Baseball best fans

[Capt_Morgan]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports ... enDocument


Staking The Claim: Baseball best fans are ...


04/01/2007

BO-SOX?
No parking, cramped seats, highest ticket prices in the majors: Doesn't matter. It's 307 sellouts and counting, and the affection for Fenway knows no bounds. Where else do fans assign as many pet names to the park's most distinctive features: Green Monster, Pesky's Pole, Conig's Corner, the Red Seat. And when the Monster had its tin coating removed, four-inch squares peddled for charity sold out in days. Fenway is now reaching into its sixth generations of fans, and kids are saying hello to ushers who used to show their grandparents to their seats.

Road warriors
Sox fans go everywhere, and are a noisy minority (and occasional majority) at many away venues. They not only wear their loyalty, they're now modeling stuff that reads "Red Sox Nation" in Japanese. When astronaut Sunny Williams boarded the space shuttle Discovery last December, she held up a sign: "Go Red Sox."

Baseball IQ
Never mind that MIT and Harvard are just across the Charles River; even visiting players acknowledge that Sox fans are the most knowledgeable in the game. They were chanting "Ster-oids" at Jose Canseco in the '80s! And there's no place that gives a visiting player more applause for a terrific play.

The game's the thing
No one will ever have to tell a Sox fan when to cheer. They're clapping even before a fielder gloves a DP groundball. Sox fans adore their stars — Teddy Ballgame, Rocket, Big Papi, Manny being Manny — but some of the most beloved players have been eccentrics (Spaceman Lee), locals-made-good (Lou Merloni) and all-out hustlers (Gabe Kapler).

The never-ending story
It leads all the newscasts when the equipment truck leaves Fenway for spring training. Readers complain when newspapers don't have a Sox story in December. Fans came out in turnaway numbers to see the World Series trophy in all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, and broadcaster Joe Castiglione draws a full house for Hot Stove events in Bangor, Maine, in January. And when there's no game to watch, Sox fans can always slip "Fever Pitch" into the DVD.

Slogan
"Curse? What Curse?"
Gordon Edes is a baseball writer for the Boston Globe.

******

YANKS?
Call it The House That Ruth Built or simply "The Stadium." Either way, it's the game's most storied venue. Built in 1923 and re-opened for the 1976 season after extensive renovations, it's a one-stop diamond history lesson. But it's also old and, some say, has all the amenities of a subway station. Still, fans revel in it and the Bronx heirloom should get a proper send-off before the Yanks' new park opens in 2008.

Road warriors
In addition to leading the majors in home attendance, the Yankees were baseball's best road act, too, averaging 38,028 a night at opposing yards. Because of this wild fan loyalty, the Yankees are seemingly on national television more than Donald Trump (who, by the way, is often a guest in Boss Steinbrenner's box).

Baseball IQ
Sure, they've booed the great Mariano Rivera for blowing a save against the Red Sox and they threw Reggie Jackson's own candy bars onto the field on a giveaway day. But no one is more loyal than a New Yorker once their heart is open. And there are no Bartmans here — when a Yankee fan reaches into the field of play, it generally helps the Yanks. Ask Jeffrey Maier, the youngster who snatched Derek Jeter's drive away from a Baltimore right fielder, turning it into a playoff homer during the 1996 ALCS.

The game's the thing
The "Bleacher Creatures" do a roll call of the starters during the first inning, chanting the player's name until he waves or tips his cap. Fans stand and clap when an opposing batter is facing two strikes and berate out-of-towners like there's bad family history. They're among the most vital fans in sports. Why else would Curt Schilling have said, "I'm not sure of any scenario more enjoyable than making 55,000 people from New York shut up," during the 2004 ALCS?

The never-ending story
New York sports radio crackles with baseball talk deep into football season. There's been plenty to debate recently with the Yanks' playoff failures, and even in championship years the Yankees' hot stove plans dominate the back pages of the city's tabloids.

Slogan
"Got rings?"
Anthony McCarron is a baseball writer for the New York Daily News.

******

CARDS?
There might be loyalists more demonstrative, New Englanders who are more obnoxious, Chicagoans who are more delusional. But there is no Kool-Aid more wholesome and refreshing than the juice being swilled by Cardinal fans on Clark Street.

Baseball has no better fans than those born and bred by this franchise, cultivated in the heartland for these past 115 years.

Unconditional love
After being traded here during the 2004 season, Larry Walker struck out in his first at-bat, and the 45,364 in attendance gave him a standing ovation. "I felt like I was supposed to wave to the crowd and say thanks," Walker said. "I didn't know what to do. I thought maybe I should go back and ask if I could have another strike."

Walk the walk
Cardinals fans have plenty of steak to go with their sizzle. The Cardinals have won 10 world titles, more than any other NL team and second only to the New York Yankees (26). Since the turn of the century, the club has won more games (658) than any team in the NL. In turn, the team has averaged 35,372 fans a home date over the past 22 years.

