A friend of TCB turned me onto this article from MLB.com written by Matthew Leach. The article is a celebration of St. Louis and the greatness of the Cardinal faithful. Now, I don't hate St. Louis, even though it may appear that I do. I just have a such a problem with their elevated view of themselves. There are no "best" fans in baseball: each team has really good fans and really bad fans. There is nothing about St. Louis (or Chicago, New York, Boston, etc.) or the Cardinals that make their fans "better" than any other fan base. The following is from the article:
Maybe Boston's passion equals or surpasses that of St. Louis. The tradition in New York is second to none. But for the complete package, no city stands above this one as a place for baseball.
This little nugget from the article annoyed me as well:
So while the market is one of the smallest, the expectations are always among the highest. There's not much inherently different about the city of St. Louis as compared to Cincinnati or Pittsburgh or Cleveland or Kansas City. But while all of those places enjoy their baseball, none is a baseball town in the same way St. Louis is.
There is a simple reason why St. Louis enjoys its baseball more than those other teams in similar size markets. The Cardinals have been consistently good way more than those teams. It isn't anything to do with the fans of St. Louis. A city will come out to support its team if it is winning, especially the aforementioned teams that have history.
I agree. Obviously this is a fluff piece done by MLB to hype up the game. (Of the four other cities mentioned, only Cleveland has seen a playoff game in the last 10 years).
ReplyDeleteBeing at Mizzou, the "smug" attitude is definitely noticeable, but it's not entirely their fans' fault. People all around baseball love holding up St. Louis as the ideal way of doing baseball. A Cincy newspaper article today called for the Reds to be "more like" the Cards. Seriously. And it's not the first time I've heard that.
Now, I think the Cardinals are absolutely the greatest franchise in the history of the National League, and St. Louis IS a great baseball town. But when KC was good in the 80s, and Cincinnati in the 70s, those towns ate up baseball as much as anyone.
I know MLB.com might be confused, but the reason St. Louis cares so much about their baseball team is because they have nothing else. The Rams came in from LA and really I don't think anybody gives a crap (besides Kelly and Cam). The other sport is hockey, which nobody likes because its a niche sport that doesn't appeal to a good portion of people.
ReplyDeleteOf course they latch on to the baseball team, its just like why the Packers are so damn popular in Green Bay. They have nothing else. I wish people would stop confusing "best, most knowledgeable, caring, die hard fans" with "holy crap its October 1st and we have nothing to do but debate Joe Thurston vs. Tyler Greene for 4 months."