By 9:17 Pacific time Saturday night, it will have been a full two weeks since shortstop Mookie Betts – a converted right fielder, remember – turned the double play that ended a World Series for the ages and brought Los Angeles yet another championship parade.
Those do not get old, especially when you’ve been deprived of a couple of them as this region was in 2020. And for all of the grousing from the rest of the country about how the COVID-19 season championships of the Lakers and Dodgers were somehow illegitimate – and they weren’t, since everyone else played by the same rules and under the same circumstances – this factor was likely overlooked: Those titles began a run of championships for L.A. and Southern California that are so far unmatched in the history of pro sports in this region.
When the haters start to hate, hit ’em with these numbers:
In the first six years of the 2020s, L.A. has seven championships in the six major professional sports (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS and WNBA, and just imagine if the Sparks ever get their act together again). That’s three for the Dodgers, one for the Lakers, a Super Bowl championship for the Rams, and one MLS Cup apiece for LAFC and the Galaxy.
The next most successful cities in this decade so far: Las Vegas (a Stanley Cup for the Golden Knights, three WNBA titles for the Aces), and Tampa Bay (one Lombardi Trophy for the Bucs, two Stanley Cups for the Lightning, but nothing since 2022).
New York has two championships in this decade – an MLS Cup by NYCFC (2021) and a WNBA title for the Liberty (’24). As for Boston and the New England region, which attempted to crown itself the sports capital of America during the previous decade? One championship … although if you care about the Lakers, the Celtics’ tie-breaking banner No. 18 in 2024 did sting a bit.
But let’s look at the bigger picture: Los Angeles and Southern California have been major league since 1946, when Dan Reeves brought the Rams here from Cleveland. In the 80 years of professional sports since, this region has won 37 championships in those six sports. Of those, 24 have come in this century.
(We’ll have mercy on the rest of the country and refrain from also emphasizing our region’s 236 college national championships, not just football and men’s basketball and not all achieved by USC and UCLA.)
Oh, and add two soccer championships in leagues that no longer exist to make it 39.
The United Soccer Association brought full teams from overseas for its start-up season in the summer of 1967. The Jack Kent Cooke-owned L.A. Wolves – England’s Wolverhampton club in what is now the Premier League – defeated the Washington Whips (represented by Scotland’s Aberdeen club) to win the league title. A more conventionally assembled team, the L.A. Aztecs, won the North American Soccer League championship in 1974.
The total, between college and pro: 275 and counting. Haters, think hard before you scoff.
Seven championships in the major sports in almost six calendar years is a record-breaking pace in this region. When we compiled the overall list of titles in April 2000 – by way of full disclosure, it was a device to fill space in a pandemic-era section when no events were taking place – the 2000-09 decade was the high point with 10 titles, four by the Lakers. SoCal teams won eight from 1980-89 (with five by the Lakers, two by the Dodgers) and seven from 2010-19 (including three by the Galaxy and two by the Kings).
With all of that as background, here’s the natural question: Who’s next? Which L.A. or Anaheim franchise will prompt us to throw the next region-wide party or bask in the aura of that team’s success for weeks or months afterward?
How about the Rams? Matthew Stafford, treated with caution during training camp amid fears that back maladies might limit him, is having an MVP-caliber season: A league-leading 25 touchdown passes (and two interceptions) in nine games, the longest touchdown pass in the league this season (an 88-yard hookup with Tutu Atwell against Indianapolis), a 67.1% completion percentage and 114.8 quarterback rating, and at least four touchdowns with no interceptions for three consecutive games.
The 7-2 Rams will be tested Sunday by Seattle, also 7-2. And consider that their two losses were 33-26 at Philadelphia (when a potential game-winning field goal was blocked and returned for a touchdown) and 33-26 to San Francisco in overtime (in which they passed up a game-tying field goal only to have Kyren Williams stuffed at the 1-yard line), a loss they avenged last weekend in Santa Clara. If a spotty kicking game improves, why shouldn’t the Rams be back in Levi’s Stadium playing for a championship Feb. 8?
(I’d put the Chargers in that category as well but for one fatal flaw: It will be a minor miracle if Justin Herbert stays upright all season behind that decimated offensive line.)
But maybe LAFC will beat the Rams to a parade thanks to the calendar. The weird nature of the MLS playoffs – with an international break right in the middle of the postseason – means that downtown L.A.’s team has a 20-day break between their first-round sweep of Austin and the conference semifinal Nov. 22 at Vancouver.
They have Denis Bouanga, whose 26 goals were the best in the league of anyone not named Lionel Messi. And they have forward Son Heung-Min, captain of South Korea’s national team. He has scored 10 goals in his 12 games with LAFC after being acquired from Tottenham Hotspur. And, in response to rumors that he might rejoin that English club on loan after the MLS season ends to stay in shape, he told a Korean TV interviewer:
“I won’t leave LAFC this winter, or ever, while I’m here. I respect this club deeply. As long as I’m wearing this badge, there will be no such thing as a loan or a move. Never.”
The MLS Cup final is Dec. 6, which means LAFC has the first shot at the next trophy.
Who else from our menagerie might work themselves into the conversation? The Ducks, who have shown signs of vibrancy under new coach Joel Quenneville after eight non-playoff seasons? Or the Kings, who keep coming back from third-period deficits?
How about UCLA women’s basketball, 3-0 after knocking off No. 11 North Carolina on Thursday night, ranked third in the AP poll and quite likely better than the team that reached the national semifinal last year? Or how about their USC counterparts? Even with JuJu Watkins sitting out the season in her recovery from a torn ACL, freshman Jazzy Davidson has the No. 8 Women of Troy cooking (and they’ll be tested Saturday night against No. 2 South Carolina).
The Lakers? Ehh … Wednesday night’s monstrosity in Oklahoma City, layered over a drubbing at Atlanta on the first game of their current trip, doesn’t do much for that talk. But it’s a long way from now to springtime, and while the tendency is to anoint the Thunder as the NBA’s budding dynasty, weren’t the pundits saying the same thing about Denver a couple of years ago?
Oh, and there almost certainly will be a team that we’re overlooking, and their response will be, “Oh, really? Watch this!”
After all, in this region we’ve got a deep bench.
jalexander@scng.com