Seattle Named Most Miserable Sports City of 2009

I was not shocked when I heard the news.

It was so obvious, and I would've been stunned if another city had topped us for the dubious honor. Forbes magazine tagged Seattle as "the most miserable sports city" for 2009.

This is non-debatable.

Breaking it down sport-by-sport, the Seattle fans were treated, or should I say punished, to the worst sports year I've ever heard of.

Starting in the spring of 2008, baseball experts were picking the Seattle Mariners to contend in the American League West. With the addition of Erik Bedard to go along with Felix Hernandez, fans had high hopes.

What they weren't expecting was the first ever 100-loss team with a payroll exceeding $100 million. Erik Bedard was a failure, compared to his previous seasons' numbers along with who was given up for him.

The Mariners failed to reach the postseason for the seventh consecutive season. And when you don't get to the postseason, you have no shot at reaching the World Series. The Seattle Mariners remain one of three teams, along with the Washington Nationals/Montreal Expos and the Texas Rangers, to have never appeared in a World Series.

Not even in 2001, when the Mariners tied the major league record with 116 wins before being ousted by the New York Yankees in the championship series in only five games.

In the middle of this terrible baseball season, Seattle was dealt the biggest blow. On July 2, 2008, the Seattle Supersonics were going to Oklahoma.

The Sonics were Seattle's only major franchise to bring a championship to Seattle—in 1979, when they defeated the Washington Bullets.

In the Sonics' final season in Seattle, they posted their worst-ever regular season mark at 20-62. After Nate McMillan left to coach for Portland, the Sonics went through a carousel of three coaches in three years.

Personally, I blame the former owner, Howard Schultz, for selling this team to Clay Bennett. You can't get mad at Bennett for moving the team. He might have said he wanted to keep the team here, but that was never his intention from the start.

He's considered a god in Oklahoma, and us Seattle fans are left with nothing but hope that the NBA will come back one day. But even if that day ever does come, it won't be the same, because it won't be the Sonics.

After dealing with the loss of the Sonics and living through a day-by-day horror-fest called the Seattle Mariners, it was time for some football. Finally, something that would bring smiles to the faces of fans that had endured so much.

I guess the Seahawks didn't want to break the pattern of bad play.

After four straight division titles, including one Super Bowl appearance, and Mike Holmgren announcing that it would be his final year of coaching with the Seahawks, it seemed like destiny for the Seahawks to make a deep run into the playoffs.

Not exactly. Seattle went 4-12, their second-worst mark in franchise history behind the 1992 Seahawks, who went 2-14 under their leading passer Stan Gelbaugh, as he threw for a whopping 1,300 yards in 10 games.

Along with pro football, two college football programs continued the theme of bad play.

The University of Washington, a team that prides itself on Rose Bowls and national championships, went 0-12.

And Washington State University, considered to be the younger brother of the two schools, went 2-11.

The two schools played each other in their second to last game of the season sporting a combined record of 1-20. ESPN.com featured both these teams on a weekly basis in their bottom 10 poll, which showcases the bottom 10 football teams in the country.

When the two squared off for the Apple Cup in Pullman, Washington on Nov. 22, it was the most competitive game either team had been in all year, because they were both equally so bad.

But I guess the Washington Huskies were just a little worse.

When you add the records of the Mariners (61-101), the Seahawks (4-12), the Huskies (0-12), and the Cougars (2-11), it comes out to 67-136, or a winning percentage of .330. Ouch.

And then, top that off with the loss of the city's oldest professional franchise; there's no comparison.

When writing this, I do not take into account the WNBA or soccer, both of which saw Seattle bring a championship. The WNBA Storm won it all in 2004 and the Seattle Sea Dogs of the famous Continental Indoor Soccer League took home the title in 1997, the league's last of its five year existence.

Atlanta and Buffalo came in second and third, respectively.

You can read the Forbes article online, and it comes with a slide show of the top 10 most miserable cities of 2009.