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The Best Fans in Baseball

G-Fafif Sep 29 2005 02:34 PM

In an effort to drain my money's worth out of Extra Innings, I flipped on the intro to the Reds-Brewers game a little while ago. The Brewer announcers lavished some serious "Brewers fans are the best fans in baseball" praise all over their immediate audience. Why? Because 1) Milwaukee drew 2.2 million (thus sparking the Brewers to a winning home record and possibly a .500 record overall) and 2) They snapped up 38,000 free tickets to today's game. The Brewers' owner made a nice gesture of giving away every otherwise empty seat. Only 13,000 of the best fans in baseball bought in advance. No doubt it takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to remain a Brewers fan after 23 consecutive pennantless seasons and a dozen without a winning record (to say nothing of all that tailgating), but the best fans in baseball? Not "some of the best fans in baseball"? Or "the most patient fans in baseball"? Hometown hard-sell aside, come now. Maybe the best Brewers fan in the world is the best fan in baseball, but I can't imagine that as a group they're such hot stuff.

metirish Sep 29 2005 02:37 PM

I thought St.Louis fans were the best in baseball, that's all I seem to hear every time I tune in to watch a game they are featured in.

G-Fafif Sep 29 2005 02:46 PM

While I don't doubt we'll have similar smoke blown up our collective rears on Sunday, I wonder what fans are not told that they are the best in baseball by their own propagandists. "Hey Devil Ray fans, you may not have much to do, but we appreciate your doing it in here" would at least meet truth-in-advertising standards.

Edgy DC Sep 29 2005 02:58 PM

I suspect that the best fans in baseball, whatever criteria is used to measure them, are not crowding into one parking lot, but sprinkled liberally among all 30 teams. The team with the most fans, whoever that is, probably (but not necessarily) has the most fans who've achieved the greatness plateau, but the teams are probably bunched when ranked by great fans per thousand. Our standing probably fell when Doris from Rego Park passed.

Elster88 Sep 29 2005 03:01 PM

You can call me cruel and heartless if you want, but although I was sorry to hear that she died, I was not sorry that I wouldn't have the hear her call in to the FAN and cough her way through a five minute phone call while repeating everything the host had said in his monologue.

seawolf17 Sep 29 2005 03:08 PM

Okay, you're cruel and heartless. But I do somewhat agree with you. As much of a great Met fan as she was, she did get a little annoying.

metirish Sep 29 2005 03:09 PM

Doris was one hell of a fan though...Bob raisman remembers her after her death.. ]Overnight loses family member "Thank you for your time and courtesy." That's how Doris From Rego Park ended all her telephone calls to radio sports talkies. The depths of the night can be very daunting. Especially if you are sick. Especially if you are lonely. Especially if you just want to talk to somebody. That's when Doris did her best work. Sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. Usually it was with WFAN's Joe Benigno. The two of them talked like family. And all of us who are up and around at that hour were part of it, too. Oh, it wasn't always smooth sailing. A few times Doris went wiggy on Benigno because he put her on too close to an update or commercial break. At those very cantankerous moments you knew Benigno was thinking about the many times he let Doris go on and on and on. His tone presented an image of a guy throwing his arms up in the air and saying: "Geesh, what do you want from me?" That's okay. Families do have their moments. For Doris, it was always about the Mets. She spoke as if they were family, too. We all knew what season ticket plan she had at Shea and what games she would be attending. And after almost every Mets game, Doris would be on the air with some talkie. As she rehashed the game, always interrupted by a constant cough brought on by her battles with breast and lung cancer, the sheer intensity of her love for the Mets always came through. That's what was so cool about Doris. She didn't have particularly startling insights, but man did she have passion. Day after summer day, night after summer night, she ground it out with her team. Most fans are pretenders. They really aren't totally plugged into all 162. Doris was always there. Even in late September, long after the Mets lost all hope. There wasn't a phoney bone in Doris' body. She liked Doc and Darryl, but she loved her Lenny. Doris had her favorite talkies too. Benigno. Jody McDonald. Suzyn Waldman. Ian (The Bird) Eagle. Don LaGreca. Over the years, she would call me with questions, mostly about sports talk radio. The last time I spoke with Doris was in June. Fox Sports wanted her to read the Mets lineup prior to a Subway Series interleague game at Yankee Stadium. Doris said she was too sick to go to the Bronx. I suspect she just didn't want to set foot in Yankee Stadium. If the game was at her beloved Shea, well, I still want to believe she would have been there, proudly reading the Mets lineup on TV. Today, following a memorial service in Rego Park, they will bury Doris Bauer, who died last week at the age of 58. The cancer finally got her. It took away a familiar voice. A voice full of concern for her Mets. It took away a piece of the radio night. Thank you, Doris. Thank you for your time and courtesy. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/story/137145p-121982c.html

ScarletKnight41 Sep 29 2005 03:13 PM

In all fairness, I've been to all 30 major league ballparks, and the fans in Milwaukee stood out as particularly nice people to watch a game with. We were there for three games in August 2002 (right before that season went south on us), and from the ticket-takers to the ushers to the fans in the stands, everyone was just really NICE. I know I wrote about it on the old board, although I don't know that I have the stamina to try to find the thread.

holychicken Sep 29 2005 03:29 PM

I thought the members of this board were the best fans in baseball. Thus making the best fans in baseball mets fans (other than a sprinkling of other fans, most notably out lovely Astro's fan and our REAL yankee fan).

ScarletKnight41 Sep 29 2005 03:31 PM

Wow - I actually found [url=http://p079.ezboard.com/fthecranepoolforumfrm14.showMessage?topicID=486.topic]My report from Miller Park[/url] really quickly. I didn't specifically write much about the fans, but I recall that during one of the games two guys who saw that we were from out of town (the Mets gear gave us away) gave us passes for the museum they had on their club level. I'm telling you, the place was just NICE.

OlerudOwned Sep 29 2005 04:15 PM

A Cardinals fan sick of all the "best fans in baseball" talk. http://www.joesportsfan.com/BestFans.html ]Since that time, the intense desire for the city to hang onto this fictional title has become overwhelming. The fans who used to sport “the Mets are Pond Scum” t-shirts, considered Don Denkinger to be on the same level as Lucipher and who honestly wanted to cause physical harm to Jeffrey Leonard in the ’87 NLCS, was now to be known for their cordial and respective nature.

Frayed Knot Sep 29 2005 04:20 PM

Cardinal fans are the best in baseball ... just ask them!