LOYALTY?

by 2 March 26, 2013 0 Comments

It's easy to be loyal to a team when they constantly win. Stay true to your team after getting kicked in the gut year after year, now that's loyalty. Some fans live and die by each pitch, and I'm not just talking during the regular season. Go down to Spring Training, you'll see the same loyalty during games that don't "count". I don't think the Mets have it all that bad. It could definitely be worse. We've had some bright spots the past couple years and have hope in the not too distant future. Not all our fans love going to the ballpark (for their own reasons) but hop on twitter at any given moment, the Mets fan base is as loyal as they come. Hope, that's big in sports. Look at Cubs fans. They've been waiting over 100 years for a World Series championship. THAT'S loyalty. Imagine being a senior citizen lifelong Cubs fan. Never in their lives have they seen their banner raised. THAT'S loyalty. Yesterday a company called Brand Keys released their annual survey. It lists the MLB fan bases loyalty in order. Surprise, surprise, the Yankees are #1 and the Phillies are #2. The Mets came in at #26th. Top-5 Teams - 2013 2012 Rankings

1. New York Yankees (#2)

2. Philadelphia Phillies (#1)

3. San Francisco Giants (#4)

4. St. Louis Cardinals (#5)

5. Atlanta Braves (#6)

Cellar Dwellers 2012 Rankings

30. Houston Astros (#23)

29. Kansas City Royals (#28)

28. Pittsburgh Pirates (#30)

27. Seattle Mariners (#27)

26. New York Mets (#26)

You're telling me the Marlins fans are more loyal than the Mets? They're not even in the bottom 5? What a joke. Lets look at that top 5. Excluding the Braves, who are a pretty consistent winning team, they've all won a World Series somewhat recently. Is "loyalty" really built on that? I think that's just a typical recipe for what's called a bandwagon fan. The Yankees fans are among the most loyal? Yes, some most definitely are. Others thought it was too hard to get to Yankee Stadium during playoff games in 2012. Ushers were told to move fans down to the lower levels so it wouldn't look so empty on tv. Yea, that's some serious loyalty right there. That's straight up embarrassing. The MOST loyal fans would have been dying for a ticket. You could have bought one on stubhub just before first pitch.

The Phillies are the MOST loyal? Ha. They stopped winning and the fans stopped showing up. Their "sell out" streak ended. Those loyal die hards turned their back on Citizens Bank Park. I used to go down there in 2005 and 2006 for Mets games. Nobody in the place. Obviously that all changed in 2008. A World Series win and all of the sudden everyone in Philly and South Jersey was a fan. Rocking their Utley jerseys and vomiting on little girls. Most loyal? How about most rotten?

This blog wasn't written to bitch and moan about the Phillies and Yankees. The teams or their fans didn't release this survey. There are loyal fans of EVERY team. In NY, yes, I can admit it, the Yankees draw larger crowds and have made the playoffs many more times than the Mets in recent years. It's "cool" to like the Yankees, for now at least. Start losing, the loyalty meter will drop quick. Loyalty isn't built on winning. If anything it's built on losing. Keep loving your team when they stink. That's loyalty. Brand Keys needs to reevaluate their system next year. Rant over.