Even Woody Paige Is Talking About DU Hockey

Paige: Denver's sports teams are the 1

(left) ESPN personality and Denver Post sports columnist is talking smack about the Pioneer hockey team. He also called out former college hockey hotbeds Minneapolis-St. Paul & Boston

From: Denver Post

by Woody Paige


Welcome to Denver, the Mile High No. 1 Sports City in America this very morning. We live in the most fortuitous, fortunate, flourishing Dusty Old Cowtown, to boot.

RockAvBroncNugRap-Pioneertober. Get out the foam fingers.

Read it and weep, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Chicago (ha!).

But how can that be?

The Rockies open their National League division series today in Philly. Impressive, but, other cities will shrug, so what? Eight teams will participate in the Major League Baseball postseason.

The Broncos are 4-0. But, then, four other teams in the NFL are undefeated at this juncture.

The Avalanche has started 2-0. Yes, six other NHL teams started with two victories.

And the Nuggets, with the new season beginning Oct. 28, reached the NBA conference finals in 2009. Of course, three other teams did too.

There's your four major professional sports leagues.

And how many communities in these United States are in the baseball playoffs, currently unbeaten in professional football and hockey, and coming off a trip to the final four in pro basketball?

The answer would be: Denver is the 1 and only.

As Al Pacino said in "Scent Of A Woman," I'm just getting warmed up.

Take your best shot, Dallas- Fort Worth, Los Angeles- Anaheim and Minneapolis- St. Paul, but don't be bringing that cheap counter-argument stuff.

Check out how well the other seven teams in the baseball playoffs have done in the other three sports so far in 2009. St. Louis doesn't have a pro basketball team (and barely has an NFL team, at 0-4). The Phillies are still around and the Flyers won their first three games, but the Eagles are 3-1 and the 76ers lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The Dodgers and the Angels won their baseball divisions, and the Lakers won the NBA title, of course, but there's no NFL team, so La-La Land and Disneyland strike out.

How about Boston? Wild- card team like the Rockies, but the Celtics lost in the first round, the Patriots have lost one and the Bruins are 1-1. Eat chowder, Boston.

New York-Jersey? Lots of franchises (three in hockey and two in football, baseball and basketball), but just one made the baseball postseason, and one is at 4-0 in the football regular season.

The Twin Cities are a close second to the Rockies after the Monday night fourth victory by the Vikings and the Tuesday night 12th-inning victory by the Twins. But the Wild lost its first game, and the Timberwolves were no factor last season.

Meanwhile, back in the Olympian Highest, Swiftest, Strongest Pro Sports City:

The Nuggets surprised everyone after the trade for Chauncey Billups, won 58 regular-season games and finished first in the division, then rolled through two playoff rounds before pushing the Lakers to six games — and winning 10 postseason games for a club-record (in the NBA) 68 victories.

The Avalanche surprised everyone after the retirement of Joe Sakic, and the cleaning out of The Can of practically every executive, coach and video director, by opening with a pair of home victories in the past week.

The Rockies surprised everyone after the firing of manager Clint Hurdle and promotion of Jim Tracy by winning a club-record 92 games to become the NL wild card and just miss the NL West title.

And the Broncos surprised everyone after the firing of Mike Shanahan and the hiring of Josh McDaniels, the trading of Jay Cutler for Kyle Orton and the cleaning out of Dove Valley of defensive backs, linebackers and defensive linemen, and assorted general managers, by winning their first two games on the road and both their home games. And 84 percent of NFL teams that begin 4-0 end up in the playoffs.

Still not convinced, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and San Diego, about the greatness of the Air Up Here?

The Rapids, Denver's and Commerce City's Major League Soccer team, have 40 points with two games remaining and are poised to clinch a playoff spot.

The Outlaws, Denver's own outdoor lacrosse team, lost in the championship game this year, and the Mammoth, the indoor lacrosse team, advanced to the playoffs in the '09 season.

The University of Denver Pioneers hockey team was ranked No. 1 this week in a major preseason poll.

In a 2004 study, the Center for Sports Psychology named Denver fans the most passionate in the nation.

The Indiana Hoosiers scored the first touchdown in a 1977 game against mighty Ohio State. Then-coach Lee Corso called a timeout and ordered a team photo taken with the scoreboard in the background. The Buckeyes won 35-7.

The Avalanche opens a seven-game trip Thursday night. When the Nuggets start their season later this month, six of the first seven will be on the road. J.R. Smith is suspended for all seven. The Broncos play at home Sunday against the Patriots. And the Rockies will play today and Thursday in Philadelphia.

Savor this moment. Denver could turn from No. 1 to No. 2, or lower, by Sunday night.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice way to pick the perfect point in time to blow ourselves up. A bunch of playoff runs and a couple of titles here and there (excluding DU hockey) are not what we want. Most of those cities he called out have title banners hanging around that we could only dream of. The most passionate fans in the country could barely fill The Can half way as a very exciting hockey team went 2-0, but the fans will show up when they start winning and go away when they start losing again (sound like passion), that disgusts me. Maybe the Bronco's fans are the most passionate, maybe. I hate Boston sports and the Massholes (I'm using the word hate about a sports team), but if we want to emulate success then this is what we want our recent history to look like: Pats 3 titles, Sox' 2 titles, Celtic's 1 title, BU hockey 1 title, BC hockey 2 titles, and the Bruins made a deep playoff run (although I don't think that really counts).

-Avs fan for life-

Anonymous said...

I agree with DU at number 1 - that said....Woody Paige is a tool and doesn't know jack about sports.

Anonymous said...

haha... Paige almost baited me into writing something about him. We need more articles by Chambers!