Best team you have seen in each sport
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Knicks411
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I remember thinking, with no real evidence other than the Braves had done it to the Giants the year before, that the Braves would run them down by the end of the year.
Just looking at their BB ref page, not one player on that team who was over 30 got even 100 PA. Jeff Fassero made 21 starts for them, he was 31, and the only guy over the age of 30 (hell, the only guy older than 28) who threw a pitch for them that year.
jncuse
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I am biased as I was an Expos fan... and I put them as the best team I "saw" only because I saw them play live probably about 50 times between 1992 and 1994 as that team grew,
That includes the Cliff Floyd homer off Greg Maddux on a memorable weekday afternoon game that remains in Expos fans lore. So being biased, I think we had the Braves number that year.
1994 was also a bit of a transition time for the Braves -- Ron Gant player to those early 90's teams was gone/ Terry Pendleton was in a rapid decline. Javy Lopez was not good as a rookie catcher. The Jones had yet to arrive. None of Glavine, Avery or Smoltz were particularly great that year (Of course that could be a reason they could have turned it around).
I would have just liked to see that team grow in 1994 and stick together for a few years. Instead, the managing partner who was told by a few other partners that he would never see a cent again and would be personally on the hook for all losses, became paranoid of suffering losses as the team entered arb years, and decided to dump 4 all stars, in 3 of the worst trades I have ever seen.
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the '85 bears would have handed the Cowboys of 92 their heads. Were you alive to see that defense?
Knicks411
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Also, Larry Walker was a FA that season; I have it in my head that the Expos decided not to move him before the trade deadline because they wanted to try and make a playoff run, and then of course, there were no playoffs.
Looked up a few more guys, Alou left as a FA after 96. They traded Grissom, who was ok, the next year. Ditto Wetteland and Ken Hill.
I was 2, the Cowboys had a much better offense, would have been a good hypothetical game.
OrangeDW
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Dodgers fan who went every season back then to watch them play the Expos. I loved going to games there and going to that city. So I always kinda followed the Expos as a secondary team too. They always had some fun players to watch. He never became as good as some thought he would, but I always liked Rondell White.
It's too bad what happened. Have to think if the Expos won it all, they wouldn't have gutted their team and attendance would've gotten better.
If they could've kept that core together for awhile and then had Vladimir Guerrero join them a few years later? They would've had a likely contender for years.
I remember one of the years that I was up there, they had sketches of the future stadium they wanted to build. I was really hoping it would happen.
OrangeDW
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I like it! The best versions of my favorite teams that I've seen:
2000 Lakers - 65 wins and a title. Hard to argue with that. I remember the very end of showtime...88 and 89. I think peak Shaq and almost peak Kobe tops 88. Shaq was just a monster in '00. His best overall season, and one of the best seasons I've seen a bball player have. Maybe the best.
2017 Dodgers - I'm jumping the gun as Ive never seen them have a team play this well for this long. Literally my first baseball memory where I knew what I was watching was the '88 Dodgers but I was so young and thought they would win it every year, and really they were an underdog and improbable champ. The Mets and A's had way better teams. 2013 Dodgers, otherwise...they had an incredible second half of the season.
1990 Giants - the pre-Plaxico shooting himself 2008 Giants were the best Giants team I've seen for 3/4 of a season, but that flamed out in the first playoff game so I can't count it. They were blowing teams out and had a great defense and offense, and I was sold that we were repeating. 1990 went 13-3 and won it all. Got the lead, grinded out long, clock eating drives, and then just hammered other teams offenses with a historically underrated D. Nobody mentions them with the All time greats, but they held shut teams down all year and held the going for a 3 peat Niners to 13 and the high powered Bills to 19. Not a ton of offensive highlights or flashy victories on the scoreboard, but devastingly effective in getting W's. Sadly too young to really remember and appreciate 86, but those late era Parcells teams raised me on football and I wouldn't have it any other way. Best football games ever to watch. They aren't quite the same anymore.
1994 Rangers - No debate here. They were great all year, loaded up with trades for the playoff run, and then won the cup. I'm not as big of a hockey fan anymore, but that Cup run was absolutely incredible. I was so invested back then.
2003 Cuse hoops - I believe '89 was better, but the whole era was stronger so most top programs were better then. I gotta go with the champs. Regardless, they were so much fun to watch play all year. Offensively we had all the pieces: shooters, slashers, post players, ball handlers, passers...and Melo who was all of the above.
1992 Cuse Football. We were so good that year. And then the McNabb era came a few years later. I remember my uncle, right in the heart of the McNabb era, saying something like "Cuse has had some great teams and theyre good now but I don't think they'll ever get to a Notre Dame level where they're good every year." I was livid and cut him off like "We're better than Notre Dame now!", thinking they were an old washed up program and that Cuse was cutting edge and would keep it going and basically be good forever going forward. SMH. Damn, damn, damn.
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jncuse
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Many mentions of the 2017 Dodgers in this thread... and justifiably so given their record at the time. A slide was always a possibility to fall of their tremendous pace. Maybe an 8-12 or 9-11 record over a 20 game period before the season was out.
Hard to believe what is happening now. An 11 game losing streak and a 1-16 record over the past 17 games. Unbelievable.
Hard to believe what is happening now. An 11 game losing streak and a 1-16 record over the past 17 games. Unbelievable.
Knicks411
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I'd love to know the worst 20 game stretch for a 100 win team
OrangeDW
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It defies all logic. Whenever they hit, they don't get the pitching. Whenever they get the pitching, they don't hit. Both the rotation and lineup are fairly stacked. When both perform well enough, the bullpen gets rocked. It's unreal. We'll see what they're made of. Gotta be in their heads now.
donniesyracuse
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They didn't even win their division.
But they did something that no team in MLB has ever done while breaking an 86 year old curse.
donniesyracuse
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That is all wonderful, but that is really the greatest baseball team you have ever witnessed?
Capt. Tuttle
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This is it, I think
They did win 8 straight when it mattered however.
donniesyracuse
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Again, that is wonderful. I can understand why that team would be someone's favorite, but in terms of greatness, I'm not sure that they are even better than the 2007 and 2013 teams.
Oh, they aren't. I wasn't arguing for them to be one of the great teams ever. I will say this, they could have kept playing the Cards straight to X-mas and never lost to them. Right handed pitchers that threw 87 mph fastballs weren't going to beat the Red Sox or the Yanks
Two HOF pitchers at the front of their rotation, the best 3/4 combination with Ortiz and Ramirez that has played in the last few generations. Beat the greatest closer in history two nights in a row and crushed a strong NYY team on their home turf in games six and seven with everything on the line. Also went 7-0 against LAA and StL. But I suppose the Seattle Mariners were better in 2001, right?
Shilling isn't in the Hall of Fame. It's tough to claim greatness with a wild card team. Now, if they had the team they had after the all-star break, they win the East. But the first half of the season does count when we are determining the greatest team of our lifetime. They had that same 3 4 hitters in '07. And they had a in his prime Beckett. Hard to say that '04 was better than '07
