Which city is a better sports town, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia? I think the numbers speak for themselves

This past weekend saw the Phillies in town to take on the Pirates in the first series of the 2012 baseball season. The Flyers were also in Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins Saturday afternoon in a season finale that was more a preview of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs that will commence this Wednesday night at the Consol Energy Center.

It was nice to see the Penguins take out the Flyers Saturday, even if the game was meaningless in the standings.

It was also pretty satisfying to see the Pirates take two out of three from the Phillies at PNC over the weekend for the second year in a row.

The reason why the weekend results were so rewarding for me is because of how Philadelphia fans act. Flyers and Phillies fans were everywhere in town this weekend, and from what I understand, they were acting like the stereotypical Philadelphia fans. In other words, they were loud, obnoxious and entitled.

The entitled part about Philadelphia fans has always made me chuckle a bit because I've been following sports since a 7 year old in 1980, and in that entire time, the City of Philadelphia has been able to truly claim "we're number one!" in a major professional sport three times--two World Series titles and an NBA crown.

That's not a lot of championships for a city full of fans who act the way those people do.

In fact, for all of the bravado and boasts, Philadelphia fans had a 25 year drought in the World Championship department. The 76ers won the NBA Finals in 1983, and that was the last title until the Phillies defeated the Tampa Rays in the 2008 World Series.

I'm not saying three world titles isn't impressive, but it's not really that great for a city that claims to be on par with the New Yorks, Chicagos, Bostons and LAs of the sports world.

And it's not as if Philadelphia teams haven't had a chance to win more titles. The Flyers have been in five Stanley Cup Finals since the '79-'80 season, but they've come up short each time; you have to go back to the "Broad Street Bullies" days of the mid-70's to find the last time the Flyers were able to parade around the ice with the Stanley Cup in hand. The Eagles made Super Bowl XV in 1980 and Super Bowl XXXIX in 2004 but lost both, and you have to go back to 1960 to find the last NFL Championship for the City of Brotherly Love. The 76ers have been to the NBA Finals four times, but they only have the one title. And, of course, the Phillies have been to the World Series five times since 1980 and have won two titles.

If my math is correct, that's 16 finals appearances since 1980 and only three titles. It's not a very good percentage.

In that same time span, New York area teams have won 15 championships, Boston teams have won 10, Chicago teams have claimed eight World titles, and Los Angeles area teams have boasted 14 titles since 1980.

If you're a Philadelphia fan, you might think that's unfair. The New York metro area, for example, has two baseball teams to draw from, two football teams, two hockey teams (three if you count the New Jersey Devils), and an NBA team (two if you count the New Jersey Nets).

Okay, fair enough, but the Spurs have won four NBA Championships since 1999, and they're the only major professional sports team in San Antonio, Texas.

Speaking of having teams to draw from, as a fan who comes from a city with only three professional sports teams, I'm proud to say that the City of Pittsburgh has been able to claim seven World titles since October of 1979 when the Pirates defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series (yes, I know, it's probably unfair to dip into the late 70's, but what the hell. I like to play dirty). Even if you take away the '79 World Series and the Steelers Super Bowl XIV title following the '79 season, Pittsburgh still has claimed five World Championships to Philadelphia's three over the past three-plus decades--the Penguins have won three Stanley Cups and the Steelers have won two Super Bowls.

I'm not saying Philadelphia isn't a great sports town, and 16 championship appearances in three decades is something to be proud of. But if you're going to act obnoxious and entitled, realize that people are going to give you crap over just winning the three championships.

Also, next time you want to boast about being the equals to the New Yorks and LAs of the sports world, remember that you're not even the most successful sports town in the state of Pennsylvania.