Isn’t It Time To Change The Name Of The City From Beantown To TITLE TOWN!!
By now most fans have watched SportsCenter or the local sports channel and saw the parade in Boston yesterday. But just in case you missed it or have been traveling for a few days, the Boston Celtics pounded the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night by 39 points for their 17th NBA championship. And yesterday, Thursday June 19, 2008 was the victory parade. GO CELTS!
Boston should NO longer be called Beantown but more like TITLE TOWN since the city now has had six (yes I said six) championship parades in the last seven years. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, the Pats won the Super Bowl in 2002, 2004, and 2005 and the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and 2007.
I am sure hundreds of thousands of people watched the parade on TV or in person. The amazing thing about TITLE TOWN is that the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics are all favored to win their respective championships in the next year or so. All of those teams have GREAT young players who should continue to have success in the next few years.
Congratulations to the Celtics, all of their fans and the city of Boston…I mean TITLE TOWN!
- What do you think of renaming Boston TITLE TOWN?
- Are you rooting against Boston teams because they have recently won so much?
- Isn’t Boston the best sports city in the United States?
- If not what city is?
I look forward to your comments and thoughts.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Merrill- you knew I was going to have to respond to this…..
Boston cannot be TITLE TOWN. That name has already been taken by Green Bay (since the 1960’s when the Packers won 5 NFL titles in 7 years).
I readily send congrats to you and the Celtics. They were the best team in the NBA this year and with all of their titles they can certainly lay claim to being the NBA’s number one franchise.
And don’t worry- Green Bay is not planning to call itself “Beantown” or “the Big Apple” for that matter. They are perfectly content with Titletown and their 12 NFL championships.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Bob,
Appreciate your comments. Yes I knew you would respond once I was told (thanks TA) that the name Title Town was already taken - much to my surprise. I love and watch sports and NEVER heard the Green Bay Packers referred that way.
My hope is that we can share the name and perhaps give a royalty to Green Bay when used!
Merrill
June 20th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Merrill, since Title Town is already taken here is another suggestion. Both the Red Sox and the Celtics beat teams from Los Angeles in the playoffs (the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Los Angeles Lakers) in order to win their current titles. I suggest that Boston be renamed - Tinsel Town. Unlike the folks in Green Bay, Boston is welcomed to keep that name for as long as they want.
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 am
Ed,
I do like the creativity but that doesn’t take the Pats into account. Actually if I had to do it again the blog would have been a contest to rename the town. I still like Title Town and a few Dallas sportscasters (on ESPN radio) referred to Boston like that last week. I guess he didn’t know that Green Bay claimed that years ago.
Thanks.
Merrill
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:51 am
Merrill, I saw a photo of a kid at the parade that read, “9 years old, 6 parades.”
I’ve grown up a huge Sox fan and oddly have a large amount of pride in the pain and suffering I’ve endeared in the past 25 years alone. Is it wrong for me to cringe every time I see a pink Sox hat? Should I be angry that the fan base is growing just because half don’t know who Mike Greenwell, Johnny Pesky, or Bob Stanley are?
So my vote goes to “Vindication City” or “Vengeance-ville”.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:28 am
We don’t need a name in here in Boston. Just a big old grin that comes from years of suffering and now years of satisfaction.
3 down, 1 to go (I’m a Bruins fan too!)
June 25th, 2008 at 9:50 am
It would be difficult to call Boston title town after they choked during the superbowl (which by the way my GIANTS won). Let’s do the math
The Celts (17) Redsox (3) Patriots (3) Bruins (4?) thats 27. Now lets look at NY
Knicks (oh they are horrible but still 2 champion seasons) Rangers (2/3?)
Giants (3) and those Great Yankees (26) total that 33/34 I think NY should be called title town
My numbers may not be accurate but you get the drift.
I am sure MD will have something to say about this
Your bud
M
June 25th, 2008 at 10:11 am
And Mark, you can another 3 NY Championships if you count the Mets and Jets, which not everyone does lately.
Still, i will give Boston its due. It’s very unusual for one city to win Championships in three major sports in such a short period of time. NY did it way back in 69/70, with the Jets, Mets and Knicks, respectively.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Mark/Kevin - you left out the NY Islanders? So NY has even more. Although I really appreciate the history lesson winning titles in 1920 doesn’t mean much to me ……….. but it sounds like it does to you….
To me and millions of other fans of Boston - it is Title Town! By the way if NY is so great, terrific why are the Yankees not drawing on the road anymore? Don’t laugh but Kansas City, Tampa bay and many others have better road attendance than the great NY Yankees.
I look forward to reading your response.
Merrill
June 25th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I guess the Islanders are technically part of the NY Metro area, but I don’t look at them as a core NYC team. If you’re going to include the Islanders’ 4 Stanley Cups, you might as well add the Devils 3 Cups. So to give your idea of Boston domination some credence, we won’t even include these additional 7 championships.
