It always rains on Seattle's sports parade

Seattle is America's most miserable sports city, according to Forbes.

The list, released Monday, is not a direct reflection of futility but rather a "sports heartbreak index" that identifies the city in which fans had teams good enough to give them hope, only to ultimately let them down.

Seattle was justified as being the most miserable because the Sonics made the NBA playoffs 22 times, the Seahawks reached the NFL postseason 11 times and the Super Bowl in 2006 and the Mariners featured in baseball's American League Championship Series three times between 1995 and 2001.

Through all of that — and a cumulative 111 seasons and 37 playoff appearances — the 1979 Sonics remain the city's only champion.

Seattle only narrowly beat Atlanta for the top spot because it earned a bonus point for the relocation of the Sonics to Oklahoma City in 2008.

Atlanta's misery includes 14 playoff appearances for the Braves between 1991 and 2005 with just one World Series title, in 1995.

Finishing second on the list led the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to lament that the city was "so lousy we can't even top the misery index."

Phoenix came in third, given the 2001 Diamondbacks hold the city's only championship in 92 cumulative seasons; Buffalo was fourth on the back of four straight Super Bowl losses in the 1990s; and San Diego rounded out the top five as its teams had lost six of seven championship-round matchups, its only success coming in 1963 for the then-AFL Chargers.

Houston, Kansas City, Cleveland, Denver and Cincinnati made up the top 10.