Which MLB franchise do you most respect?
September 12, 2012 by Arne Christensen · 4 Comments
By most respect, I don’t mean the franchise you most want to win, or the one with the most wins and losses, or the one with the most World Series titles, but the franchise that you think is the best overall model for the other 29 franchises to follow. Maybe you respect the Yankees, not just because of their 27 World Series titles, but because they’re always willing to spend the money needed to remain competitive and give their fans playoff teams to root for. Or the Cardinals for having a solid organizational plan, being consistently competitive, and honoring their former greats. Or the A’s for continuing to field very good teams despite their low budgets, playing in a second-tier stadium, and being the less-glamorous team in their market. Or the Rays for simply surviving in Tampa. Four examples of why a team might have the most respect, and obviously there are other reasons and other criteria available, that could apply to both a franchise’s history and to its current operation.
My thought is that the Giants deserve the most respect, mostly because they didn’t take taxpayer money to build their new stadium, yet don’t have enormous prices for their tickets. The Giants also went through their decades of title-less agony before 2010 without creating an identity based on that streak, and have some of the best hitters ever and honor those hitters. They’re not the team I root for the most, but they’re interesting, they’re one of the founding West Coast teams, and their overall personality is one of the best fits for their city that you’ll find among the 30 MLB teams.
This is a really interesting and though-provoking topic. It’s something I really hadn’t thought of before. My initial choice was the Rays because they’ve found a way to win without spending a lot of money. They seem to have a nice plan in place. But in retrospect, I would have to pick the Cardinals. They’ve been competitive through so many different decades over the past century, and have had so many great players. They also have a loyal, though not obnoxious, fan base. If I wasn’t already a Mets fan, and was new to baseball, I might consider becoming a Cardinals fan. It would be a lot easier now that LaRussa is gone as well.
Nice post,
Bill
Short answer: the St. Louis Cardinals. Most recently, they refused to overspend for Albert Pujols, deciding instead to invest their dollars on their incumbent, in-house talent. And have succeeded in his absence! That’s sticking to a plan, and not hampering a franchise at the expense of one star & fan favorite. That took some kahunas! Sound familiar, Twins fans?
Going back in time, I love their Stan The Man, Gibby, Brock, Gas House Gang legacy. Agreed, their fans may be the most passionate, knowledgable group out there. I remember a late Sept. ’86 ball game I attended in which they prevented the Mets from clinching the pennant. The had no chance to overtake New York, but Whitey Herzog had them playing as if the season were on the line. It took 11 innings but St Louis eked out s 1-0 victory. Fabulous, strategic baseball for us AL fans of the Twins, and even more rewarding was the pregame razzing the Cards fans were heaping on Darryl Strawberry fielding BP baseballs in RF., Great stuff, and never becoming vile, malicious.
St. Louis Cardinals. The team has been a winner for a long time. The organization is 1 of the 5 most valuable in baseball.
Major League Baseball experienced a half-century of stability from 1902 through 1952, during which no franchises moved and none were established or closed. During this time, The St. Louis Cardinals were the westernmost and southernmost major league franchise, and so geographically closest to anyone living southwest of a line stretching approximately from Savannah, Georgia through midstate Illinois into the Dakotas, which area encompasses much the greater portion of the United States. (The Cardinals shared this distinction with the St. Louis Browns, but the Browns were generally less successful and less popular.)
Although some franchises were established at the outer periphery of this area beginning in the 1950s (The Braves in Milwaukee in 1953, teams in California beginning in 1958, the Twins in Minneapolis in 1961) it was not until the establishment of the Houston Colt .45s in 1962, and more importantly the shift of the Braves to Atlanta in 1966 and the creation of the Kansas City Royals in 1969 that significant inroads into this market began. (And the Browns left St. Louis after 1953, ending whatever competition they offered for this fan base.)
During this period (1902 to 1962 and to some extent later) when the Cardinals were the closest team to a vast geographical area, baseball became definitely established as America’s national pastime and by far its premier professional sport, commercial radio broadcasting — including broadcasting of baseball games — was instituted and became commonplace, and broadcasting at night and on television began. Also during this period the population of the Cardinals’ mediashed grew considerably, even compared to the rest of the United States (the mean center of United States population moved from Indiana to the approximate location of St. Louis during this time).
During the core of this period the Cardinals were generally successful on the field, winning two league titles in the 1920s, three in the 1930s, and four in the 1940s. And in the latter part of this period, the Cardinals’ games were broadcast on the 50,000-watt clear-channel radio station KMOX, which has the power to reach the entire continental United States at night.
All these factors combined such that for most of the 20th century the Cardinals’ listening audience, and consequently fan base, extended throughout the American south and deep into the plains and Rocky Mountain states, a state of affairs that, although diminished, has persisted into the 21st century to some degree.
St. Louis is generally considered one of the best baseball towns in America, with fans more numerous, knowledgeable, and committed than in most cities.The Cardinals have been one of the most successful baseball franchises in history with 18 National League pennants and a National League record 11 World Series Championships. They are second only to the New York Yankees (who have 27) in total World Series Championships.
Cardinals fans are known for traveling to see their team on the road as well and fill nearly half of Wrigley Field in Chicago when the Cubs and Cardinals carry on their classic rivalry each season. (The converse is true when Cubs fans go to Busch Stadium in St. Louis when the Cubs visit.) When the Kansas City Royals play the Cardinals in Kansas City every season during interleague play, the games often sell out, unlike most other poorly-attended Royals’ games. In the stands, Cardinals fans outnumber Royals fans almost two to one.[citation needed]
Many fans around the nation grew up listening to two baseball broadcasters considered among the best in history, Jack Buck and Harry Caray, call Cardinals’ games starting in the mid-1940s, into the 1950s and through the 1960s.