I rarely step out of my comfort zone to deliberately “insult” a particular person, crowd or city, but today I’m going to. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like cold hard facts shoved in their face, now might be the best time to stop reading or just jump to another article of mine that takes less brain power to wrap your head around.
Here’s a hint as to which ones those might be _________. I am the fortunate soul who has been giving the task of declaring a city which most embodies the spirit of being “THE baseball town.” Yes, this may seem like a cliché, overdone topic; however, the one difference between most writers (Buzz Feed) who have braved this topic and myself is that I have actually been to every city that has housed a Major League Baseball team.
And by that I am also including Montreal, even though they are certainly not the team that I feel deserves this honor (Sorry guys). One-by-one I’ll separate the wheat from the chaff, which of course will ruffle a few feathers in the long run. But, if there is one thing I am consistently good at it’s fair, honest and well-thought out writing.
The Losers
The first cities eliminated from this talk are the Washington, D.C. and the San Francisco. While I am a die hard Oakland Athletics fan I assure you that these strikes have nothing to do with where my loyalties stand.
The Nationals, or former Expos if you prefer, are the third incarnate of a Major League team to inhabit our nation’s capital and therefore really doesn’t deserve it even if the “third time’s the charm” philosophy has rung true. The Giants, oddly enough, are also in the midst of their (technically) third stint in San Francisco. See, after the Giants moved to the Bay Area in 1958 they almost moved out 18 years later when the team was nearly sold to the Labatt Breweries of Canada in Toronto.
At the last minute a man by the name of Bob Lurie spearheaded a group to buy the team and keep them at Candlestick Park… until 1992 when the team was almost sold again to a group of investors in Tampa, Florida. The only thing that could save the Giants from moving was a large bit of San Jose territory given up by then-Athletics owner Walter Haas, Jr.
Granted, things have certainly changed and the Giants are making a boat load of money in anew stadium, but the fact of the matter is that in the grand scheme of things the Giants historically never drew large crowds and the team was a blight on the city.
As for the Athletics, unfortunately things have taken a 180-degree shift as Oakland went from being a great baseball city to what San Francisco used to be. By my own logic, Oakland has been eliminated as well. Rats!
Staying on the West Coast, we can easily eliminate Seattle because they’re currently on their second team after the one-and-done Pilots of 1969 became the Milwaukee Brewers, but more importantly it has been clear since 2003 that the Mariners operate on a mostly fair-weather fan system.
You can pretty much add Anaheim, San Diego and Los Angeles to the pile under the same rationale. Anaheim has really become more of a hockey town, San Diego is all about the Chargers and nothing will top the Lakers in Los Angeles.
The entire state of Texas is out of the running as the Rangers have only drawn well over the last five years and the current and previous ownership of the Astros in Houston as scared fans away from Minute Maid Park. Ironically, both Tony Romo and Matt Schaub have done amazing jobs at making sure the beguiled baseball fans stay remain in a state of disappointment year round. As an outsider it’s kind of fun to watch, but as a baseball fan we all feel all y’all’s (I think I said it right) pain.
Only one expansion team of the last 20 years made the final cut, and it’s certainly not a team that has won a World Series title. The Arizona Diamondbacks had a great run in 2001 and speckled success thereafter; however, the folks of Phoenix are hardly to be seen prior to September unless they’re on a winning streak. Next! I don’t really need to say much about Tampa, or should I say the St. Petersburg Rays!?
You can hear a pin drop at Tropicana Field it’s so quiet in there, yet somehow the fine folks of Miami with the Marlins make the Rays look like a success story. It’s hard to believe the Marlins have won two World Series titles and even have a state of the art stadium. Too bad the fans in Miami haven’t noticed. Cut!
The Midwest is a little bit harder to pick through because there is a lot of history supporting every city; well, all except Cleveland. Sorry Indians fans, but the lot of you gave up on the team after Manny Ramirez and David Justice left town and well all know you can’t wait until the Browns and LeBron James return in the fall.
While I do love Milwaukee and had a great time at a few Brewers games, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that most of the folks were only there to drink and kill time until the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers football started back up.
Plus, I would never give the “best baseball town” honor to a city who erected a statue of Bud Selig. Lastly (I’ll speed round these two), Detroit is totally a hockey town, Pittsburgh is totally a football town and Kansas City is all about barbeque. I will give Kansas City a gold star for having lost a team (the Athletics) and doing what they could in their power to get a new team in 1969 (the Royals). Unfortunately, after the World Series victory in 1985 and the retirement of George Brett in 1993 the fans haven’t shown their faces. ELIMINATED!!!
