We love greater L.A.! Thanks to Rally Monkeys and Mighty Ducks, Anaheim-Los Angeles is TSN's 2003 Best Sports City. Who says you need the NFL?

Sporting News, The, August 18, 2003 by Bob Hille

Words you never expected to see together: "Anaheim" and "hockey hotbed." The evidence was everywhere during this year's NHL playoffs, beyond the "Let's Go Mighty Ducks" road signs on Katella Avenue and Harbour Boulevard. Beyond a couple in matching Ducks sweaters strolling Disneyland's Main Street on a sweltering June day. Beyond the teenaged boy, three hours before a Stanley Cup finals game, recaping the high point of his afternoon by chatting into his cell phone: "We saw Paul Kariya. He gave us the thumbs up."

Proof?

During the Western Conference final series against the Wild, there was the image of the dude with a blow-up Stanley Cup flashing on the Pond's scoreboard replay screen ... drawing a bigger cheer from the crowd than the trophy blonde who had appeared just before him.

When seemingly impenetrable Ducks goaltender J.S. Giguere lost his playoff shutout streak against the Wild, there was the sell-out crowd at the Pond standing and cheering for its goaltender in sport-smart appreciation of his performance.

Sparked to action by their team, Anaheim fans started showing up early and filled the Pond's parking lot with barbecue grills and games. Inside the Pond, the fans showed their best. Before each game, speakers blared Aerosmith's "Dream On" as photographs of the team were projected onto the ice. Each picture--some of players some of moments such as the overtime goal that ended the Duck's tone-setting first-round playoff victory over the Red Wings--drew waves of cheers.

In Game 6 of the Cup finals in Anaheim, after the Ducks' Kariya was leveled by the Devils' Scott Stevens, fans noted immediately when Kariya returned to the bench, and they cheered. The building got louder when Kariya tested himself on the ice then almost impossibly got louder still when Kariya scored.

Anaheim, hockey hotbed.

Duly noted that the Ducks lost the Stanley Cup finals to the New Jersey Devils, who share their East Rutherford, N.J., address with the New Jersey Nets, who reached the Finals in the NBA. Meantime, a Giguere clearing pass away from the Pond, the Anaheim Angels, with Rally Monkey and ThunderStix in tow, won their first championship.

How far the 'burbs have come.

In an era in which we clamor for, even demand with our votes, the coveted downtown stadium, this was a year for the hinterlands, if for no other reason than Anaheim and East Rutherford made it so.

For these 12 months, the greater L.A. area was one hoppin' place, even in the NFL's absence.

* Picked to finish last in the A.L. West, the Angels followed manager Mike Scioscia's blueprint of situational hitting, solid pitching and intense effort to the championship (more on that later). It was a perfect ending to a season that started not so perfectly and then blossomed in midsummer. Angels red had become as chic as Dodger blue.

* In a star-studded city, Southern California quarterback Carson Palmer still turned heads by leading the Trojans to an 11-2 record that included beating Iowa in the Orange Bowl (yes, the Orange Bowl, BCS fans) mere weeks after he had been presented the Heisman Trophy as college football's best player. USC's crosstown rival, UCLA, finished second in the city's annual Pat-10 race but managed a bowl victory and an 8-5 record that served as coach Bob Toledo's farewell.

* The Mighty Ducks, a franchise that was a cumulative 72 games below .500 until last season, entered the playoffs as the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference. They dispatched the Red Wings in four games in the first round, gaining confidence behind Giguere. A sweep against Minnesota in the Western Conference finals ignited fans at the Pond, and even a loss to the Devils in the Stanley Cup finals couldn't cool their newfound enthusiasm.

* Even the areas disappointments were relative. The three-time defending NBA champion Lakers went 50-32, finishing tied for second in the Pacific Division and advancing to the second round of the playoffs--but were perceived as underachievers. Imagine how fans in, say, Denver would react to a 50-32 record and advancing to the second round of the playoffs. Hell, imagine how Clippers fans would react.

* There was plenty more for the sports fan to enjoy: the Dodgers, the Kings and the Clippers; annual PGA Tour and pro tennis stops; Winston Cup racing at the California Speedway; the newly opened Home Depot Center, an athletic venue of Olympic proportions (and new training camp home to the San Diego Chargers ... hmmm). The WNBA's Sparks and Major League Soccer's Galaxy; eight Division I basketball programs, not to mention the Pond's playing host to the NCAA Tournament West Regional. And this doesn't even take into account volleyball, surfing, paddle tennis and pumping iron on Venice Beach.

The one hole, some might say, is the one the NFL seems a lot more hung up on than greater Los Angeles is. Because the other components to Anaheim-L.A.'s Best Sports City year were so good, it was easy for us to make like Angelenos and not get worked up about the lack of an NFL team. The L.A. area will satisfy itself (at least until the NFL scratches its itch) with two NBA teams, two NHL teams, two major league baseball teams and two Pac-10 schools, not to mention some of sports' most storied venues, from Santa Anita to the speedway in Fontana, Riviera Country Club to the Rose Bowl, Pauley Pavilion, the Forum, the Coliseum and points in between.