One thing I will remind you Merrill is that nothing is as transient as professional sporting success (unless, of course, you have a $182 million dollar payroll). So enjoy it, there were a lot of Boston fans back around 1918 who thought winning championships was easy. And as I understand, they went into a bit of a dry spell.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Kevin,
yes you are right the city of Boston and specifically the Red Sox didn’t win alot of trophies for many years. When most people including myself think baseball - I do think of the Yankees first they are the best baseball franchise of all-time - it pains me but I said it. But you must admit when the average person think about basketball they would think about the Celtics first.
One other point to share is the fact that the NY area is made up of 8 sports teams - twice as many as Boston has. so we take away some of their championships to even the discussion.
The bottom line is we both LOVE our teams - which makes being a fan so great and makes the rivalries fantastic.
Thanks for your perspective.
Merrill
June 25th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Merrill…
6 titles in six and a half years…I like the sound of ‘Bean There…Done That!’
How about the city of ‘RedPatCelts’ or simply ‘The Revolutionary Region of Reknown’???
Uh oh, my mind is now racing…. Make that the N.O.D. The Nation of Domination-Situation Win-Win! Final answer!
Talk to you soon Merrill:)
June 26th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Love the name “Title Town” and the Celts big victory. Certainly the Celts waited a long time for #17, 21 years. They overcame deaths to 2 superstars in Lenny Bias and Reggie Lewis plus career-ending injuries to Bird, McHale, and Walton. Boston is the hottest sports ton no doubt, but where are the Bruins? Lots of pressure for a Stanley Cup there.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
WOW!!!!
Bask in your glory now. Do I think the Celts, Pats and Sox will repeat again in their next seasons ? NO!!
I think the Sox will have trouble getting into the WS and if they do I truly believe this is the Year of the CUBS. At least I hope so for their fans. As I rooted for the Sox in 2004 , I’m rooting for the Cubs if the Mets don’t get in.
The Celts will be challenged in the East by Cleveland and I have to believe that the Spurs and the Lakers will get better.
I certainly can see the Pats being favored, but let’s not forget the Colts and the Giants and Dallas if they do get in the SB.
That’s why we love sports. Can debate it for ever and of course as good researchers can make the numbers sing.
Joe
June 30th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
OK folks, I’m back from vacation and we all know that no blog about Boston is official until Boston Bob weighs in.
For me “Title Town” is OK, but it sounds like a chain of discount mortgage brokerages (Come on down to Title Town today and we’ll fix you up…). I prefer the title City of Champions (which is the title of a Boston DVD I have in my library).
For me, the great thing about the Championships is the way they were achieved: by playing as a team and going for the common good. The Patriots set the tone in 2001 when they chose to be introduced as a team and not as individual players at the Super-bowl. The Red Sox jokingly referred to themselves as “a bunch of idiots”, but they were a bunch that played together as one, focused on a common goal and they won the World Series twice. The Celts did the same.
The unique thing about the current Boston teams as observed by my fellow UMASS Alum Jack Welch is that the different successes feed off of each other, creating friendly competition and a desire to win. That’s something that you fans from the other areas don’t get. Sure you can add up the number of titles over the years, but they were individual titles and they don’t have the synergy that we are currently seeing in Boston (and it is spreading west UMASS played for 3 National Titles last year).
As a fan of the Boston teams, there’s really only two words to describe it: “Wicked Pissah!”.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:28 am
I thought I would share the comments of Tim Jones a writer for the St Petersburg Times - LOTS OF FOLKS ARE STARTING TO DISLIKE THE BOSTON SPORTS SCENE!
10 reasons to hate the Red Sox
By Tom Jones, Times Staff Writer
Published Monday, June 30, 2008 7:37 PM
——————————————————————————–
The fans
Red Sox Nation? They weren’t even known as “Red Sox Nation” until they started winning championships, which in case New Englanders forget (and it seems they have) was only a few years ago. Before 2004, Red Sox fans were like Cubs fans: lovable losers. You felt sorry for them when Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner and Aaron Boone happened. Then they won a World Series and then another and now they, including all the bandwagon jumpers, parade around like they invented the game. They were more fun — and a whole lot classier — when they were cursed.
Bill Buckner
Yeah, Red Sox fans are all peachy with Bill Buckner, the supposed goat of the 1986 World Series, these days. But from 1986 until the Red Sox won in 2004? They treated Buckner like dirt, running him out of town and making him live in shame all because the Red Sox didn’t have the jam to hold on to a 3-0 lead in Game 7 two nights after Buckner had the audacity to let a grounder skip between his legs.
Manny being Manny
If any other player pulled some of the stunts Manny Ramirez has, he would be considered a troublemaker. But everyone just smiles, shrugs and says, “That’s Manny being Manny,” and that makes it all okay? Try that at work tomorrow. Goof off and when the boss says something, just say, “Hey, that’s Joe being Joe,” and see what happens. Okay, honestly? I used to love Manny, and you can’t deny he is one of the best hitters in the history of the game. But he lost my support when he reportedly shoved the team’s traveling secretary over the weekend for not getting him enough tickets. That’s not Manny being Manny. That’s Manny being a jerk.
