Seattle-- A "Loser" Sports Town?

In conversations this afternoon about possible Super Bowl teams, a comment from one respondent caught my attention when he called Seattle a "...wet, soggy loser" of a sports town; followed by general denigrations of the pro teams in Seattle. I absolutely HAD to defend my hometown, so I wrote up the following response...

"(Respondent), You need to get your history straight. Seattle had a hugely successful minor league club for decades called the Rainiers who played at Sicks Stadium. They were replaced by the Seattle Pilots, a MLB club whose owners moved them after one and a half seasons to become the Milwaukee Brewers. The Mariners came to be from the litigation that followed the sudden departure of the Pilots. The Mariners struggled, to be sure. But they fostered future HoFers Griffey, Jr, Randy Johnson, Ichiro Suzuki, HoF Deserving Edgar Martinez and possibly, depending on steroid use, Alex Rodriguez.
In 2001 the Mariners won 116 games to tie the record for most wins in a season. For three years they led the leauge in attendance, topping three million each year.
Sure the team has struggled. So what? They are far from losers, as you claim.

The Seattle Supersonics played for the NBA Championship in back to back years in the late 70's , winning the league title in 1978. They were coached for years by Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkins. They competed at the top of the league for years, and their last attempt at the NBA title was stopped by Chicago. Then, Clay Bennett, the college buddy of Commish Stern came riding into town with grandiose promises of winning, all while secretly working to move the team from the then 13th largest market to the dead-last smallest market in ALL of pro sports. So tell me just how the Sonics are "losers."

The Seattle Seahawks, like every other NFL team in existence, has had their ups and downs. For a "loser" of a team, they sure have passionate, loud and emphatic fans. They came within a few bad officiating calls of winning the Super Bowl--calls which league officials would later admit shouldn't have been made. They consistently are amongst the league leaders in attendance, and have one of the most exciting young QB's in the NFL. As for Hofers, let's only start with Steve Largent and Cortez Kennedy.

And you forgot their other teams... the Seattle Sounders, league leaders in attendance for every year they've existed as a pro-level team, and who played in a bygone era for the NASL Cup twice in the early 80's. No, they haven't won the MLS Cup...yet. But hey, they've only existed in their current form for four seasons.

Then, there's the Seattle Storm of the WNBA. They are consistently amongst the top teams in the league and have won the WNBA title in 2004 and 2010 and have fostered Hofers Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird. But...they're losers, too...right?

Finally, time for a history lesson. In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first US-based team to win the Holy Grail of hockey, Lord Stanley's Cup. But they were also losers, weren't they?

You never know which team from any sports league will win the championship. So please, get off your rocking horse and give the fans--and their teams--in Seattle a little respect. Have an awesome day!"