Fandom 250: San Francisco Giants Ninth-Best Fanbase in Baseball?!?
FanSided recently released the first ever Fandom 250, consisting of the top fanbases from sports, music, movies, television, and a host of other media formats, and the San Francisco Giants came in at 226th.
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The San Francisco Giants are the 226th-best fanbase, according to the Fandom 250, and the ninth-best among Major League Baseball teams. If you think that seems a bit low, that’s because it probably is.
The Giants being ranked as the ninth-best MLB fanbase is borderline crazy. This is the same team that has a National League record sellout streak that has reached 489 games. That is 489 consecutive games with no tickets left over, every seat in the house sold, dating all the way back to October 1st, 2010. Only the Boston Red Sox, who sold out 794 straight games from 2003 to 2013, hold a longer streak. So it can be excused that the Red Sox fans are rated ahead of the Giants, at number 25.
San Francisco was fourth in attendance last season, trailing only the Los Angeles Dodgers (we’ll get to them), the St. Louis Cardinals (best fans in baseball! *eye roll*), and the Toronto Blue Jays. Six of the eight teams that were ranked better than the Giants in the Fandom 250 had worse attendance.
And those Dodgers’ fans? The same Dodgers’ fans that are notorious for arriving in the third inning and leaving in the seventh? The same Dodgers’ fans that are constantly fiddling around with beach balls that always seem to make their way onto the field and are probably the biggest proponents of the wave? Sure, they led the league in attendance, but how many of those fans actually saw an entire game?
Let’s talk about some of the other fanbases that were ranked ahead of the Giants. First, the Cleveland Indians, who were ranked 198th overall and eighth-best in MLB. That long-suffering fanbase wasn’t suffering in Progressive Field. They finished 28th in attendance, drawing nearly 22,000 fewer fans per game than the Giants.
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The Kansas City Royals were ranked 192nd, and seventh-best in baseball. Those same Kansas City Royals’ fans were called out by manager Ned Yost in 2014, the season with their first run to the World Series in 30 years, for lack of attendance. On the day that happened, the Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1, on a walkoff, moved to 73-58 on the season, and were 1.5 games up in the American League central. 13,847 fans saw that game.
The Baltimore Orioles were 191st overall, and sixth in baseball. The very same Orioles’ fans that were also called out because of a lack of attendance. It wasn’t by the manager. Instead, it was star center fielder Adam Jones, who is known as one of the friendliest guys in the game. This is a guy who played in a game with LITERALLY ZERO FANS, so if he’s calling out a lack of attendance, that should be seen as a problem.
And those Dodgers are ranked 182nd, and fifth-best in baseball. Yuck.
In front of them are the St. Louis Cardinals, at number four (111th overall). They keep calling themselves the “best fans in baseball” so they probably feel robbed there. Oh well.
The Red Sox are third in MLB, 29th overall, but they’re good. Good job, Boston fans. The New York Yankees are second, 25th overall, so cast your own judgment there. And the Chicago Cubs are number one, both in MLB and overall. They are the best fanbase in baseball. There’s really no argument against that. Go, Cubs, Go!
Next: Giants Bag Melancon with Record Deal (For Now)
Hey, the Giants are used to being discounted. They had no chance in any of their three World Series appearances this decade, but we know how that ended. The Giants have some good fans, and we all know it.