Everyone says that their city is the best sports city in the world, but now I’m going to prove who actually is according to how many championships each team has. It will be between the major professional sports, the leagues include NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL, and MLS.

1. New York

New York is obviously going to have many championships because it’s a big city so in some sports they have two teams. New York has a total of fifty-two championships in the history of each league. In the NBA the New York Knicks have won two championships. The New York Rangers and the New York Islanders of the NHL each have won Lord Stanley’s Cup four times. In the NFL the New York Jets have won the Super Bowl only once, but the New York Giants have won the championship seven times. In MLS, the New York Red Bull has never won a championship. Finally, what New York is known for, the New York Yankees have won the World Series an astonishing twenty-six times. Also, the New York Mets have won it twice, and the former New York Giants have five championships. New York has the most championships but in my opinion they had an unfair advantage by using more than one team in some leagues.

2. Boston

Boston is known for their sports, and in each of the sports there is only one team, unlike New York. Boston has a total of thirty-three championships. The most is the Boston Celtics in the NBA with seventeen championships, and at one point an impressive eight in a row. The Boston Red Sox had a span of not winning a championship in 86 years, but now have a total of seven championships. Also, the Boston Braves had one championship while in Boston. In the NHL, the Boston Bruins have five championships, hoping to add on to that number in the 2009 year. The New England Patriots were known as a dynasty from 2002-2005 winning three Super Bowls. In the MLS the New England Revolution have yet to win a championship. Boston is the city I root for, and this shows that they are one of the best cities to be a sports fan.

3. Chicago

Whenever someone says Chicago and championships, I think of Michael Jordan. The Chicago Bulls, somewhat like the Boston Celtics, had a run of three NBA championships in a row twice to make it a total of six. Like New York, Chicago has two MLB teams, the Cubs with two World Series titles and the White Sox with three. In the NHL, the Chicago Blackhawks are one of the original six teams, but they have only won the Stanley Cup three times. In the NFL the Chicago Bears or most people known them as “Da Bears” have nine championships. Chicago is the first city to have a MLS Cup champion on this list, Chicago Fire has one MLS Cup win. Chicago has a total of twenty-four championships but it is all spread out in each sport unlike Boston with the Celtics, and New York with the Yankees.

4. Detroit

Detroit has a total of twenty-two championships, close to Chicago but not quite. The most is the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL with eleven, the 3^rd most in the NHL. The Detroit Pistons of the NBA have won three championships. The Detroit Tigers of the MLB have four World Series Titles. The Detroit Lions have four NFL championships, but no Super Bowls. There is no team from Detroit in the MLS. Detroit is known as Hockey Town and by the championships it makes it obvious.

5. Los Angeles

Los Angeles comes in at number five with twenty championships, like Chicago it is more spread out throughout the sports, but also like New York they have more than one team for some sports. The LA Lakers have won the NBA championship nine times and the other team the LA Clippers have won zero. The LA Dodgers have six titles and the LA Angels have only one of the MLB. In the NFL the former LA Raiders and the LA Rams each have one championship. The LA Galaxy has two championships in the MLS, and the only team in LA that has yet to win a championship is the LA Kings. But Los Angeles is really known for the Lakers and their highly known players.

Now I think that Boston is the best sports city because they have one team for each sport, they have plenty of history with each of their teams, they have 33 championships, and they have the greatest fans in the world. Now technically New York has the most championships but they use more than one team. If Boston used more than one team then they would have plenty more championship wins than New York. Then Chicago, Detroit, and L.A. are just your average championship cities to me. So if you want to be a fan of a championship city, move to one of these five.

Photo Credit:michaelrighi

Photo Credit:CBW 80

“Bra Boys” could possibly be one the best documentary movies that has been made. The Bra Boys are a group of friends from Maroubra, Australia who love to surf and love to stand up for each other. In Australia they are said to be a gang by the people of Maroubra, but the boys themselves do not believe that they are one.  The Bra Boys started at a surfing club in the 1960’s and as more people joined, the more noticed they got. They get their name from the town that they are from, Maroubra, which is a small suburb outside of Sydney.

The documentary itself is from the viewpoint of the gang members themselves, predominately from the Abberton brother’s point of view. The four brothers are from oldest to youngest: Sunny, Koby, Jai, and Dakota. The gang was started by the Abberton brothers and their friends going and hanging out at the Abberton’s grandmother’s house, which they called Ma. The gang’s first name was not Bra Boys; it was first Ma’s Hell Team. The tagline of the movie is “Blood is Thicker than Water”, which basically is saying that you will always have your family’s back and help them out whenever, and this gang was just a big family. They stood up and fought whenever they needed to and they were good fighters. In 2002, about 160 members were at an event and ended up getting into a brawl with off-duty police officers, and 30 of the police officers ended up injured. The serious part of the documentary was when Jai Abberton was charged with the murder of another surfer by the name of Tory Hines. Jai was eventually acquitted, but his brother Koby was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to a suspended 9 months in jail. After this happening the gang was not happy and they showed it by the protests and riots.

I believe that this is the best documentary because it does not just talk about the gang being a gang and how they do all these violent crimes. The documentary is from the point of view of the gang members and they tell their side of the story. Some of the main members of the gang are the Abberton brothers, Macario De Souza, Johnny Gannon, Richie Vas, Mark Matthews, Jack Kingsley, and many more. The member of the Bra Boys did not even think they were a part of a gang. The way they saw it was being loyal to their best friends and family. Bra Boys is all about respect, loyalty, brotherhood, and surfing as well. I have seen the documentary a number of times and it seems to get better every time that I watch it. I will leave you with my favorite quote of the movie when one of the Bra Boys, Johnny Gannon, is talking about the brawl they got into with the off-duty police officers and he says, “They call us a gang, they call us all these names, and we’re not a gang, it was a fight and you know we won.” This quote just proves that they just stand up for their brothers when they need help. Gang members go around looking for fights and other violent crimes. The Bra Boys fight when they need to stand up for each other.

Although I do understand that making a rink costs a whole bunch of money, time, and space I think it should be done.
The space aspect of it is all set because of the purchase of the land down the street at St. Vincent’s Hospital. The time is not really an issue because it can be built whenever. And I am pretty sure they are building an athletic facility over in that land anyway so why not support the hockey team and throw in a rink? Oh yeah, it cost way too much money to build one and keep it up and running. But if you think about it, at every ice arena you need to pay hourly for the ice. For example at Lake Ave. (Buffone) Arena it is 185 dollars per hour to skate, but if there were a rink that was owned by Worcester Academy then the ice would be free for us. And all that money spent in order to make the rink would be made in the future years from renting the ice out to the community. Once all the money has been made back and seeing how Worcester Academy is a non-profit organization, the money that is coming in from the rink could be used for scholarships towards kids who need financial aid and for kids with athletics, academic, or artistic talent, it could be used towards fixing up buildings and maintenance around the campus, raising salaries for teachers and faculty, new furniture or equipment in some certain buildings…use your imagination. So all in all it would help the school to build a hockey arena in the future.

A new pool, new weight room, new gym, etc. is not technically needed because we have those things. Yes it would be useful to have those facilities because the ones we have now are way too old, but we do not even have a rink of our own now, never mind an old one. This will probably be my biggest problem at Worcester Academy until one is made, and if I become filthy rich in the future, which I hope, I will build one myself for Worcester Academy.

Photo Credit:D’Arcy Norman