Chicago vs. L.A. is big bid-ness

Now that San Francisco 49ers owner John York has low-bridged that city’s 2016 Olympic hopes into McCovey Cove, there are only two candidates left to wrestle for the right to be nominated as the United States’ 2016 bid city -- Chicago and Los Angeles.

Already, the bench-jockeying has begun. Chicago chortles about the Los Angeles traffic. Los Angeles counterpunches with a swipe at Chicago’s weather.

Not wanting to be left out of the fray, Briefing offers its own tale of the tape of two cities:

Baseball tradition: Dodgers fans gripe, “We haven’t won a World Series since 1988.” White Sox fans say, “Yeah, it must be rough.” Cubs fans say, “You lucky dogs.”

NFL tradition: OK, we’ll give Chicago the last dozen years. And, sure, the Bears were great in ’85. But what about our Raiders in ‘83? We seem to recall something about a 38-9 Super Bowl victory over the Redskins ... Let’s play it off. Chicago and Los Angeles met for the 1985 NFC title. They had Jim McMahon. We had Dieter Brock. Final score: Chicago 24, Los Angeles 0. All right, then. Shall we move on to college football?

NBA tradition: Chicago had Michael Jordan. Los Angeles had Magic Johnson. Who’s best? Let’s start arguing that one. We’ll check back in 2016.

NHL tradition: Both Chicago and Los Angeles had Jeremy Roenick, neither won a Stanley Cup with him.

Scandal: Chicago had the 1919 Black Sox, Los Angeles had the 1994 White Ford Bronco.

Historical curiosity: O.J. Simpson is in the Hall of Fame. Shoeless Joe Jackson is not.

Pizza: Chicago, we surrender. But we have In-N-Out burgers.

Newspaper axis: Let’s not even go there.

Sports attraction swiped by St. Louis: In 1994, we lost the Rams to St. Louis, which conspired with Georgia Frontiere to borrow the script from “Major League” as a game plan. Chicago lost the 1904 Summer Olympics to St. Louis when St. Louis threatened to hold a rival international sports competition at the same time. Let’s face it, Chicago, St. Louis doesn’t play fair.

Grudge: We’re still steaming about Chicago’s letting the Cardinals football team bolt to St. Louis in 1960, giving St. Louis nearly three decades to get hooked on bad football before the Cardinals left for Arizona. St. Louis was left needing its fix, somewhere, somehow. Thanks for that, Chicago.

Trivia time

How many men have coached NBA franchises in Chicago and Los Angeles?

Stick a York in it

Word of advice to any city planning a future bid to host the Olympic Games: Keep anything or anyone named “York” out of it.

A year after New York’s 2012 candidacy imploded when stadium financing fell apart at the last minute, the 49ers’ York pulled the plug on San Francisco’s 2016 bid by announcing he was moving his team to Santa Clara.

Obviously, this does not bode well for the Olympic plans of York, Pa., and York, England. Although it should be noted that the overseas York owns a similar legacy to Los Angeles.

Vikings sacked the city of York in 1075. Vikings sacked the city of Los Angeles in the NFC playoffs in 1969, 1974, 1976, 1977 and 1988.

Trivia answer

Two, Phil Jackson and Paul Westhead. Westhead coached the Lakers for parts of three seasons, taking over from Jack McKinney 13 games into the 1979-80 season, winning the league championship that season, and being replaced by Pat Riley 11 games into the 1981-82 season. Westhead coached the Bulls for one season, finishing 28-54 in 1982-83.

And finally

The sight of Rams quarterback Brock throwing wobblers into the Soldier Field wind during the 1985 NFC title game inspired a memorable exchange involving broadcasters Pat Summerall and John Madden.

Summerall: “I believe that pass was intended for Duckworth.” Madden: “It looked more like a duck to Passworth.”

mike.penner@latimes.com