It’s a Boston thing
The Patriots, despite their Super Bowl loss to the Giants, still have had football’s best team over the past decade and probably will win the whole thing next season. The Celtics pull a rabbit out of their hats (actually two — Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen) and go from one of the worst teams in the NBA to a record 17th NBA title. The Red Sox have won two World Series in four years and are the favorites again this year. That’s just not fair. No city should have that much fun.
They’re jerks
Think of some of the legendary names in Red Sox history: Ted Williams, Carlton Fisk, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice. Know what two things they have in common? They were all great players. And they were all crotchety, cranky and ornery cusses.
Curt Schilling
I know he’s not around, and, sincerely, we hate to see anyone’s career end on an injury. But …
Shut up. Please. Please shut up. You talk too much. Remember a few years ago when he popped off on Lou Piniella, claiming Piniella no longer knows how the game is played? (This year’s NL Central standings suggest otherwise.) That’s just one of like a million things Schilling, right, has said over the years — to newspaper reporters, on the radio, on TV … in his own blog! I swear, someday a YouTube clip is going to show him rubbing ketchup on that, ahem, bloody sock. Okay, we get it, you had a cut on your foot. They’re rich but act poor
For years, Red Sox fans bellyached about their rivals, the Yankees, and how much money the Yankees would spend on players. Well, you know what? You guys are the Yankees, too. You win championships because you spend money. So don’t act like you’re the organization with all the sharp baseball minds who built through the draft and shrewd waiver-wire pickups with a tiny payroll. That’s the Rays, not you guys.
Oh yeah, sure, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, right, is a genius. It takes real brilliance to recognize that Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell are, uh, pretty good and we should write them a check from a limitless bank account. No, genius is trading away a player like Delmon Young for Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett.
Jason Varitek’s C
Jason Varitek is the Red Sox captain, and he wears a “C” on his uniform. This isn’t hockey. Why is he the only guy in baseball wearing a C? In fact, what does a baseball captain even do? Wearing a “C” is just arrogant. “Hey, look at us, we have a captain.” “Hey, lookie at me. I’m the leader.” The Yankees have a captain, too, but you don’t see Derek Jeter feeling the need to announce to the world that he has a job that has no duties. If you want to lead, then lead. But you don’t have to tell everyone that you lead.
Coco Crisp and Jonathan Papelbon
Don’t get us started on Coco. He starts all the trouble by spiking Akinori Iwamura then has the nerve to storm the mound when James Shields hits him in the leg? Whatever. Everything calms down, everything is evened up then Papelbon, right, runs his mouth about the whole thing not being over. Unless you plan on grabbing a bat and standing in a batter’s box, you probably shouldn’t say anything. And while we’re at it, does Kevin Youkilis have to wet his pants and throw helmets every time he gets called out on strikes or pops up with a runner on third and one out?
They’re good
Bottom line is they have more rings than any team over the past four years. And two more than the Rays. They have Manny and Big Papi banging homers. They have Josh Beckett and Dice-K blowing away hitters. They have Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell hitting gappers and Jacoby Ellsbury stealing bases. And Jonathan Papelbon throwing peas to lock down games. Their manager might be the best in baseball, and, yes, even their kid GM seems to know what he’s doing. Plus, well, they do play in the coolest stadium in sports.
Don’t you just hate that?
July 1st, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Actually, I remember Billy B appearing at Fenway Park in the late 80’s/early 90’s trying to win a place back on the team and getting a standing O from the crowd.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:38 am
Bob,
Actually I remember that as well. It was only a few years back or less. He threw out the first ball at a Sox game and got a huge standing ovation. Unfortunately the fans in new england didn’t treat him or his family that well and as I recall he moved to Idaho.
Merrill
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:03 am
ESPN is actually having a countdown for TitleTown USA
Where is TitleTown USA?
Here are the 20 finalists and dates they are featured on sportscenter.
July 4 Green Bay, Wis.
July 5 Lawrence, Kan.
July 6 Pittsburgh
July 7 Knoxville, Tenn.
July 8 Chapel Hill, N.C.
July 9 Los Angeles
July 10 Palo Alto, Calif.
July 11 Louisville, Ky.
July 12 Chicago
July 13 Boston
July 14 Gainesville, Fla.
July 15 New York
July 16 Valdosta, Ga.
July 17 Detroit
July 18 San Francisco
July 19 Williamsport, Pa.
July 20 Ann Arbor, Mich.
July 21 Columbus, Ohio
July 22 Parkersburg, W.V.
July 23 Massillon, Ohio
Lets see if the winner is Boston, Green Bay or some other place.
Merrill