May 11, 2011

Things have been pretty good for the local teams over the past ten years. The Patriots and Red Sox won a combined five championships between January 2002 and October 2007. After some lean years, the Celtics and Bruins have advanced to the conference semifinals or beyond in three consecutive seasons. All four local pro teams are realistic championship contenders for the first time since the 1980s.

I wanted to quantify the successes and failures of our local teams through the years so I looked at winning percentages and playoff success between 1975 and 2010. FYI: Football and basketball seasons were allocated to the calendar year in which they ended while football seasons were allocated to the year in which they started. Baseball, of course, starts and ends in the same calendar year. Here are the results:

• In terms of regular season winning percentage, the best year was 1976. The four Boston pro teams combined for a winning percentage of .666 that year as the Pats, Celtics and Bruins each won more than 65% of their games. A memorable 1986 was second with an average winning percentage of .658. 2009 came in third with a combined winning percentage of .653. Five of the best eight years since 1975 have come since 2003.



• The worst year for the four Beantown teams was 1997. Boston teams had an average winning percentage of only .415 that year. Only the Patriots finished over .500 that season. The year 2000 was the second worst season (.427) and 1992 was the third worst (.431).



• Three of the four Boston teams finished in first place in their division in a single calendar year only three times in the past thirty years (1976, 1986 and 2009). At least one Boston team finished first in 32 of the last 36 years. The Celtics and Bruins just finished first so 2011 could be the first year where all four teams have finished first.



• During the 1980s, Boston teams advanced to the finals eight times and won three championships (all by the Celtics). Only two teams advanced to the finals in the 1990s (Bruins in 1990 and the Patriots at the end of the 2006 season). Boston advanced to the finals seven times between 2000 and 2009, winning six championships. The only finals loss was the infamous helmet catch Superbowl. The 1980s winning percentage was .593 as compared to .554 for the 2000s and .500 in the 1990s.



• The Red Sox and Bruins were the most consistent teams, finishing above .500 in 29 of 36 seasons between 1975 and 2010. The Bruins finished above .500 in every season between 1967-68 and 2003-04 (37 seasons). Sadly, they only won the Cup in two of those years.