In this 4th annual ranking, the Atlanta Braves are finally getting recognition for fan appreciation.
Even though the Atlanta Braves have appeared on the radar of the FanSided 250, what follows is going to seem like a lot of criticism… specifically criticism about the company I write for. So if this is my last column… it’s been a fun ride, and thanks for tolerating me for 7½ years.
Tis the season for “rankings” and the FanSided 250 is ostensibly a ranking of the strength of “fandoms” each year… and this covers all aspects of entertainment: celebrities, music, gaming, sports, movies, food — anything except politics, it seems.
In years past, the sport of baseball has been snubbed quite a bit. In truth, we here at The Take have pretty much snubbed the “250” ourselves because of the ridiculousness of some of their past surveys.
Allow me to illustrate by reviewing the history:
2017 – the first year
- 250th — Aaron Judge by himself. Okay — given his splash onto the scene in New York, this is actually understandable. But I list him so that you have some context for what follows.
- 247th — East Mississippi Community College. This football program is here exclusively because of a Netflix documentary called ‘Last Chance U’. Ever hear of this? Ever see it? Right… yet that ranked above roughly 21 of the 30 MLB teams this year.
- 227th — the Washington Nationals.
- 197th — the San Francisco Giants
- 119th — the New York Mets
- 72nd — the St. Louis Cardinals
Not saying that some of these teams shouldn’t be ranked, but the point is how low baseball was thought of by those who put together the rankings that year. Heck, Michael Jordan was ranked 65th… and he hadn’t played for 14 years at that point.
#1 and #2 that year? The Ohio State Buckeyes and Game of Thrones, respectively.
Maybe we should cut some slack for this being the first foray into evaluating fans of… everything? Let’s look a bit further, then.