Are St. Louis Cardinals fans the best in baseball?
By Tim Boyle
Mar 23, 2013; Jupiter, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals fan catches a foul ball in a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Miami Marlins in the fourth inning during a spring training game at Roger Dean Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Some of Bud Selig’s parting words only days before leaving his current position as Commissioner of Major League Baseball included naming St. Louis the best baseball town.
As subjective as it is, Selig’s statement isn’t a ridiculous one. Nobody should know more about which team is the best for baseball. The only insult here might be to the Milwaukee Brewers–the team he used to own.
What I’m wondering, though, are St. Louis Cardinals’ fans the best in baseball too?
Former Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen once called St. Louis “Baseball Heaven.” At the time, the team had not been to the World Series in over a decade. Even playoff appearances were sparse.
But heaven isn’t made up of championships. If that were the case, we would dream about going to the Bronx to see the New York Yankees play when we die.
There’s no true measure of what makes a fan base great. It really all depends on what factors you consider most important. Does sticking through the hard times even when the team is losing make you the best fans? Does caring so much about your team that you live or die based on a win or a loss matter more than anything else? Do you need to know the history? Do you need to know the prospects?
To me, good fans are informed and knowledgeable. They get angry when their teams play lousy, but know to pay their respect when the team tries hard even when they come up short. Once again, though, there’s no actual measure of this for an individual, let alone an entire stadium full of fans and the audience watching at home.
Attendance numbers may be one of the better ways to measure how good a fan base is. If people aren’t showing up to the game, how much could they really care?
There are of course other factors in this like ticket prices being far too high, inconvenient location of the stadium, etc. I don’t think you’re a bad fan if you fail to show up often to games. You’re only a bad fan when you don’t care to try.
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Since 2000, the Cardinals have consistently ranked near the top in National League attendance. In 2013 and 2014 they were second only to the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s notable to state that Dodger Stadium also holds a larger capacity audience than the Cardinals’ home diamond, Busch Stadium does. Considering capacity, the Cardinals were second in 2013 to only the San Francisco Giants and first in 2014. The fans are showing up in large numbers and leaving as few seats empty as possible.
A bit odd, though, is the last time the Cardinals finished with an attendance outside of the top-five in the National League was in 2004. This was the year they lost in the World Series to the Boston Red Sox. The Cardinals were sixth in attendance that season – their lowest rank since 1995. It wasn’t their worst in total attendance, but in terms of how good they are as a fan base, they aren’t competing against themselves — they’re competing against the rest of the teams and their fans.
It’s very clear by the amount of tickets sold that the fans in St. Louis do care. Selig’s nose may not be so brown.
I believe a big reason why Cardinals’ fans are so loyal is because they don’t have the stability many other cities do for their sports franchises. They lost their football team, also named the St. Louis Cardinals, in 1987 before the Rams finally setup shop in St. Louis in 1995. In hockey, the St. Louis Blues are a frequent playoff team yet have no Stanley Cup victory or appearance in their history. The city also doesn’t have an NBA franchise and have been left longing for the days of the St. Louis Spirits from the now defunct American Basketball Association.
Even in baseball, the St. Louis Browns left after 1953 and became the Baltimore Orioles. Most things St. Louis sports fans once loved seem to always go away.
The one love St. Louis has had the longest are the Cardinals. Faithful fans hold onto them closely and do what they can to be the best in baseball.