Why The Cardinals Are The Best Team In Baseball

St. Louis Cardinals fans get a lot of flak for being St. Louis Cardinals fans. What I don't understand about that is why it's considered such a bad thing to be a Cardinals fan. Buzzfeed even wrote an article on 23 reasons why it's perfectly OK to despise the Birds and their fanbase.

They needed 23 reasons to convince you we suck.

I only need eight to say they're wrong.

1. We have 11 World Series rings.

Sure, the Yankees have more but honestly how many World Series have the Yankees actually won? Pretty sure they paid for most of them.

2. We have a ballpark literally nicknamed "Baseball Heaven."

When the new Busch Stadium opened in 2006, the view it provided of downtown St. Louis made this ballpark one of the most, if not the single most, beautiful ballparks in all of baseball. It's a perfect backdrop for major plays. The architecture of the building reeks of taste and fits the early-1900's feel the rest of the city still emanates. It's simply beautiful.

3. Budweiser

According to the Huffington Post, Bud Light and Budweiser are two of the top three most popular beers in America. In other cities, Budweiser advertisements are there because people love the beer. In St. Louis, not only is it because of that, but it's also because for this company, St. Louis is home. We own Anheuser-Busch. And they owned the team for over 40 years.

4. Yadi

ESPN's Baseball Tonight ranks Yadier Molina at the 2nd best catcher in baseball behind only San Francisco's Buster Posey. Of course, we St. Louisans would rate Yadi at #1 any day, and we'll fight it to the grave. In 13 years of playing in the MLB, Yadi's hit 100 home runs and has a slugging rate of .398. He won the Golden Glove for the eighth time in November of 2015. We love him, and for good reason.

5. We've Given the MLB Dozens of Legends.

Stan "The Man" Musial, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Whitey Herzon, Tony LaRussa, Jack Buck (the radio host that coined the phrase, "Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!"), Albert Pujols, Mark McGwire (the last two we're not 100 percent proud of). These are just a few of the many that the Cardinals dynasty has produced. Spend a few minutes researching any of them and you're guaranteed to find not only how they contributed to baseball but to society in some pretty awesome ways.

6. David Freese's Game 6 Walk-off Homer in 2011

David Freese grew up in St. Louis, was picked up by the Cardinals, and single-handedly sent the 2011 World Series against the Texas Rangers into a seventh game with a walk-off home run in game six. Just the thought of that kind of a story makes the baseball fan in you warm up a little. A hometown boy saving the day for the hometown team in the hometown stadium was most likely his dream as a little league hitter.

7. The Rally Squirrel

In 2011, in the NLDS at Busch Stadium against Philadelphia, a gray squirrel ran across the field, and a rally started. The Cards went on to win the game, and eventually beat the Phillies in five games. Then they won the World Series with the help of David Freese as mentioned before. The Rally Squirrel was on t-shirts, signs, all over ESPN and the rest of the media, and it even got its own Twitter account. It's become a good-luck charm for us, and we can't wait to see him every year.

8. Cardinal Nation

There is no single fan base in the entire world quite like Cardinal Nation. I once heard a TV announcer say, "It's literally Cardinal Nation -- you see fans at Cardinals' away games wearing Cards' gear and those fans didn't travel there -- they're from that city. And they're all over the ballpark." The Birds bring not just the city together, but people nationwide. When I see people in other states wearing Cardinals gear, I know that's someone I can instantly become friends with. They honor players from other teams as they retire, hit major milestones, or other things by giving them standing ovations in their own stadium. They're classy.

If this article hasn't convinced you, you'll just have to go to Busch for yourself and see what I mean. The Cardinals are a team for the city, for the nation, and for you. Join the Cardinal Nation --we're all one big happy family.