That title now undoubtedly belongs to the city of Seattle and all Washingtonians. Lately, even the most die-hard 'glass is half full' faithful have been jumping ship for any team - professional of college - in the state. Let's take a look at how Seattle stacks up in the sports world and how it gained this not-so-highly sought after distinction.

Baseball - Seattle Mariners, inaugural year 1977. Playoff appearance 4, Championships 0. 2008 team record: 61-101

The 2008 Mariners became the first Major League Baseball team in history with a payroll over $100 million dollars to lose over 100 games in a single season. They finished an astounding 39 games out of their division. It seems, they stopped being competitive as soon as the season started. Then GM, Bill Bavasi, finally had all his horrific moves erupt in one giant fireball this season. Richie Sexson was released, Carlos Silva couldn't win a game, and Erik Bedard (the off-season 'ace' acquisition) refused to throw over 100 pitches in a game - no matter the score, situation or inning.

Seattlites knew things were bad when the season turned to rooting for the Mariners to lose and end the season with the worst record in baseball to receive the first pick in the draft. Of course, the Mariners could not even do that right for their fans and lost out to the Washington Nationals for that right.

To make matters worse, an iconic image in Mariners baseball lore, Jamie Moyer, proceeded to pitch the game of his life on the World Series stage and had the Phillies fans standing in their seats chanting his name long after the game had ended.

As if that wasn't enough, it seemed every other commercial break - to those in the NW region with the local cable channel - contained a commercial starring the afore-mentioned soft-baller in his Mariners uniform (of course the Mariners logo now blacked out) telling people where to take their broken windshields. Ouch.

Football - Seattle Seahawks, inaugural year 1976. Playoff appearances 10, Championships 0. Current 2008 team record: 2-8

This week the hopes of a 5th straight division championship and playoff appearance streak were dashed as the now division leading Arizona Cardinals swooped into Qwest field and throughly out played the slumping Seahawks.

The Seahawks knew an era was coming to an end this season as future Hall-of-Famer coach Mike Holmgren announce this season would be his last in Seattle. Immediately named as his successor was Jim Mora, the current defensive backs coach for the squad.

What Seattle didn't know was that the Holmgren-era would end like this. Decimated by injuries the Seahawks were forced to start their 5th string WR, bring up several WR's from the practice squad and even bring back old faces (Koren Robinson) to try and fill the void. Adding insult to injury, Pro-Bowl QB Matt Hasselbeck has missed several games in a row due to injury (back, knee), and now has a possible concussion leaving his future status in doubt. For Seattle, gone are the glory days of 2005 - with the likes of Mack Strong (forced to retire, neck) and Chris Gray (forced to retire, neck) showing the age of the current team.

To put how far the Seahawks have fallen into perspective one only has to look at Shaun Alexander - the 2005 league MVP was without a job until about halfway through this current season. The immediate future does not look all too bright for the Seahawks either, as head-coach-waiting's secondary continually gets torched (case and point - Anquan Boldin, 13 catches 186 yards and Larry Fitzgerald, 10 catches 151 yards in the same game), and the calls for Mora to take over at the University of Washington instead of the head coach of the Seahawks become ever louder. Ouch.

Basketball - Seattle Supersonics, inaugural year 1967, final year 2007. Playoff appearances 21, Championships 1 (1979).

It all started going downhill for the Sonics after another famous Seattlite, Howard Shultz (Starbucks), sold the team to a group out of Oklahoma City in 2006. The group's intentions were crystal clear, it seemed, to all those except those that mattered. In 2008 the Seattle Supersonics were no longer, and the team had moved to Oklahoma City.

Mid-season during the impending move the team was broken up to begin a new cycle of rebuilding - as the playoffs began last year several of the off loaded ex-Sonics were major contributors to their new teams playoff runs (Ray Allen, Wally Szcerbiak etc.). As if to rub salt in the still fresh wound, the Oklahoma City Thunder got their first win as a franchise on the same weekend as the area football teams (Seahawks, UW, WSU) combined to go 0-3, while being outscored 140-7. Ouch.

NCAA Football - University of Washington Huskies. Current 2008 record: 0-10 Washington State Cougars. Current 2008 record: 1-10

Don't let that "1" in the Cougars 1-10 record fool you. It came against Division I Portland State - but also came at a price, as both their #1 and #2 QB's were lost for the season during the game. The Cougars of 2008 are not just losing games, they are being blown out. Blown out to the tune of 572 points against to only 100 points for. That makes for some exciting times in the PAC-10. Not to be outdone, the University of Washington Huskies are on pace to have a winless season.

The big debate is whether the annual rivalry game between the two schools, the Apple Cup, will end at 0-3 or 77-78. The word on the street is that the upcoming vacancy as head coach at UW is a hot commodity - and many in the area are pleading for it to be filled by next-in-line Seahawks head coach, and old UW alum, Jim Mora. Advice to Jim Mora - talk to Tyrone Willingham long and hard before you even consider making this move. There is a record here that many may over look however. That belongs to WSU, more correctly, to their flag.

Currently, you can spot a WSU flag in the crowd on every College Gameday broadcast on ESPN - a streak the organizers hope to continue until College Gameday is broadcast from Pullman, WA. Ouch.

Those are the current state of affairs for the major sports scenes in the state of Washington. Sure, there has been some recent success in the WNBA, and the city of Seattle does now have a MLS team - but if you are basing their time in the spotlight off of any other sports scene in Washington - look out, it could be a long time before you see any prolonged successes. In all honesty, things aren't that bad. In fact, I hear that most sports fans do have something to cheer for this year - a local, small town girl from Mount Vernon is still in the running to be Paris Hilton's new BFF! That's hot! Ouch.Seattle SeahawksSeattle MarinersUniverstiy of Washington, Washington State University