WHAT MAKES A DYNASTY?
In sports, a dynasty is described as a team or individual that dominates their sport or league for an extended period of time. Regardless of the sport, everyone loves to hate a dominant team (unless they are 'Your" team of course.). Real-life we have the Yankees over so many seasons, the Boston Celtics of the late 50s and 60s, the Montreal Canadiens of the fifties and more recently the New England Patriots or Golden State Warriors. This history of sports replay is no different, as there have been a number of teams that truly dominated their sport for an extended period.
BASEBALL DYNASTYS
Let's start with baseball where there were quite a number of dynasty's, but perhaps none as dominant as the turn of the century Philadelphia Athletics, who won 15 straight American League Pennants and 8 World Series titles from 1901-15. An outstanding group of pitchers including Rube Waddell (359-129). Chief Bender (300-195), Eddie Plank (320-136), Eddie Cicotte (192-92) and Addie Joss (296-204), who came over from Cleveland for the final 5 titles, paced the A's. Their offensive leaders included Hall of Famers Shoeless Joe Jackson, Honus Wagner and Eddie Collins.
The A's of that era were overlapped by the New York Giants, who starting in 1911 won 12 National League pennants in a 13 year period but only claimed the World Series title in 4 of those years despite being led by future Hall of Famers Rube Marquard (288-148), Jeff Tesreau (227-122) and Dick Rudolph (167-92).
Led by Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Harry Heilmann and Lefty Williams the Tigers won 4 straight World Series crowns between 1922 and 1925 but that pales when compared to the Milwaukee Braves 7 straight World Series (and 8 NL Pennants) in a row beginning in 1954. The Braves of this era had Warren Spahn (253-173), Johnny Antonelli (204-133) and Gene Conley (132-76) - who also appears in the basketball portion- on the mound along with hitters Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Nellie Fox. Aaron would go on to hit 691 homeruns in this replay, which is 4th all-time behind ARod (778), McGwire (757) and Barry Bonds (744). Babe Ruth managed just 647 homers mainly because the game used him as a pitcher much more than he pitched in real-life.
In six straight of those championship seasons the Milwaukee Braves topped the New York Yankees. The Yankees were a hard-luck team when it came to World Series victories in this sim. The Yankees made the playoffs 43 times between 1882-2015 (starting as the Baltimore Orioles in the late 1800's), which is second only to the Athletics 45 post-season appearances, but New York only won the World Series 7 times. The Bronx Bombers period of American League domination started with 1934 when they won the pennant 20 of the next 29 years but again struggled in October as they only claimed 5 World Series titles.
If there is such a thing as a modern day dynasty - obviously it is so much harder to dominate with 30 teams than 16 - it would be the 2000-2003 Montreal Expos of all teams. The Expos won 4 straight National League pennants and 3 World Series titles in that time and they added a fifth pennant in 2005 after the franchise shifted to Washington. They were so dominant from 1999-2004 that they averaged 108 wins a season during that period. Vlad Guerrero and Larry Walker were the offensive catalysts, while Randy Johnson (364-204, 8 CyYoungs), Javier Vasquez (225-122, 2 CyYoungs) and Carl Pavano (150-129) anchored the rotation. Randy Johnson deserves to be talked about more with the 8 Cy Young Awards, a record 4 no-hitters in his career and he is the only man to strikeout as many as 19 batters in a single game. Also the only pitcher to pitch significantly after 1901 and have more wins than Johnson's 364 is Cy Young, who won 456 games but only 162 of those came after the turn of the century.
HOCKEY DYNASTYS
The NHL had several clubs worthy of being considered a dynasty with the greatest ones being the Toronot St.Patricks/Maple Leafs of the 1920's, the Montreal Canadiens of the 1950s and also the late 1990s, along with the late 60s/early 70s New York Rangers. Montreal is the all-time leader in Cup wins with 21, followed by the Rangers at 16 and Toronto at 14 so let's start with the two Montreal dynasty periods.
