In sports, we’re attracted to winners.
They get the most money and the primetime TV slots. Perhaps the biggest reason we’re attracted to winners is because they give what every sports fans seeks: excitement.
Lately I’ve been wondering which city boasts the best combination of head coach/manager between its respective NFL and MLB teams. Players are easy to keep track of, and coaches are fairly well known, too. But it’s interesting to look at which city has a successful NFL head coach and a successful MLB manager.
Twenty-four U.S. cities are home to at least one pro football team and one pro baseball team. New York (four) is the only city to have two professional football teams and two professional baseball teams.
Before I go any further, allow me to point out the reason why I’m focusing only on football and baseball.
The NFL is by far the most popular and wealthy pro sports league there is. Major League Baseball isn’t nearly as popular, but there’s still a deep connection between the sport and its fans. In other words, it might not gross what the NFL does, but fans and networks still show ample interest.
Basketball and hockey, the other two “major” sports, for a sell-out, might draw one-third of a packed baseball park or one-fourth of a packed stadium. Between baseball being our national pastime and football being our current obsession, I think it’s fitting to focus on those sports.
Due to free agency and the NFL’s salary cap, there are so many moving parts when it comes to establishing a successful franchise. The one constant, in most cases, is the coach or manager. They are the ones who, in stable organizations, are given proper opportunities to lead their team toward postseason play and ultimately a championship.
In football, the coach is charged with leading a roster and a coaching staff that is two (or three) times as large as a baseball team. In baseball, the manager has to keep his players focused, day in and day out, for a season in which they play 10 times as many games as a football team does. Though they are different, the jobs of a professional football head coach and a professional baseball manager are difficult, time-consuming, and don’t often yield the reward that their efforts merit.
So which ones are the best? Which coaches consistently win despite roster turnover, injuries, discord, and intense competition within their respective divisions?
You can make a strong case that Baltimore is the best.
Do the numbers back that up? In terms of coaching, is Baltimore the best pro sports city?
Before breaking down the numbers, I can confidently say John Harbaugh and Buck Showalter fit perfectly in Baltimore. They have an inherent drive to be the best and to get the most out of their players. They frequently give credit to everyone else before accepting some of their own. They embody the city’s work ethic. They also welcome support, but don’t depend on it. They don’t seem to care if their methods are popular, because they’re secure in their own beliefs.
What is perhaps most refreshing is the fact that Harbaugh and Showalter genuinely care about their players and fans.
Those are imperative traits to have in a leader, because when circumstances inevitably become challenging, you might not have time to adjust. You might have to go on instinct, intangibles, and experience–qualities that must be earned over time.
Other cities that have top-tier leaders in both sports are Kansas City (Andy Reid, Ned Yost), San Francisco (Jim Tomsula, Bruce Bochy), New York (Tom Coughlin, Joe Girardi), and St. Louis (Jeff Fisher, Mike Matheny). With the exception of Reid and Fisher (who’ve each been the head coach in a Super Bowl), all of these men have won or competed for a world championship within the last six years.
What about other big-time cities, like Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Miami? How do they stack up?
You’re about to find out.
Over the last three regular seasons in the NFL and MLB, there have been 534 games played. In those games, here’s how the bottom five cities rank in terms of combined winning percentage:
- Houston (.373)
- Minnesota (.419)
- Miami (.433)
- Chicago (.435)
- Denver (.453)
Here’s how the top five cities rank in terms of combined winning percentage:
- Baltimore (.566)
- Washington, D.C. (.556)
- St. Louis (.552)
- Detroit (.549)
- Atlanta/Cincinnati (.547)
Since 2012, among all cities that are home to both a NFL team and a MLB team, Baltimore ranks No. 1. While wins and losses don’t tell the whole story, they tell most of it.
Sure, players change teams, and yes, some coaches in these cities have been replaced in the last three years, too. But overall, you can see how Charm City has attracted the best combination of head coach and manager there is in pro football and pro baseball.
So, the next time you disagree with something Harbaugh or Showalter does, take a step back and take a leap of faith. Maybe they have a plan in place that isn’t ready to be revealed yet.
At the very least, they’ve thoroughly earned the benefit of the doubt.
Sources: pro-football-reference.com and baseball-reference.com.
