Futile No More

by Matt Wells

There was a time, not too long ago, where we were laughing at the futile efforts that sports teams (of the four major sports) were putting forth on a yearly or even daily basis.  We still laugh at some of those teams: the Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Devils Rays, Atlanta Hawks, and Houston Texans are just some of the futile teams that come to mind.

In the past decade, we’ve seen some previously futile teams become championship contenders, even if it has been for just a few seasons.  The New England Patriots, St. Louis Rams, and Indianapolis Colts (among others) have reached football respectability (the Rams have since fallen off).  Baseball has had the turnarounds of the Minnesota Twins (after a poor mid-1990s) and the Chicago White Sox.  Hockey has seen teams like the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Calgary Flames, and Tampa Bay Lightning rise to higher ranks.  Finally, basketball has seen the Denver Nuggets and New Jersey Nets climb out of the cellar.
In this past year of sports, we’ve seen a bunch of teams from a variety of sports suddenly reappear on our sports radars.  They have gone from has-beens to teams looking to push their way deep into the playoffs.

Who are they?  Where did they come from?  Will they remain on our radars?

*Criteria: Results from the 2005-06 basketball and hockey seasons, the 2005 football season, and the current baseball season*

MLB

Detroit Tigers

This was a team that lost 119 games in 2003, narrowly missing the record for futility set by the 1962 New York Mets.  2004 saw a vast improvement in Detroit when the Tigers had second-largest year-to-year improvement in American League history.  Big-name signings, such as Ivan Rodriguez and Carlos Guillen, helped improve the team.  However, 2005 saw the Tigers drop back into 4th place in the AL Central, as they finished with a 71-91 record.

In a phrase that reflects the title of the article, “what a difference a year makes.”  The Tigers, the laughing stocks of Michigan, are in contention.  Jim Leyland is on track to win AL Manager of the Year and the Tigers, as of today, are the best team in baseball.  They are no longer futile.  Not bad for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 1987…

New York Mets

OK, they were an above-.500 team in 2005.  But, since their World Series appearance in 2000, the Mets have gone 82-80 in 2001, 75-86 in 2002, 66-95 in 2003, 71-91 in 2004, and 82-80 in 2005.  That’s 56 games under .500 since the beginning of 2001 (not including this season, of course).

Those of us in the New York area enjoy laughing at the Mets misfortunes when it comes to signing free agents or making trades.  The Scott Kazmir trade to Tampa Bay was a joke.  The signings over the years of has-beens such as Mo Vaughn and Scott Erickson, and the acquisitions of guys like Kaz Ishii and Victor Zambrano have made me smile (me being a Yankee fan and all).  How about the closers?  How did Armando Benitez work out?  Braden Looper?  Yep…exactly.

You want another misfortune that only happens to the Mets?  Out of the players signed from Japan – Ichiro and Hideki Matsui, among others – the Mets overpay for Kaz Matsui, a player whose overseas skills didn’t translate to U.S. baseball.  This only happens to the Mets.

They too are futile no more.  The future is now, with Jose Reyes and David Wright leading the way.  GM Omar Minaya has transformed this team into the talk of the National League, with signings such as Carlos Delgado, Paul LoDuca, and Billy Wagner.  The Mets should be perennial playoff contenders, seeing as how the NL East is pretty bad.  But the Mets would trump a competitive NL East this year, and the best is still yet to come for these guys.

Cincinnati Reds

The bumbling Reds haven’t had a winning season since 2000, when they finished 85-77, good for second place in the NL Central.  Their best winning percentage since then has been .481 (78-84), accomplished during the 2002 season.  Talents such as Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn, Sean Casey (now a Pirate) and Austin Kearns (now a National) have been wasted due to a lack of strong starting pitching and a bullpen that a senior citizen could hit a homer off of.

Hopefully, for Reds fans, those days are gone.  Currently, the Reds are 49-44, with a 4-game winning streak helping that record along.  Guys like Griffey and Dunn are hitting well.  The starting rotation, led by Bronson Arroyo, is surpassing their meek totals from the previous years.

The bullpen, which has been the problem spot for the 2006 season, has been upgraded over the past few weeks.  Former Mariner Eddie Guardado is now the team’s closer, while Gary Majewski and Bill Bray have been added from Washington to help improve the relief corps.  Let’s see if the Reds can keep up their winning ways and avoid the futility labels.

NFL

Cincinnati Bengals

With the Cincinnati baseball team apparently on the way up, the Cincinnati football team is already there.  After being perennial cellar dwellers in the AFC for the better part of the past decade, the Bengals have been climbing to respectability.  The 2003 and 2004 seasons saw the Bengals reach an 8-8 record both times.  Then, in 2005, they broke through.

Under the leadership of quarterback Carson Palmer, the Bengals finished 11-5, good for first place in the AFC North.  Unfortunately, the eventual Super Bowl champion Steelers would knock Palmer (literally) and the Bengals out of the playoffs.

However, coach Marvin Lewis seems to have a grasp on this winning stuff.  Palmer should be ready for the start of next season, Chad Johnson should continue to score touchdowns and taunt the opposition (though dances are now prohibited), and Rudi Johnson should continue to gain yards on the ground.

This team isn’t the “Bungles” anymore.

