St. Louis Cardinals: The town and team are ranked tops in recent list

The St. Louis Cardinals, the town of St. Louis, and Busch Stadium were recognized in a new list of the best baseball towns in the USA by Fox Sports.

The town of St. Louis, the gateway to the west, holds a deep and dear place in my heart. Growing up in Arkansas, we were able to watch the St. Louis Cardinals regularly and a trip to St. Louis was a special event. I have photos of me as a little pup with several of the great Cardinals on the grass at Busch II.

To me, the St. Louis Cardinals will always be tops. To me, the fans of the St. Louis Cardinals are truly, “the Best Fans in Baseball,” and Busch Stadium is “Baseball Heaven.” In a recent list by Fox Sports writer, Dieter Kurtenbach, St. Louis topped the list of best baseball towns in America.

In his list, Kurtenbach looks at the top thirteen towns starting with Anaheim as the lowest-ranked location. In his introduction, Dieter gives apologies to several towns for one reason or another including the fact that he hasn’t visited to the town being dominated by football.

The top three towns in Kurtenbach’s list are Chicago, San Francisco, and then- the best- St. Louis.

As I read through his article, I was very nervous that Chicago would take the top spot. I worried about this in large part because his featured image is of the famous Wrigley Stadium. And I worried about this because the Cubs- having finally defeated their World Series drought- are the media darlings of MLB. Gladly, I was wrong.

Let’s take a deeper look at the top three cities. First up, Chicago at number three. As much as I might dislike the Cubs, I must admit that Chicago is a great baseball town. Shoot, the town has a team representing each of the leagues in the Cubs and the White Sox. Oh, and each stadium is beautiful there.

I think Kurtenbach put it best when he said:

"Chicago might have the Bulls, Blackhawks, and Bears, but it’s a city that’s divided between the north and south sides — a baseball town."

At the number two slot, San Francisco is a natural baseball town. California is one of the best states for baseball with teams in San Francisco, Anaheim, Oakland, and Los Angeles. The Dodgers are overshadowed by the film industry, and Anaheim, as noted in the article, have a loyal following of 37k+ average attendance (good for number thirteen on the list).

Oakland and it’s As go completely unmentioned in the article. No apology is given and they are simply forgotten. Baseball players note the O.co Stadium as the place where offense dies so this might contribute to it being left off the list.