The North American Sports Almanac: New York Giants

The New York Giants have played in New Jersey since 1976. If that seems like a rather rude way to greet you, it’s by design. Although the Maras and Tisches who have long owned this franchise have always tried to project a more cultured manner, there’s something a little vulgar about a team whose only 21st century titles were more Eli Manning larks than carefully-cultivated championship runs. Things have certainly been tasteless since Tom Coughlin was forced out after being kept on the job a couple two three years too many. Each of Ben McAdoo, Joe Judge and Brian Daboll were more pretender than auteur. Even the primary post-Manning quarterback, Daniel Jones, was a cheap Eli knockoff. This is a team with a lot of history. It’s played in the Polo Grounds, the original Yankee Stadium, and Shea Stadium, for instance. It has one of football’s genuine icons in Lawrence Taylor. Then again, this being the Giants, you might not want to google Taylor’s history. The Giants long to be part of football’s upper crust. Instead, they’re just the Giants. At least they’re not the Jets.

The North American Sports Almanac: Baltimore Orioles

The history of sports in America is now long enough that more of it is forgotten than remembered. The Baltimore Orioles were once the St. Louis Browns. St. Louis, like Philadelphia and Boston, was once a two-team town. Even “back then” the economics of it didn’t really make sense,

The North American Sports Almanac: Charlotte Hornets

When I think of the Charlotte Hornets, I think of T-shirts. Maybe with a giant, funky wasp, or perhaps an airbrushed Alonzo Mourning. Before the internet and social media, we had fewer outlets to express ourselves, and corporate T-shirts were just one of the ways you did it in the

The North American Sports Almanac: The Athletics

Slowly circumnavigating the United States, the “Athletics” are our most vagabond franchise. Originally from the northeast in Philadelphia, there have been waystations in the midwestern plains (Kansas City) and Pacific expanse (Oakland). They plan to soon begin the long journey back eastward with a decades-long residency in Las Vegas’ sun