San Diego Living

Alright don't get me wrong, I love San Diego. As far as I am concerned, it is the best city in the world to live in. You could make an argument for New York. You might be able to make me consider Paris, but I have no intention of changing my mind. The weather is always perfect. We love the sunshine, and guess what? We love it when it rains, too! You really can't get it wrong here. The beach is right there (I mean seriously, look to your left, it is right there). People are laid back and friendly. What more could you want?

Well, I am going to field my own rhetorical question here and tell you what more I could want.

Now, I have talked to other people, this isn't just me here. San Diego, despite all of its splendor, may be home to the worst collection of sports franchises in the US (I would have said "in the world" but... Canada...). San Diego has never won a championship in a professional sporting league. That's right I said never. I could count the number of championship game/series appearances on three of the fingers on my left hand. Just to give you a point of reference, since 1923, the New York Yankees (this is one baseball team we are talking about here) have won 16, 403 championships. Note: That is a rough estimate, I might be off a bit on that.

And its not that San Diego has not seen its fair share of talent. Perhaps you have heard of Tony Gwynn, the single greatest Padre in history? Maybe you have heard conversation about LaDainian Tomlinson, record holder for most touchdowns in a season ever? Wouldn't you think that at some point we would catch fire, or a break, and steal just one little championship? I certainly would.

Maybe my view of the Padres and the Chargers has been skewed by my relationship with them. You see, I have only been following San Diego sports since 1999. The funny thing is, the Padres had arguably their best season and playoff run in 1998. Yeah I missed it. And since then, they have accomplished very little, unless you want to count the overall devastation of my faith in them. They have done just a fantastic job there.

As for the Chargers, well I thought that 14-2 season was gonna be it, the end to all my suffering. If it weren't for Troy Brown (and possibly the worst mental mistake i have seen on a football field committed by one Marlon McCree) I have no doubt in my mind that we would all be wearing San Diego Chargers 2006 NFL champion memorabilia. Also, I wouldn't be sitting at my computer whining about the Chargers, and I wouldn't have to ridicule the song by singing the wrong words ("San Diego... STUPID Chargers!!") every time I hear it.

So to summarize those last 2 paragraphs... They have both sucked since I started watching.

Again, don't get me wrong, I love these teams as much as I love the city. I will always be a Chargers fan, until the day that I die. It is something that is hard-wired into my DNA. I will be with them at the highest points of their triumphs, and at the lowest times of their defeats. I know that they always play with integrity (which is more than I can say for other teams... Oh you bet your ass I'm looking at you Oakland!) and I know that no matter how much it hurts, the love I give to them is not unrequited.