When it comes to passion and sports, the California town of Moraga kicks Portland where it hurts. It's twice the sports town with half the population.

It's home to the Galloping Gaels of St. Mary's College, Campolindo High School and more than a few Olympic-size swimming pools. It has no minor league teams.

The Sporting News ranks Moraga 107th on its annual list of Best Sports City. Portland? Your eye has to travel all the way down to No. 290. Orono, the only other Maine community on the list of 399, is No. 246, thanks in part to the University of Maine's six-game win streak last fall that earned it an invitation to the NCAA playoffs.

"We played Division I-AA football," said St. Mary's Rich Davi, Assistant AD for Media Relations. "Let me see if we played Maine."

No, the Gaels, hadn't. They did play USC and California consistently through the decades leading up to World War II and won. St. Mary's beat Texas Tech in the 1939 Cotton Bowl, 21-13. After a 1-11 season in 2003, the college dropped the sport. Not that any of that was pertinent to the 2009 list.

The Sporting News says it assigns points based on won-loss records and postseason appearances of city sports teams. The number of teams in the city, game attendance, and something the Sporting News calls "fan fervor" are other criteria

Pittsburgh is America's No. 1 sports city, says the Sporting News. It's hard to hold up the futility of its major league baseball team and argue against that when the Steelers and the Penguins came through with football and hockey championships. Philadelphia and Boston are next on the list. Since 2000, Boston was No. 1 four times. All that makes sense.

Detroit, which is linked with Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, is 10th this year. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C., is 17th. You can buy that.

The other Portland is No. 32. Storrs, Conn., home to the state university basketball teams coached by Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma, is No. 43. South Bend, Ind. and Notre Dame football come in at No. 76.

Syracuse, N.Y., and Manhattan, Kan., two small cities where Division I basketball is king, are 90 and 91. Your eyes skip to Annapolis, Md. (No. 99), Akron, Ohio (No. 103) and Colorado Springs, Colo. (No. 106). It stops at Moraga.

"People here support their teams," said Davi. "Our men's basketball team sold out 11 home games last year. Our other sports do well, too. The high school football team does well. You say we're 107th on the list? I hadn't looked for it this year."

Neither had I. Someone working on his first year of living in Maine wrote an e-mail that found its way to me. Portland is ranked 290, he pointed out. What's up with that?

Hey, more Portlanders save their fervor, fever or fanaticism for Fenway Park, Gillette Stadium or TD Banknorth Center. The Pirates may have the AHL's best hockey coach in Kevin Dineen but last year, not the best team. The love affair between the Sea Dogs and its fans is still there, but lately, not the intensity.

Ed Flaherty and Gary Fifield consistently have two of the best small college baseball and girls basketball teams in the country but, frankly, success at USM doesn't translate to standing-room-only crowds. They play their games in Gorham, not Portland, and The Sporting News didn't create a Portland-Gorham-Scarborough axis.

Otherwise, the gem that is Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, might have been a boost. Loudon, N.H.; home of New Hampshire Motor Speedway was ranked 263, by the way. Funny, but the NASCAR towns of Bristol, Tenn.; Brooklyn, Mich.; Darlington, S.C.; and Long Pond, Pa., were 276, 277, 278, and 279.

The Mississippi Delta town of Itta Bena, population of fewer than 3,000 and home to Mississippi Valley State University, is a better sports city than Portland. It ranked 253. Go figure.

Sioux Falls, S.D., where Deering High's Nik Caner-Medley played a month for the Skyforce of the NBA's Development League before...