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.
Nocona got its new press box into place this week at Jack Crane Stadium. The old press box, which was in place for more than 60 years, was taken out in early June and moved to Indian Valley Raceway. The new press box was by the Southern Bleacher Company out of Graham. Athletic Director Black Crutsinger said they looked at a lot of press boxes and decided they liked the one at Lindsay High School and went with that model. Sean Hutson operated the crane from the Hurd Crane Service that put the press box up for Nocona.
Sunset native Cason Richey (right) and his team roping partner Beldon Cox from Weatherford repeated as the International Finals Youth Rodeo champions last weekend at Shawnee, OK. Richey and Cox won the previous year and were able to complete the repeat by catching three steers in a combined time of 16.6 seconds. Richey is expected to compete attend Texas Tech University this fall and compete on the rodeo team.
The Chisholm Trail Youth Rodeo had its awards ceremony this week, giving out plaques and buckles to the top competitors throughout the summer season.
There were four age categories with five events to compete in for the young athletes.
Along with the best results in each event, at the end the overall best cowboy and cowgirl in each age division was awarded as well.
The lead line division, in which an adult helps the young competitors, saw Rylee Stewart win the first in poles, barrel racing and mystery event on her way to win top cowgirl.
Hattie Snow got the fastest time in the flags event and Lany Shupak got the fastest goat time. Riggin Bishop got named the top cowboy in the division.
In the eight-and-under division, Whitley Goins won the top cowgirl and Trell Carpenter won top cowboy. Goins got the fastest times in barrel racing, flags and mystery event. Carpenter got the fastest time in poles and goats.
In the 9-12 age division, Sage Keck won the top cowgirl while Chisum Carpenter won the top cowboy. Keck got the fastest times in four of the five divisions. Only Layna Taylor getting the fastest goat time prevented her from winning in a clean sweep.
In the 13-18 age division, Tess Egenbacher won the top overall cowgirl award.
Kiley McCracken won both the barrel racing and flags event. Emma Strahan won the poles and mystery event. Hadlee Bryan won the goats event.
There was no top overall cowboy in the age division.
To see the times for the winners of each event in all four age categories along with pictures of all of the top cowboys and cowgirls, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
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