubt they actually had a tie with the Pirates this year, here it is. This team was the only team to win 100+ games in 2016 and their World Series opponent had both the longest winning streak in the regular season at 14 and the only team not to lose 4 straight. Even the Cubs had 1 streak of 4 straight losses when they went from 47-20 to 47-24. Oddly, these team meeting in the World Series had the 2 longest droughts in baseball at 108 years and 68 years since last World Series title. The Cubs became the 1st road team ever to win Game 7 in extra innings and oddly enough, each team scored 27 runs apiece in the World Series.
Major League Soccer
2018: Atlanta United (21-7-6)
This team finished 2nd in best record of 23 MLS teams and went on to win their 1st title for an Altanta team since the 1995 Braves. They didn't give up many goals but they had enough offense to win the title, defeating the Portland Timbers 2-0. This is my favorite MLS team so I was very happy and they won it in just their 2nd year of existence.
2017: Toronto (20-5-9)
This team was dominant all year long and easily ran through the MLS playoffs. They had a very good defense and their offense dominated the league. They defeated the Seattle Sounders 2-0 for the title.
2016: Seattle Sounders (14-14-6)
Despite finishing exactly .500 in the regular season, they went on to win the MLS Cup. Sometimes in soccer, you just get a run break of match-ups in the playoffs and shows that you have to play whoever is next. They went on to defeat the Toronto team in penalty kicks 5-4 after a scoreless match.
National Basketball Association (NBA)
2019: Toronto Raptors (58-24)
This team was neck and neck with the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors for best record. They eventually finished 2nd seed in the East but went on to defeat the Bucks in the East Finals and the Warriors in the NBA Finals. They defeated the top seed in east conference and Kwahi Leonard was seen as a well fit for the Raptors to win the NBA Finals as Canada's only NBA team. This team was very good offensively and played very good defense with Kwahi Leonard in the lineup shutting down the Splash Brothers of Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry to win in 6 games.
2018: Golden State Warriors (58-24)
The only challenge this team had was with the Rockets from their own conference who they defeated in 7 games. Once they met the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, it was a sweep. Game 1 went into overtime but the Cavaliers were over-matched as Kevin Durant and the rest dominated.
2017: Golden State Warriors (67-15)
This team cake walked to an easy title. None of their opponent had much of a shot with a fully loaded and healthy Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry , Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Their bench was lighting it up all season and playoffs and they took down the Cavaliers rather easily for the title in 5 games.
National Football League (NFL)
2018: New England Patriots (11-5)
This team was good all year but all 5 of their losses were against teams who missed the playoffs: Jaguars (5-11), Lions (6-10), Titans (9-7), Dolphins (7-9), and Steelers (9-6-1). They played excellent defense in the playoffs and defeated all the good teams. However, they struggled against the weaker teams but fortunate for them, the playoffs features the better teams. The Rams who finished 13-3 oddly lost 13-3 in the Super Bowl. Go figure. The Rams were a great offense also but little playoff success as of late.
2017: Philadelphia Eagles (13-3)
This team had a great defense and Carson Wentz was leading their offense to a great year but suffered a Week 14 injury and Nick Foles had to be their quarterback for the final 3 regular season games and the playoffs. After narrowly espacing the Falcons in the Divisional Round 15-10 after Matt Ryan's 4th and goal from the 2 yard line fell incomplete, the Eagles went on to put up huge points over the Vikings and Patriots to capture their 1st NFL title in 57 years.
2016: New England Patriots (14-2)
The Patriots had little trouble all year long but faced a high powered Falcons offense in the Super Bowl and trailed 28-3 with just a tad over 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. When it looked hopeless, they came back on my favorite team, the Falcons, scoring 25 straight in regulation, then winning the overtime coin toss and choosing the football and capitalizing with a game winning touchdown. It still pains me as a Falcons fan. They scored the final 31 in the game to win 34-28 and it was 1st ever Super Bowl to take overtime to be won.
National Hockey League (NHL)
2019: Saint Louis Blues (45-28-9)
This team won in their 51st year of existence, which oddly enough a previous team on my MyTake failed to win in their 51st season: Atlanta Falcons. They lost the 1st 3 Stanley Cups ever played in 1968, 1969 and 1970 all in 4-0 series sweeps. They defeated the Bruins in the Finals and they played their song Gloria for the victory. They were a powerful offense.
2018: Washington Capitals (49-26-7)
This team defeated a very good Lightning team in the East Finals and their basically Round 2 nemesis, the Pittsburgh Penguins who had taken 10 of the last 11 playoff series head to head, faced them in Round 2. It was so epic and so fitting that they had to go through Pittsburgh, who was also the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Alexander Ovechkin dominated the 1st line all through the playoffs and they defeated an inaugural Vegas Golden Knights team to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
2017: Pittsburgh Penguins (50-21-11)
This team played great offensively all year. Their defense was better than most years but their 1st line had to play better and Sydney Crosby led the team to the Stanley Cup title: their 5th (1991, 1992, 2009, 2016, 2017) This team has the fire power to stay dominant for a full decade if they can avoid key injuries to their start players.
Conclusion:
Please let me know if any of these teams are your favorites. I will list them all. I will not list repeats.
Red Sox, Astros, Cubs, Atlanta United, Toronto, Sounders, Raptors, Warriors, Patriots, Eagles, Blues, Capitals, Penguins.
Also, here is who I think will win the next title in each sport. Let me know if you agree or disagree.
MLB: Yankees
MLS: Los Angeles, not the Galaxy but other LA team.
NBA: Lakers
NFL: Rams
NHL: Avalnche
Please share what you think about this MyTake and I think players look forward to playing on contenders rather than pretenders and I think most of these teams listed will compete for a title for quite awhile. Very few teams slow down all of a sudden unless it's a severe injury or big time trade they have lost.
Thanks for reading and what do you think?
What Girls & Guys Said
Opinion
2Opinion
Very interesting, thanks
Great Take and nice imagery 🌸💜🌸
Thanks and I meant to say Avalanche. I forgot the 2nd a.
Yes. All of them were really good teams.