Sea of red
You see more people wearing the team color at Busch Stadium than you see at any other stadium. The practice has evolved into a rite of passage. The ballclub got swept up in the culture, going with red seats in its new stadium. Why, even the guy hitting fungos and wearing No. 2 is "Red."

Stan the Man
Cardinals fans take their cue from Stan Musial, baseball's ultimate gentleman and greatest living legend. At the time of his retirement in 1963, Musial held 17 major league, 29 National League, and nine All-Star Game records. His No. 6 statue stands outside Busch Stadium, inscribed with the affecting words of Ford Frick: "Here stands baseball's perfect warrior. Here stands baseball's perfect knight." If there was a postscript, it might be, "And behind him sits baseball's perfect fans."

Intelligence
Nothing excites a Cardinals fan more than seeing a team of Clydedales pulling a wagon filled with cases of beer and prancing to the Budweiser theme song.

Yes sir, we're talking sophisticated fans.
Dan O'Neill is a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Disaptch

******

CUBS?

Tom Dreesen, a standup comedian and Cubs fan — which is redundant — joked that at Wrigley Field fans don't sing the national anthem, they sing "Feelings."

It's not true, but it ought to be. Masochists all, Cubs fans keep on coming. They drew 3,123,215 for 80 dates at Wrigley last season with a 66-win team that was pretty much out of contention by Memorial Day.

All I can conclude is, misery DOES love company.

The Cap
You see that "C," you know this fan is true-blue. And you know he or she has suffered. This isn't a St. Louis fan whose team has actually WON something. But how often do you see a Florida Marlins cap anywhere? (Even in Florida.) And they DID win something — twice.

T-Shirt Slogan
I saw a guy recently selling one that read: "I Smashed Sammy's Boom Box." Cubs fans love the lore, even the mystery of which teammate once pulverized Sosa's stereo with a bat.

The Attitude
"This is the year?" Not this year, not any year. Cubs fans never brag.

When the last time you won a World Series was Oct. 14, 1908, you don't say, "Wait till next year." As the late Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Brickhouse put it, anybody can have a bad century.

The Icon
Chicagoans would like it if Ernie Banks or Ron Santo could see a Cubs championship in their lifetime. As for that "Billy Goat Curse," honestly, no one takes that nonsense seriously. It's just one more bit of legend to chew on.

For What It's Worth
This COULD be the year. (Gulp.) Tribune Co. shelled out $300 million for new players and a new manager. The division is weak and winnable. Of course, the population of Chicago would be dramatically reduced by a World Series championship at Wrigley — my God, over three million simultaneous heart attacks!
Mike Downey is a sports columnist at the Chicago Tribune.

[jim]

I've had the good fortune of attending games at 3 of the 4 mentioned (no Yankees game yet), and each place is unique. Great places to go see a game, and it's the fans more than the stadium that make the environment.

Wrigley is a party, Busch is more business-like, and Fenway is just intense. All great places to see a game.

[UK]

There isn't anything like a Yankees/Red Sox game in Fenway.

[jim]

There isn't anything like a Yankees/Red Sox game in Fenway.

I actually choose an Orioles game, I wasn't sure I wanted to take my family to that. Just seemed to intense.

[TimeForGuinness]

There isn't anything like a Yankees/Red Sox game in Fenway.

Just in Fenway...when I was at a bar in Boston for a Yankees/Red Sox game, I thought my car was going to get flipped over.

[jim]

Someone on here was telling about a story of a Red Sox/Yankees fan getting into a fight - at a REDS game.

[UK]

I was there for the Boston Massacre last year, it was quite interesting. No fights near me though.

[jim]

Fenway is my favorite place. The fans are loud, passionate, and very knowledgeable. I don't know how they do it, but they get the "Let's Go Red Sox" chant going in no time flat with no cues from the organ or scoreboard. If you go, do some homework though. There are some weird seats there.

[Phyrkrakr]

Man, I kinda wish they would've gotten someone besides Dan O'Neill to write that article. I think DGoold or Larry over at VEB could've done something better with the Cards fans here.

No mention of watching Cards games at halftime in the EJ? No mention of two consecutive seasons of sellouts? No mention of legions of fans spread from the Rockies to the Appalachians?

And that crack about intelligence...I generally consider Cards fans a lot more knowledgeable than the yuppies who go to Cubs games to be seen.

Overall, though, good article. I'm sure there's some west coasters who take exception to being left out, but maybe if they'd stay for 9 innings instead of 7 they'd start getting a mention. And it's my longtime ambition to tour through Wrigley, Fenway, and New York in one summer, with a scattering of Pennsylvania parks in between if I can swing it.

[Jocephus]

i went to a subway series (interleague) at shea once (1999ish)....it was pretty damn cool...to see the two sides in one place...