The World Series kicks off TONIGHT, and as everyone expected all season, it’ll be between Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers and, a team they will easily defeat in four games.
Kidding. The Dodgers are playing the Toronto Blue Jays, and they have a formidable team, which won the AL East, defeated the New York Yankees in the ALDS, and the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS.
A new study just ranked 333 cities from the best place for baseball to the worst. Why 333? Those are all the cities that have at least one Major League Baseball, minor league, or NCAA baseball team.
The rankings are based on 31 factors, including the recent performance of the local teams, past championships, coaching changes, attendance, fan engagement, and ticket prices.
The top 26 cities on the list are, not coincidentally, cities that have MLB teams, with New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta coming out on top.
The highest-ranking city without a Major League team is Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Jersey City, New Jersey came in last out of the 333 cities.
So this year L.A. came in second, and Toronto wasn’t ranked, because they only included American cities. Which seems like a big miss, especially with the Blue Jays making the World Series.
(Here are the rankings for all 333 cities.)
I’m going to make the executive decision to slot Toronto in the Top 10, maybe at #9, ahead of West Sacramento. They JUST got the Athletics this year, and it’s just a temporary home before the team moves to Vegas.
And Toronto could surely be higher if you consider that the Jays aren’t just a Toronto team, they have a WHOLE COUNTRY rooting them on.
