Athletic Celibacy, Pt. 1

Sometimes, I am a statistics geek. You see, while frozen within the permafrost of our national health insurance bureaucracy (again), recovering from the death of a parent and in the midst of a significant surgical procedure, I resort to the comfort of statistics and the clarity and definition they provide. 

You, the dear reader of The Square Peg, are the happy beneficiary.

Now that the Chicago Cubs have relinquished their stranglehold on two of professional sport's most-undesirable records, who is most-likely to break them?

In the first list, we see the ten franchises most overdue to appear in their sport's championship series or game, be it the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals or the Stanley Cup.

The first figure is the number of seasons since a franchise's last appearance in their respective sport's championship series or game. The number in parenthesis is the year of their last appearance.

Figures are current through each sport's most-recently completed season.

Sacramento Kings NBA 65 (1951)

Detroit Lions NFL 58 (1957)

Atlanta Hawks NBA 55 (1961)

Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 49 (1967)

New York Jets NFL 47 (1968)

Kansas City Chiefs NFL 46 (1969)

St. Louis Blues NHL 46 (1970)

Milwaukee Bucks NBA 42 (1974)

Minnesota Vikings NFL 39 (1976)

Washington Wizards NBA 37 (1979)

Pittsburgh Pirates MLB 37 (1979)

Milwaukee Brewers MLB 34 (1982)

Honorable mentions:

Baltimore Orioles MLB 33 (1983)

New York Islanders NHL 32 (1984)

Miami Dolphins NFL 31 (1984)

And here are the ten teams most overdue to win a championship.

The first figure is the number of seasons since their last title, while the number in parenthesis is the year in which they won it.

Again, figures are current through each sport's most-recently completed season.

Cleveland Indians MLB 68 (1948)

Arizona Cardinals NFL 68 (1947)

Sacramento Kings NBA 65 (1951)

Detroit Lions NFL 58 (1957)

Atlanta Hawks NBA 58 (1958)

Philadelphia Eagles NFL 55 (1960)

Tennessee Titans NFL 54 (1961)

San Diego Chargers NFL 52 (1963)

Buffalo Bills NFL 50 (1965)

Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 49 (1967)

New York Jets NFL 47 (1968)

Kansas City Chiefs NFL 46 (1969)

Honorable mentions:

Milwaukee Bucks NBA 45 (1971)

New York Knicks NBA 43 (1973)

Miami Dolphins NFL 42 (1973)