MLB
Nets, Jets, and Mets? Nyet, No One Has Ever Won in New York With Bill de Blasio as Mayor
John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sportscasting in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.
Get to know John Moriello betterPublished14 Oct 2021
Article Highlights:
- Mayor Bill de Blasio will leave without any team NYC winning a title during his tenure
- The New York Giants in 2012 were the last metro-area team to hoist a trophy
- Fiorello La Guardia presided over nine champions from 1934-45
John “Bluto” Blutarsky has nothing on Bill de Blasio. The character played by John Belushi in Animal House famously compiled a 0.0 grade-point average in the 1978 movie. That’s tough to do in any college, even a fictional one, but de Blasio has pulled off an even more amazing feat: He will finish up eight years as mayor of New York City without hosting a victory parade for the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, or any of the metropolitan area’s pro sports franchises.
Sent to office in 2013 and re-elected in 2013, de Blasio will leave in January 2022 without a single local NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, or MLS team bringing home a league championship.
As the New York Post put it, it’s the curse of the Blas-bino.
And while the blame for such a depressing stat lies with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, Knicks czar James Dolan, and pretty much everyone ever associated with the Jets, the futility during de Blasio’s tenure boggles the mind. That’s because every New York mayor beginning with John Hylan a century ago has presided over at least one championship. The list even includes Joseph V. McKee, whose four-month pinch-hit stint in 1932 coincided with Babe Ruth calling his shot as the Yankees swept the Chicago Cubs.
It’s not for lack of opportunity, either. The metropolitan area is loaded with franchises in the major team sports. And they’ve all taken the collar since Eli Manning quarterbacked the Giants over the New England Patriots, 21-17, on Feb. 5, 2012, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. That in itself is interesting, because de Blasio, though he does cheer for the Mets, has been an unabashed supporter of Boston teams over the years despite being a Manhattan native.
Just look at all the misses since de Blasio took office on Jan. 1, 2014:
- The NFL’s Giants and Jets, who reside in New Jersey but forever remain part of the fabric of NYC sports, have produced one winning season apiece and a combined one playoff appearance during the de Blasio era.
- MLB’s Yankees make the playoffs with regularity but have not been to a World Series since 2009. The Mets lost the 2015 World Series to the Kansas City Royals in five games.
- The NBA’s Knicks have barely shown a pulse, and the Nets have not been to a league championship series during de Blasio’s time.
- In the NHL, the Rangers went to a Stanley Cup Final just months after the mayor took office. The Islanders and Devils haven’t managed even that much.
- In the MLS, the two New York City sides have also come up empty.
It adds up to a staggering amount of Big Apple nothingness that surely leaves the locals longing for a return to the days of Rudy Giuliani (the 1994 Rangers and four Yankees teams from 1996-2000) or Michael Bloomberg (the 2008 and ‘12 Giants and the ’09 Yankees.)
For sheer volume of success, however, the pro sports scene in New York was never better than the Fiorello La Guardia era as mayor. From 1934 to ’45, The Rangers won a Stanley Cup, the Giants earned a pair of NFL championships, and the Yankees hoisted six World Series trophies.
So, what does presumptive mayor Eric Adams have to look forward to when he replaces de Blasio at the start of 2022? The Mets’ free-spending new ownership suddenly presents the possibility of a subway World Series, and the Nets rate as contenders even when dealing with the Kyrie Irving drama du jour.
From a sports standpoint, Adams doesn’t have to hit above the Mendoza Line to rate as a success. He just needs to avoid de Blasio’s Blutarsky.
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