The City of Champions.

• Author: O'Rourke, Morgan
• Position: PREFACE - Editorial

For Boston sports fans, the past two decades or so have seen an embarrassment of riches. Since 2001, Boston teams in the four major U.S. professional sports--football, baseball, basketball and hockey--have been perennial tide contenders, winning a total of 12 championships and appearing in 10 other league finals. In the 2018 season alone, the Red Sox won their fourth World Series since 2004, the Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl since 2001, and the Celtics and Bruins made respectable playoff runs.

After such sustained success, you might think fans would have become blase about winning, but it wasn't so long ago that Boston sports teams were noted more for their failures. Before their respective 21st century championships, each of these teams had gone decades without a title--indeed, before their fortunes changed in 2004, the Red Sox had infamously not won a World Series since 1918.

So it is understandable that Boston fans still get a little rowdy when it comes to their home teams. Case in point: During the Red Sox's World Series victory parade last October, excited fans bombarded players with celebratory cans of beer. One errant throw even damaged the World Series trophy. Thankfully, the damage was minor and the trophy...