On the heels of last night's All-Star Game in St. Louis, we have to call your attention to the so-called worldwide leader, ESPN, which did one of its lame-ass polls the other day, determining what was the "best" baseball city in the U.S. Wow, what a surprise! New York came out on top! With Los Angeles second, and Chicago third. Funny how those are the three most populous cities. Complete balderdash. I have to nominate St. Louis. It's heartland, the team dating back to the St. Louis Brown Stockings in 1882, morphing into the Cards in 1900. They're always competitive in St. Louis—haven't had a completely embarrassing team since 1908 (49-105)—and, last night, rolling out former players Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, Lou Brock, Bruce Sutter, Red Schoendienst, and the incredibly great Stan Musial was the clincher.
The Yankees, BTW, only go back to 1901, but then they were the Baltimore Orioles. The original Yankees were a carpetbagger team!! They didn't actually become the Yankees until 1913.
Now, the Cubs go back to 1876 as the White Stockings, morphed into the Colts, morphed into the Orphans (!!), then became the Cubs in 1903. Alas, the Cubs don't have a winning tradition, but the Cardinals definitely do.
St. Louis is the best baseball town in America. The city itself has a population of only about 400,000, but a Metro area pop. of 2.8 million. New York, on the other hand, has a city pop. of 8M, with a Metro area pop. of 19M!
In 2008, the Yankees drew 4.3M fans. The Mets 4M. The Dodgers 3.7M. Who was 4th? The Cardinals, with 3.4M, outdrawing the Phillies, Angels, Cubs, Tigers and Red Sox, plus much larger cities like Houston and Atlanta.
It's a no-brainer. Per capita, St. Louis rules the baseball world. But no, ESPN runs their stupid poll and every douchebag in NY probably voted.
Never believe what you see. Always look further.
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