St. Louis Cardinals: Back on the top-11 MLB clubs fandom

FanSided is ranking the top 250 fandoms in the world, and the national pastime is well represented. Additionally, the St. Louis Cardinals find themselves back on this list.

The St. Louis Cardinals will once again be featured in FanSided’s Fandom 250 listing once again. While not certain yet of its ranking, we at least know that the Cardinals organization is one of eleven MLB fanchises to make the overall cut.

The St. Louis Cardinals were included in the overall cut last year as well and I covered that news at this time in 2016. Here’s what I said then:

"The St. Louis Cardinals are known to have the best fans in baseball. Was this good enough to rank high in the Fandom 250? Let me just jump to the chase… no, it was not. While I am thrilled to have Cardinals Nation included in the top 250 fandoms in the world, I’m frustrated by the ranking."

Want to read the rest? Jump here for the full article from one year back.

That was last year. And what made me so frustrated? The fact that the St. Louis Cardinals found themselves entrenched at 111 while the Chicago Cubs- mind you had just won the World Series after their appropriately-long drought- took top billing.

Oh, and I was also frustrated that Donald Trump beat our the St. Louis Cardinals in the rankings. There was that too.

So why do I even entertain the idea of the Fandom 250? I could not have put it any better than FanSided’s own Josh Hill did in his preview piece:

"Baseball fans don’t just love the game, they absorb it. Whether it’s filling out a scorecard at the ballpark or crunching algorithms for game-changing analytics, baseball fans have always been ahead of the curve. We don’t have fantasy football without some baseball fans getting together and creating fantasy baseball in the 1980s. Without the passionate baseball culture of the 1900s, we might not have the nationwide appreciation of athletics that we do now."

It is this deep love, this deep absorption that spurs me to once again sit with bated breath waiting to see if the St. Louis Cardinals will eclipse their 111th ranking from 2016 with a better ranking now in 2017.

The St. Louis Cardinals are not alone in the competition, however. Joining them in making the cut are the following franchises:

Astros
Cubs
Dodgers
Giants
Indians
Mets
Nationals
Red Sox
Royals
Yankees

As a quick aside, the Yankees lost a place in the standings last year to the aforementioned Donald Trump. I wonder if the same thing will happen this year with the Donald’s rise to Presidency…?

More from Redbird Rants

If I were to remove the Cardinals from the list above, I would rank the franchises based on their performance in 2017 from worst to best as follows: Mets, Giants, Royals, Nationals, Indians, Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, Astros, Cubs. It pains me. It really does, but from this list, I think the Cubs will take top billing in relation to the MLB clubs.

I would honestly put the St. Louis Cardinals probably between the Royals and Nationals. That pains me too because I’m saddened that the fandom will suffer based on the lackluster performance of the team. This is sad because I’m wary that the fandom took a quieter approach in 2017 thanks to Mike Matheny’s pitiful leadership on the diamond and this will likely present itself with the fandom NOT eclipsing the 111th rank.

So, there it is: my prediction that the St. Louis Cardinals will NOT fare well this year in the 250 listing. But, stay tuned because I am often wrong (at least my wife tells me so; as do many readers on Facebook).

Next: Stanton update

Where would you rank the St. Louis Cardinals fandom? Would you have Cardinals Nation beating the other MLB clubs on this list? Let me know on Twitter and check back here for the official release of the Fandom 250 listings.

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