Washington Redskins

Before the 2005 season, the last time the Redskins had made the playoffs was 1999, when they went 10-6 under then-coach Norv Turner.  Between 2000 and 2004, the ‘Skins went 34-46 as coaches Terry Robiskie, Marty Schottenheimer, and Steve Spurrier couldn’t right the sinking ship.  Even Joe Gibbs suffered through a 6-10 season in his first year back as head coach in 2004.

The 2005 saw the Redskins climb back into respectability…and a playoff spot.  They finished 10-6, successfully grabbing one of the two wild card spots in the NFC.  The Redskins would defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the playoffs; however, they would lose to the eventual NFC champs, the Seattle Seahawks, in the divisional playoffs.

Quarterback Mark Brunell had his best season since 2001, and he set his career high in touchdown passes with 23.  Running back Clinton Portis would rush for over 1,500 yards and Santana Moss would sparkle in his first season in the nation’s capital, piling up close to 1,500 receiving yards to go along with 84 receptions.

If Gibbs continues to bring his knowledge to the sidelines, Portis continues to put up big numbers, and Brunell continues to throw the ball to Moss every chance he gets, the Redskins could be contenders in the tight NFC East for a couple of years.

NBA

Los Angeles Clippers

If you wanted the pinnacle of futility over the past decade or so, you didn’t have to look any further than the Los Angeles Clippers.  They hadn’t had a record of .500 or better since 1992.  They hadn’t made the playoffs since 1997, a year in which they finished 36-46, yet still finished 5th in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference.  The Clippers were synonymous with futility.  Well, not anymore.

The 2005-06 season saw the Clippers finish 47-35 (their best finish since the 74-75 season), good for 2nd place in the Pacific Division and 6th in the Western Conference.  The basketball world seemed to be in shock.  Since when are the Clippers any good?!  Success would continue in the playoffs, as the Clippers knocked off the Denver Nuggets in the first round before being ousted in 7 games by the Phoenix Suns in round 2.

Led by MVP candidate Elton Brand (24.7 PPG, 10.0 RPG), Corey Maggette (17.8 PPG), and Sam Cassell (17.2 PPG), the Clippers climbed back into the ranks of respectability.  Here’s hoping those perennial underdogs can keep up their winning ways…

Cleveland Cavaliers

This is another team that finished over .500 the year before, but missing the playoffs in 2004-05 helped them make this column.  Before the 2005-06 season, the last time the Cavs had made the playoffs was in the 1997-98 season, when they lost in the first round to the Indiana Pacers.

With LeBron James in his third season, the Cavs finally turned their misfortunes around into a 50-32 record, good for second place in the Central Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference.  The Cavs would dispose of the Washington Wizards in six games before losing in seven games to the Detroit Pistons in the second round.

King James averaged 31.4 points per game, while Zydrunas Ilgauskas tallied 15.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.  With James resigning with the Cavs during this offseason, the Cavs could be in good shape for years to come.

NHL

New York Rangers

The Broadway Blueshirts have fared much like the New York Mets (see above): they have overpaid for players and have seen very little improvement in the standings.  Despite having players such as Pavel Bure, Eric Lindros, Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, and Theo Fleury, the Rangers still found themselves at the bottom of the Atlantic Divison in the Eastern Conference.  The post-lockout 2005-06 season changed all that.

Jaromir Jagr tallied 123 points in helping the Rangers to a 44-26-12 record under new coach Tom Renney.  Martin Straka would accumulate 76 points in his first season in New York, while rookie winger Petr Prucha (47 PTS, including 30 goals) and rookie goaltender Hendrik Lundqvist (30 wins, 2.18 GAA) would also help lead the Rangers to their first playoff appearance since the 1996-97 season.

The Rangers finally made New York hockey fans proud, even though the playoff appearance was brief…they got swept by the New Jersey Devils in the first round.  With youngsters such as Prucha and Lundqvist to build around, the Rangers might be sticking around for a little while.

Buffalo Sabres

My Buffalo Sabres had very little expectations coming into the 2005-06 season.  They were one of the small-market NHL teams that had lost more than they had gained during the previous offseason.  Along with teams like the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes, the Sabres were thought to have been cellar dwellers for another season.  Guess again.

Under the leadership of head coach Lindy Ruff, the eventual Jack Adams Trophy winner for top coach, the Sabres would make the playoffs for the first time since the 2000-01 season, compiling a record of 52-24-6.  A lineup full of young talent, from goalie Ryan Miller to wingers Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, and Paul Gaustad, helped the Sabres set team records for wins in a season and road wins in a season.  One cannot forget the “veterans” (they are under 30 years of age) such as Daniel Briere, Chris Drury, and Maxim Afinogenov, either.

The Sabres would defeat the Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators in the playoffs before losing to the pesky Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals.  However, with the young talent on this team, there’s no reason this team can’t stay competitive for the next several years…unless they can’t resign the players they need to.

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Through drafts and trades, teams can become better over the years.  There might be consistent dark clouds for some teams, but for most of those teams, those clouds only stick around temporarily.

Sports teams have their ups and downs.  For one five year stretch, they can’t buy a win.  In another five year stretch, they are unbeatable.  That’s sports – one moment you’re on top of the world, and the next you’re trying to claw your way back to respectability.

With the aforementioned teams finally breaking through (or so it would seem), a new class of teams are making their way into the upper tier of their respective sports.  Who knows what previously futile teams will be in the playoffs next year?  Stay tuned…