football, baseball, and the geography of hope
Monday Night Football is on. (those of you who know me well know that i don't much care for any major sports except baseball and soccer. for those of you who don't know me very well, i've now engaged in the necessary disclosure before you continue reading this entry.) speaking of which, who is lurking out there? i'd love to hear from you, since i know there are a few of you who i don't know, but who have noticed my blog, and have been reading it. email me: djg92167 at com dot yahoo.

i was struck yesterday, while watching the Philadelphia Eagles vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game, how different the geography of the NFL is, compared to MLB. here's the basic analysis:

look at how many dead-end, post-industrial, Rust-Belt (northeast) cities have football teams, particularly that locals of the city/state/region are feverently devoted to. and look how few football teams with dedicated, passionate fan bases exist in places with vibrant social cultures, vibrant economies, big futures ahead of them (i.e., things to be hopeful about other than sports.)

this idea comes in part out of trying to explain why san diego just doesn't seem to much care about its major sports teams: the long suffering Padres, and the Chargers, who everyone is just shocked by how well they are doing this season.

of course, my analysis is highly subjective, based on which cities i think are least, and most, troubled/sad/run-down. if you don't agree, you can email me at the above address, and/or you can also post it in your own blog, and direct me to it. but this is my blog, so:

loogit: the "North" divisions of the AFC and NFC practically read like a list of redevelopment enterprise zones:

AFC North
Pittsburgh
Baltimore
Cleveland
Cincinnati

NFC North
Minnesota
Green Bay
Detroit
Chicago

of the lot, only Chicago and Minneapolis have hopes outside of football. (okay, this is arguable and debatable, but i'm trying to make a point here, okay?) now compare this to baseball: the only similar division in baseball is the AL Central:

Minnesota
Chicago (White Sox)
Cleveland
Detroit
Kansas City

again, there are Minnesota and Chicago (who finished one and two, respectively, in the division), and then Cleveland, a mediocre baseball team to compliment the mediocre football team; Detroit: where people were ecstatic that the team didn't lose 100 games again; and Kansas City: where the baseball team finished 34 games out of first place, to go with a football team that, at present, is tied with a couple of others for the third worst record in the AFC.

now look at other sad, run-down football cities: Buffalo. Jacksonville. Indianapolis. Houston. Nashville. Philadelphia. Charlotte. Tampa. of these, only three also have baseball teams: Houston, Philadelphia, and Tampa.

now i'll list all the baseball cities which i consider similarly sad and/or run-down, but which do not also have a football team: Milwaukee.
(Arlington, Texas, home of baseball's Rangers, gets an honorable mention, but if i listed it, then i would also have to list Dallas for football.)

now look at the exciting, good, and/or up and coming cities that have football teams:
Denver? San Diego? i've lived i both in the last four years, and they have plenty to sell them besides football. Seattle? Phoenix? San Francisco? all decent places, but they also all have baseball teams, and plenty else to make them nice places to live in.

alright, it's not a perfect scientific analysis, but i think ti underscores my basic point: football teams largely sprang up, and stayed, in northeastern, rustbelt cities that have little else to offer today.

much like the west Texas cities profiled in the outstanding book Friday Night Lights, recently made into a movie of the same name with Billy Bob Thornton that i haven't yet seen, these cities seem to rally around football in an unusually passionate way, i would argue because they have little else to be excited about. on the other hand, western cities have lots else to rally around, and arguably much less passionate, devoted fan bases: Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, etc. i've lived in or near three of these places, and the freakish love for the football teams, as evidenced by people painting their near naked bodies to stand out in sub-freezing weather, just isn't the same. (okay, so it rarely gets to sub-freezing in Phoenix, but you don't see people standing out in the sun for hours on end, mostly naked, without sunblock, to cheer on the Arizona Cardinals or Diamondbacks.)

'nuff for now. gotta cut new carpet for Petunia, our beloved and soon to be given up for adoption, 1985 VW camper van. (she is going to a better home, where they will take her fr more field trips, which she desperately wants, and can't have from parents like us, who don't like the environmental consequences of driving, and so are going to go car-less.)