KCBS Sports Fans: Forget Your Formula - A's And Giants Fans Are The Best
KCBS News Anchor Stan Bunger (who along with KCBS Sports Anchor Steve Bitker are the on-air duo known as KCBS Sports Fans) offers his unique sports analysis.
Mark Twain once ascribed the quote "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics" to British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. Supposedly, Disraeli never said it, but the sentiment is still true and all you need to know it is to read that wacky report from Forbes about baseball fans.
The good people at Forbes clobbered together some kind of mathematical mumbo-jumbo to "prove" that San Francisco Giants fans are only the fifth-best in baseball (tied with Milwaukee Brewers fans), and that A's fans don't even make the top 10.
What a crock. Just to prove I'm not a complete provincial homer, I will concede the Forbes people their #1 ranking for St. Louis Cardinals fans. That sea of red in St. Louis is something to behold, and the long tradition of St. Louis baseball success is truly inspiring. Just don't ever, ever mention Jeffrey Leonard and the '87 Giants.
But the rest of the Forbes list? The insufferable Red Sox Nation at #2? Detroit and Cincinnati at #3 and #4? Not a chance. I'll take the merry band of wackos who fill AT&T Park to the rafters for every game ahead of any of that lot. Heck, give me a BART car's worth of bearded drum-pounding A's fans and we'll drown out that insipid "Sweet Caroline" thing any old night.
It's probably unfair to point out the obvious: if given the choice of living anywhere in America, how many people would choose Boston (hello, snowdrifts!) over the Bay Area? Let's not even talk about St. Louis, Cincinnati or Detroit.
We're damned lucky to live here. We're even luckier to be baseball fans and have the Giants and A's to call our own. Rate that, Forbes.