The early days in this sim, with a draft instead of assigning players to their original organizations, was not kind to the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal won a Cup in 1920 but celebrated just two more titles before the end of WWII. Everything changed in 1946, a few years after the arrival of Maurice Richard. The Rocket won 4 scoring titles in his career and when he retired at the age of 40 in 1962 he was the NHL's all-time leader in goals (669) and points (1310). Richard's name is etched on the Cup 11 times as he helped Montreal win all but one of the 12 Cups they celebrated in an 18 year span beginning in 1946. The pinnacle was 9 year period starting with 1955 when they won it 7 times in 9 years. If Richard was the heart of the Canadiens then Red Kelly was the soul. The legendary defenseman/center was a big part of all 12 Cup wins during that period and would also win a 13th as part of the start of the Rangers dynasty later in the decade. Kelly amazingly won the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman 13 times in his career.
Montreal's other dynasty period was much more recent as the Habs won 5 Cups in a six year span starting with the 1995-96 season. Joe Sakic was the leader of this group, winning 4 Hart Trophy's and claiming the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in each of the 5 Cup winning years. Sakic would go on to win two more Cups with Washington and the Atlanta Thrashers late in his career. Sakic also remains the NHL's all-time leader in career playoff points with 322 in 268 games. His 268 post-season games are also tops, shattering Gordie Howe's old record of 231.
Toronto hasn't won a Cup since 1954 in this sim so their drought is even longer than the real life wait since 1967 but the franchise was the class of the NHL in it's infancy. Toronto celebrated 10 Cup wins in a 12 year span stretch from 1920-21 to 1931-32. Howie Morenz, who won 6 league MVP awards during that span was a key cog as was goaltender Roy 'Shrimp' Worters, who replaced George Hainsworth as the starter after the first four titles. On defense, Toronto had Hall of Famer Hap Day, who was named the league's top rearguard 7 times in his career and played a starring role in all 10 Cup victories.
Starting with the 1965-66 season, the New York Rangers won 6 Cups over 8 seasons. Their star-studded lineup featured Gordie Howe, Frank Mahovlich, Ken Hodge, Danny Grant and Dennis Hull with Gilles Villemure being joined by first Terry Sawchuk and later Gary Smith in the crease.
A late entry is the 2014-16 Minnesota Wild who won 3 straight Stanley Cups in the midst of 5 straight seasons with at least 112 points. They had the league's best goaltender during that time in Tukka Rask along with Brandon Saad, who averaged 90 points a season during the 3 Cup years.
FOOTBALL DYNASTYS
The most successful franchise in the NFL is also one of it's oldest in the Chicago Bears. Born as the Decatur Staleys in 1920, the Bears played second fiddle in their own town to the Chicago Cardinals in the 1920's but have won 12 NFL titles including the first Super Bowl and 5 Super Bowls in total - 1966, 1977, 1983, 1988 and 1993. Tied for second on the list of titles are the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts with 7 each. The Steelers can count 3 Vince Lombardi Trophy's among their seven NFL titles including the 2011 game when their quarterback Eli Manning was named Super Bowl MVP. All seven of the Colts titles came before the Super Bowl began in 1966 with 2 of them while the franchise was based in Canton as the Bulldogs and the other 5 in Baltimore.
The New England Patriots have never won a title, going back to their AFL debut as the Boston Patriots in 1960 but leading the way in terms of futility are the Cleveland/Los Angeles/St Louis Rams. The Rams lost back-to-back Super Bowls in the early 2000s and have not won a championship of anytime since 1932, when the then Cleveland Rams were NFL champions. However, this article is focused on dynasty's not bad franchises so let's start with a quick mention of the Duluth Eskimos. The franchise that eventually evolved to be the San Francisco 49ers won 3 straight NFL titles from 1922-24 and took two more in the same decade after the club shifted to be the Frankford Yellow Jackets.
The Philadelphia Eagles of the 1940s won 4 NFL titles in a 6 year span. The Eagles big star at the time was a back from the University of Miami named John Noppenberg. In real life Noppenberg is in the Miami Hurricanes Hall of Fame and then played a couple of seasons for the Steelers and Lions.
In the Super Bowl era perhaps the New Orleans Saints of the early 1990s are the closest thing to a dynasty. The Saints were very good overall with 6 Super Bowl wins but their glory days stretched from 1989-1995 when they won 3 Super Bowls and appeared in a fourth. The Saints were led by Pro Bowl quarterback Billy Joe Toliver, who was MVP of all 3 Super Bowl wins. Seven time Pro Bowl wideout Andre Reed and linebacker Greg Lloyd, a 10-time Pro Bowler, also played a major role in the Saints success.
