[ryancholden]

I thought this would be fun discussion. The friendly debate topic is just that: friendly. Please keep it that way, although friendly banter is always appreciated! :-)

I know we will all have the tendancy to pimp our favorite team/city as the best, but I'm hoping we can get a peak into the experience for those of us who can't get to so many of these ballparks and cities.

These are too easy, and hope we can get beyond them:
St. Louis, Boston, New York, Chicago

Who you got, and why? What makes it a unique baseball experience to live/root in that city/team?

My underdog picks (tough recent years, small media market, tough division):
Cincinnati, Baltimore

[bryandavidknight]

It's certainly not where im at. It's all college/pro football and Nascar here. I have one friend who is baseball crazy like me and he just moved about 2 hrs away to Charleston sc. Don't even have any card collectors around here and when my friends come over and I show them my collection they are like who cares. Kinda disheartening. So I guess Beckett is my town full of baseball fans and collectors. My closest card shop is in Myrtle beach about an hour away.

[FlyingSquirrels]

St.Louis I'm sure is a great baseball town,has to be!!

[Blue_Horde]

LA is crazy about the Dodgers! At least everyone I know is.

[sastahl]

LA is crazy about the Dodgers! At least everyone I know is.

remember opening day last year? they may be a little to passionate

[dbroockerd]

You know, I travel to a park every year. In the last 4 years I have been to Milwaukee, Arlington, Minnesota, and St Louis. I of course live in KC. I used to think KC was baseball crazy until I went to St Louis. They are hard core ans there. Texas seemed to have a strong passion too but not near to the point of St Louis. I was disappointed in Minnesota because cardboard collectors are passionate about there team but the fans there didn't seem to be as much. By far though, and I mean far, I thought Milwaukee was the absolute most passionate about there team. That place was standing room only on a week night. It want a huge opponent. The fans were on their feet a large amount of the game. They holler, scream, fight a little, eat a lot, drink a ton, and just flat out enjoy every freaking second of the game. it was almost scary to have kids there cause it was so crazy. I look forward to the park I go to that beats Milwaukee.

[cspen]

You guys should go to an opening day in St Louis. They know how to do it right. Right down to all the living Hall of Famers being there. Its fun seeing Brock, Gibson, Red, Stan the Man, Ozzie etc

[dbroockerd]

You guys should go to an opening day in St Louis. They know how to do it right. Right down to all the living Hall of Famers being there. Its fun seeing Brock, Gibson, Red, Stan the Man, Ozzie etc

Now that would likely beat all.

The thing with Milwaukee when I was there is it felt like Opening Day in KC and it was a Monday in July. I couldn't imagine Opening Day every day.

[Krangry]

You guys should go to an opening day in St Louis. They know how to do it right. Right down to all the living Hall of Famers being there. Its fun seeing Brock, Gibson, Red, Stan the Man, Ozzie etc

+1

I had to sell my tickets this year , hurts down deep.

OT: When im having a bad day, this cheers me up.

[jacobystealshome]

ive been to every park but seattle.

there's nothing like what i got less than 2 miles from my house

fenway park

the cardinals might have the nicest fans. and if you are into that kind of thing, i guess that is alright. it's fine and dandy. very midwest. i can dig it

but passionate? red sox fans are the most passionate. im not talking those pink hat wearing latte sipping lets go to fenway cause it's the cool thing to do people - they'll be gone if the red sox have a bad stretch. im talking the riled up, din-creating, through thick and thin, through aaron boone and bob stanley, celebrate truck day like a national day off, work your schedule around patriot's day so you can drink beer in the morning, catch the game and watch the marathon go by, treat damon like he screwed your wife because he went to the yankees, mirabelli jersey wearing, live each loss like it is the end of the world and every win like a potential game 7, call into the hub and weei and break down beckett's propensity to have bad years in odd years like some latter-day bret saberhagen, forgive every player's sin and condem them for each tiny infraction, know the intricacies of each nook and cranny of fenway like you live there, take a city tour after the world series and find out where ted williams took a piss back in '58, smack talk anyone within 50 yards wearing yankee gear, whether they be man, woman or child, scream like your life depended on it when ells steals home, and generally keep the local otolaryngologists busy because you have lost your voice again because there was ANOTHER appearance of the Lowe-face

you can have fanbases that might (MIGHT) be more knowledgeable. ill even say there are fanbases that are more devout (though i doubt it).

there is no city more passionate - for better and for worse - about baseball. there is no city that lives and dies by baseball, more than Boston, treats baseball as a religion like Boston