SPORTS
World Series begins between Dodgers and Red Sox
Fans are willing to pay top dollar to see a game, too, especially during the highly anticipated World Series that kicks off every October. Of course, tickets are kinder to the wallet during the regular season. But to see Game 1 of the 114th World Series on Oct. 23, for instance, the cheapest seat at Fenway Park in Boston would cost $375, according to TicketIQ. For Game 7 on Oct. 31 at the same stadium, the damage would range from a starting price of $875 all the way to a whopping $29,785, as of Oct. 23. That doesn’t leave much room for peanuts and cracker jacks. And that’s not mentioning the hundreds of millions of dollars wagered by the betting market every year.
But it’s more fun, not to mention cheaper, to love on baseball in certain parts of America, so which cities would fans consider a home run? WalletHub crunched the numbers to find out, comparing 360 of the largest U.S. cities with at least one professional or college baseball team, grouped by division. In each city, we looked at 31 key indicators of baseball fan-friendliness. They range from performance level of team(s) to average ticket price per game to stadium accessibility.
With the 2018 World Series in full gear and tickets to see the games live costing hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on Best Baseball Cities as well as accompanying videos to go along with its World Series Facts – Red Sox vs. Dodgers infographic. Click on any of these links to learn more World Series facts at Wallethub.
To determine the best places to be a fan of America’s third most followed sport, WalletHub compared 360 U.S. cities with at least one college or professional baseball team across 31 key metrics. They range from performance level of team(s) to average ticket price to stadium accessibility.
| Top 20 Baseball Cities | ||||
| 1 | New York, NY | 11 | Oakland, CA | |
| 2 | Los Angeles, CA | 12 | Minneapolis, MN | |
| 3 | St. Louis, MO | 13 | Detroit, MI | |
| 4 | Atlanta, GA | 14 | St. Petersburg, FL | |
| 5 | Chicago, IL | 15 | Baltimore, MD | |
| 6 | San Francisco, CA | 16 | Milwaukee, WI | |
| 7 | Cincinnati, OH | 17 | Cleveland, OH | |
| 8 | Boston, MA | 18 | Philadelphia, PA | |
| 9 | Pittsburgh, PA | 19 | San Diego, CA | |
| 10 | Arlington, TX | 20 | Kansas City, MO | |
Best vs. Worst
- MLB: The Chicago Cubs have the best performance level, 60.21 percent, which is 1.5 times better than that of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds, the teams with the worst at 41.15 percent.
- MiLB: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders have the best performance level, 60.29 percent, which is 1.7 times better than that of the Bristol Pirates, the team with the worst at 35.71 percent.
- NCAA: The Oregon State Beavers have the best performance level, 78.67 percent, which is 9.9 times better than that of the Saint Peters Peacocks, the team with the worst at 7.93 percent.
- Phoenix has the lowest average season ticket price (for MLB games), $19.65, which is 2.9 times less expensive than in Boston, the city with the highest at $56.97.
With the baseball and softball seasons over for the area 1A schools, district awards have been released.
Listed below are those earned honors on the field and in the classroom for Saint Jo and Bellevue.
Softball
Saint Jo
Honorable mention
Utility player: Taylor Patrick; Catcher: Jordyn O’Neal
Baseball
Superlatives
Offensive MVP: Devin Stewart, Saint Jo
Newcomer of the Year: Bryce Ramsey, Bellevue
Pitcher: Trent Gaston, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Jayden Curry, Saint Jo
Second team
Pitcher: Charlie Barclay, Saint Jo
Infielder: Brycen Bancroft, Bellevue; Sam Martin, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Rylan Forrester, Saint Jo
Catcher: Charlie Evans, Saint Jo
Utility: Logan Hoover, Saint Jo
DH: Amzy Barclay, Saint Jo
Honorable mention
Cody Gaston, Saint Jo; Xander Joyner, Saint Jo
To see academic awards from Saint Jo players, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Eldon Van Hooser is leaving Forestburg better than he found it.
The head boy’s basketball coach is retiring after more than 30 years, spending the last five at Forestburg.
Van Hooser did not come to this decision because of a lack of fire or feeling tired after decades in the profession. He had to for family reasons.
“My wife has MS (multiple sclerosis) and it’s a disease where you have trouble standing and walking and she needs help,” Van Hooser said. “I am able to so I am going to step away from teaching and coaching to be there for her.”
Van Hooser was hired in 2019. Along with being the boy’s basketball coach, he also was the football team’s defensive coordinator.
There were some lean years for Forestburg on the boy’s athletic side, with numbers being low and the available athletes being mostly underclassmen.
For two years, the Longhorns’ boy’s basketball team won few games and one of those seasons saw the team field five players on the high school team.
“One of those years we had COVID-19 and the other we had five kids,” Van Hooser said. “It was very rough. After that we worked with the kids and we had a good freshman group coming up. Next year they are going to be seniors.”
That group has helped to turn the program around. Last year the young Longhorns team contested for a playoff spot and just barely missed it finishing fifth in the district.
This season, that same group took a leap and finished second in district with a record of 7-5.
Despite losing its last two regular season games in dramatic fashion heading into the playoffs, the team stepped up in the bi-district game.
Playing against an athletic Newcastle team, Forestburg led for most of the game.
Unfortunately, the previous game against Bellevue saw the Longhorn team blow the lead late in the fourth quarter against a hard pressing style team and they were suffering the same fate against the Bobcats down the stretch.
Fortunately, Forestburg held on just enough to win 53-46. It was the first boy’s basketball playoff win in nine years for Forestburg.
“It was huge for our program,” Van Hooser said. “This new year we will have new goals. The new coach will have some goals of his own, but I set some for the team and think that we have come a long way.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie sports banquets was on Monday night. Olivia Gill and Tucker Jones were named Jackrabbit and Lady Rabbit of the year. Pick up the mid-week paper for all of the sports team awards and pictures.
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