BASKETBALL DYNASTYS
The NBA of this sim is maybe the one exception as it did not provide much in the way of dynasty material. In fact, only one NBA team won more than 2 consecutive league titles. Before we touch on them here are some of the contenders who came close but ultimately I believe fall short of dynasty status.
The 2002-2007 Dallas Mavericks led by Vince Carter and Zydrunas Ilgauskas won back to back titles in 02 and 03 and followed it up with a third championship in 2007 but I believe that is not quite dynasty worthy. Magic Johnson led the Knicks to back-to-back titles beginning in 1981 but that is hardly unique as Kareem did the same with the Bucks in 1972 and 1973 and Oscar Robertson led the 76ers to wins in 1965 and 66.
In fact Robertson's Philadelphia squad won their two titles against what is considered to be the second best team in NBA history. The St Louis Hawks of the 1960s made 8 straight appearances in the NBA finals starting in 1960. That run began with the arrival of Wilt Chamberlain as the first overall pick in the 1959 draft. Chamberlain would win 3 NBA playoff MVPs as he helped the Hawks to titles in 1960,1962 and 1963. The Hawks won the West Division for 8 straight seasons and made the finals in each of them but came up short in their other 5 attempts, including the two straight losses to Robertson's 76ers.
Chamberlain would retire as the NBA's all-time scoring leader with over 34,000 points but now (2015) sits 8th on that list.
Code:
NBA ALL-TIME POINTS LEADERS
Name Pos Retired Age Exp Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks Rings
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hakeem Olajuwon C 2007 44 22 37191 18932 4297 2376 6143 2
Elvin Hayes PF 1988 42 21 35750 12926 2388 901 2319 1
Dan Issel PF 1986 37 17 35746 10784 2830 1447 756 1
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar C 1986 39 18 35710 11434 2994 1066 2782 2
Spencer Haywood PF 1987 38 19 35228 10816 2570 566 1531 3
Rick Barry SG 1984 40 20 34905 8901 5785 2839 445 2
Dominique Wilkins PF 1999 39 18 34817 10270 4382 2099 1111 0
Wilt Chamberlain C 1976 39 18 34113 11520 3252 1021 3346 3
Oscar Robertson SG 1975 36 16 32114 10258 9453 659 301 2
Shaquille O'Neal C 2010 38 19 31689 13282 3149 671 2655 5
George McGinnis C 1989 38 19 30664 11062 4548 1734 595 1
Larry Bird PF 1997 40 19 29261 10715 6363 1849 739 1
Bob Lanier C 1987 38 18 29091 11699 3350 1022 2019 1
Michael Jordan PF 1999 36 16 28303 7200 6586 2265 729 1
Moses Malone C 1992 37 19 26407 11238 2546 822 1607 3
Make a note of number 10 on that list as Shaq earned a record 5 NBA championship rings and was also the playoff MVP all 5 times. Drafted first overall after Golden State won the draft lottery in 1992, Shaq would lead the Warriors to 5 titles in a 6 year span starting in 1994 including 4 straight from 1996-99 with 3 of those wins over a Miami Heat lineup led by Dikembe Mutombo, Jason Kidd and Chris Webber. Shaq's career is an interesting one as despite the 5 playoff MVP's, 12 all-star game appearances and 2 all-star game MVP's to go with 7 scoring titles, he never won a regular season league MVP award. In fact he was only first team all-league once in his career as he was overshadowed in individual honours by two other Pacific Division rivals in Sacramento's Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan of the Clippers. Olajuwon remains the NBA's all-time scoring leader and won 7 MVP awards but only earned a pair of championship rings. Jordan paled in comparison to real-life in this sim, winning two MVP's and just one title on a mostly bad Clippers franchise.
So Shaq did not get the individual honours of the other two, at least during the regular season, but he is arguably the greatest playoff performer in NBA history and the leader of the game's greatest dynasty.
So that is a quick look at the teams in this sim worthy of being considered a dynasty. But the debate will long continue as to which team was the greatest dynasty in the history of sports replay.
My vote. With over half a dozen future Hall of Famers and a 15 year run of supremacy atop the American League I have to go with the Philadelphia Athletics. Although Shaq's Warriors, the Habs of Richard and Kelly and the Warren Spahn led Braves all deserve serious consideration.