The East Coast is a hotbed for old and new school baseball fans alike; however, time has not exactly been too good the cities that house the teams.
Baltimore is an easy city to knock off the list, and I don’t even need much of a reason. But, if you really need one, the attendance records speak for themselves. Losing games for so many years will never bring in fans. Toronto was a thriving baseball town back in the early 1990s, but poor moves by former General Managers and questionable uniform changes have truly jaded the fans.
Things are starting to pick up again, but the late-1990s and all for the 2000s prove that Toronto can’t hang with the top dogs.
Honorable Mentions
Like all good critiques, there are just a few that do enough to get notice, but don’t have quite what it takes to go “over the top” like Sylvester Stallone in the film with the same name. As cool as Atlanta is and as large as the Braves fan base is, the city itself kind of bites when it comes to supporting their team.
Believe it or not, the last time Turner Field had over three million in yearly attendance was back in 2000. After that, the Braves have consistently finished in the middle of the pack. Philadelphia is the same; for the most part at least, their only problem is that they’re all borderline psychotics.
Passion and love for your team is one thing, but spitting on a guy or whipping a bottle at a dude because he has a different team’s shirt on is a bit much. Just as a reminder, this last sentence was written by a guy who has Green Man from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” high-fiving the Philly Phranetic (Phanatic).
Minneapolis was another great city, as was Cincinnati, but neither places made me feel all that excited about being at a baseball game with the exception of a few fans. Denver has proven year after year that the Rockies not only have fans, but that they pack Coors Field regularly. The only reason why I cast them out has mostly to do with John Elway, Patrick Roy and Dikembe Mutombo. Football takes a front seat in Denver, while all other sports remain in a tie for second place. Lastly, and probably the most surprising, Chicago. While both the Cubs and White Sox have a lot of fans humming around the city, there was hardly a feeling that any team existed (between the two) outside of the Cubs.
This is a bad sign to me because there isn’t a balance. It’s almost as if Chicago could do without the White Sox. I know it sounds harsh, but go there and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
Third Place
Alright, time for some actually accolades. The city of New York is the third-best baseball town. The Yankees obviously carry the feeling to the top, but the Mets bring it down a few notches for the same reason I mention about Chicago above.
The Mets’ attendance has been poor the last few years, but they’ve had some great seasons to prove how dedicated their fan base is especially when competing with the Yankees every season as the best team in the city. The other reason why New York is third is because of the two teams that they lost the same year (Giants and Dodgers) which inevitably gave birth to the Mets.
There is also an aspect that I could dig on about the Yankees actually being a relocated team from Baltimore (the Orioles), but that was well before World War I when that happened. I’ll let it slide.
Second Place
I had a good time in St. Louis, but not a great time. It took me a month to really understand why and the first word that came to mind was “cult.”
Cardinals’ fans are very dedicated. They’re not as violent as Philadelphia fans can be, but they’re just religiously loyal.
Seriously, St. Louis is within the confines of the Bible Belt as have been around long enough to be THE team of the religious right.
With such prestige there also comes a lot of crassness that is captured and retweeted by the Twitter account Best Fans St. Louis.
I’m not saying that all St. Louis baseball fans are like this, but a lot of them are. In St. Louis the feeling is “it’s the Cardinals or nothing at all,” but with the feeling that they’ll shame you and quote scriptures to make you see why your team is inferior.
And finally, THE Baseball Town…
Believe it or not, there is a magical place where everyone in the city lives and dies by their baseball team. It’s a city that holds their players up on a higher pedestal than their city government. It’s a city where if you play for this team in this city you can go out and get white girl wasted with everyone in the city and everyone will call that Wednesday. I of course am talking about the great city of Boston.
As much as I love sitting in the right field bleachers with all of my friends at the Coliseum in Oakland, some of the greatest times I’ve ever had at a baseball game have come at the sold out confines of Fenway Park. Alcohol is a necessity anywhere within four city blocks of the stadium and everyone is there to actually pay attention to the game or make fun of the new fish who decided to bring his girlfriend who stares at her phone the entire game.
While it’s true that the Red Sox fans can sometimes be a bit hostile, as long as you can back up your game there will be a punch to the face AND a beer waiting for you afterward.
Seriously, anthropological and sociological studies should be done on these people for be so damn awesome and dedicated to their team.