G****a
发帖数: 10208 | 1 Much has been made of the vaunted Red Sox Nation over the years, and for
good reasons. Their fans are rabid, obsessive and passionate followers of
Boston's baseball team, adjectives that don't really bring justice to their
level of intensity for all things Sox. Of course, one of the main features
of the Nation is that it's borderless, with all sorts of colonies springing
up in enemy territories around North America without permission from local
authorities. Heck, even people outside MLB's immediate sphere of influence
cheer on the Sox, and so, from London to Paris to Nepal and Tweeling, South
Africa, those pulling for the Olde Towne Team are getting set to follow the
upcoming World Series action vs the St Louis Cardinals by any means
necessary - some even via the Guardian's blog.
However, the Nation is not alone in this regard. Cards fans can be found
spread thick across the vast center of the United States, mostly thanks to
St Louis' one time status as the westernmost team in Major League Baseball
and the powerful 50,000 watt station KMOX, which broadcast their games and
made Cards fans out of many, miles away from the mothership. Since then, the
Cardinals healthy diaspora have spread their wings and filtered out to all
parts of the country. For instance, if you were at Foley's Bar in Manhattan
enjoying a drink while watching the baseball playoffs, you were undoubtedly
surrounded by an Alfred Hitchcock like swarming of birds fans, Redbirds that
is. Arrive just before first pitch before Game One of the World Series on
Wednesday and you'll likely be two hours too late to find a seat, such is
the pull of the pub that becomes a small patch of Midwest, right in the
heart of midtown.
Maybe it's best for them to stay in groups whilst away from St Louis,
because Cardinals fans are under unprecedented fire lately. Why? For being
Cardinals fans. What's the perception driving detractors of St Louis' fans?
That they're a sickly-sweet group of do-gooding polite Midwesterners that
refuse to get upset with their own players even when they suck. That
sometimes, they even have the nerve to applaud the opposition! (See this
blog on Deadspin and this on Bloomberg). This hatred is exacerbated when the
Cards crush you season after season of course, to the tune of 19 pennants
and 11 World Series titles. Yes, outsiders are starting to notice such
dominating play, and the Yankees, long the premier public enemy for baseball
fans, may soon have company. Who takes the brunt of that heat? Those
Cardinals fans who live far from the security blanket that is Busch Stadium
of course. So we checked in with the those who left the Gateway to the West
to get their take on the abuse, and to discover what the true values of real
live Redbirds supporters really are.
Mike Kernan grew up in Cards country in Belleville, Illinois before leaving
for Los Angeles well over a decade ago.
That old school respect for the game, it's taught to kids in the area,
it is embedded in the religion of baseball in St Louis from an early age.
There is no tolerance for rudeness or inhospitably to fans of opposing teams
or players down on their luck...it really is just a set of expectations. It
becomes surprising, really genuinely surprising when we read about or hear
about this backlash because it's truly out of respect for the game and not
in any way to try to draw attention to us as fans but what seems to be the
right, respectful way to appreciate the world's best sport…It's funny
because that sort of vitriol seems to have increased dramatically this year.
Maybe it's not so funny to Kernan, who cheered on his Redbirds during all
three National League Championship Games at Dodger Stadium.
Anyone that knows the Cardinals fans, certainly knows that there's not a
group of fans that bear ill will of anybody. In fact, you never see
somebody getting beat up at a Cardinals game for rooting for the opposing
team because the fans just aren't like that but, you know, I had somebody
try to pick a fight with me at the Dodgers game. Cardinals fans would never
do that because it would be rude.
Not to mention just flat out mean. Actually, the Cards shunning of any sort
of crowd violence may seem sissy to some, but actually, it's their most
valuable trait. At some point passion for a team got tangled with aggression
, a trait that could use untangling in many locales the world round. Other
than that though, the Cards fan is leaving plenty of meat for those not in
favor of this understanding, rational and sensible fandom which features a
general respect for sport and humanity. Is that all really so wrong?
Mark Momjiam doesn't think so. He resides in Philadelphia and grew up a
second generation Cardinals fan in, of all places, Atlantic City, where KMOX
could be heard at night, and the voice of legendary St Louis broadcaster
Jack Buck floated in to the Eastern Seaboard.
They [the players] call it baseball heaven…And if other people are a
little jealous of that or they think that it's just a little too much
baseball heaven, they need more reality baseball - believe me, is St Louis,
that's what plays. Hustling the basepaths, playing good defense, smart base
running, intelligent baseball, making contact, doing what it takes to win
the game or play competitively, that's Cardinals baseball. | M****7
发帖数: 13407 | 2 hehe, a very decent city. |
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