Baseball's most intense rivalries
Absurd as it seems, Yankees-Red Sox tickets are no longer difficult to come by. Not long ago, scalpers charged the Bronx faithful epic markups for the benefit of a seat in the stadium. Now, if you log on to the Yankees' Web site or walk up to the ticket window, you can get seats in almost any section. Another rivalry fallen into decline.
Of course, Yankee Stadium's slender crowds are mostly to do with stratospheric ticket prices amid a global recession ($95 for the cheapest field-level seat; they go up to $2,600). Even so, the famed East Coast fight only ranks second on our list of baseball's most intense rivalries.
The top distinction belongs to the bi-coastal San Francisco Giants-Los Angeles Dodgers feud, which began as an inter-borough sauce back when the Giants played in Uptown Manhattan and the Dodgers in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Since 1950, and through Willie Mays' home runs, Sandy Koufax shutouts, Juan Marichal-incited brawls,
boos and surviving even News Corp.'s ownership of the Dodgers, the two clubs have been more competitive and have fought close battles for their league's top spot more often than any other rivalry. The two have finished first and second in their division 12 times, and within five games of each other 19 times in the last 60 seasons.
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Perhaps an equally important barometer is fan excitement, as indicated by a willingness to be overcharged. The markup for a Dodgers-Giants ticket is higher than for any other match-up in the league, according to online reseller Stubhub.com.
Behind the numbers
To calculate our list, we looked at every season since 1950 and tabulated how many times the two clubs had finished first and second in their division and how often they'd finished the season within five games of one another. Weighted equally with those two stats in our methodology is how much the meetings matter to fans – in other words, how much extra money people are willing to pay for a ticket.
For example, expect a 14 percent markup in average ticket prices over the cost of a non-rivalry game at Wrigley Field or Busch Stadium for the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry. Putting a winner on the field helps put fans in seats, but no matter how bad either team is (usually the Cubs, in this case), rivalry series help owners' bottom lines by bringing in more fans.
"Short of playoff games, opening day and just plain winning, rivalries are probably the next best thing to whip up fan interest," says Paul Swangard, a professor at the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. "Teams that are smart enough to leverage those rivalries create a platform for fan development and new revenue streams."
As any baseball executive will tell you, the business of sports begins with fans showing up to the ballpark.
"On the revenue side, increases at the gate, media ratings, licensing and new sponsorship opportunities are all ways teams can stand to benefit," says Swangard.
Yet as much as the Chicago-St. Louis rivalry resonates with fans, it simply hasn't been a competitive affair. The Cardinals have been in eight World Series' since 1950 and the Cubs have finished in last or second-to-last place 50 percent of the time.
When the season's on the line
No matter how bad a season it is for the Cubs, Cardinals, Giants, Dodgers, Yankees or Red Sox, these teams' fans turn out in high volume for divisional contests. For less celebrated rivalries, like the Indians and Tigers, local and national fans often don't take as much notice unless a coveted October appearance is at stake.
"If you're in L.A., Chicago or New York, you get the constant bombardment about the match-ups, and many more people are interested in those games because they have established a connection with them," says the Cleveland Indians'
a set-up reliever now in his third Major League Season. "For a mid- to small-market team, the rivalries are most intense when you're in a pennant race."
Lewis cites the 2007 showdown between the Indians and the Detroit Tigers, when Detroit were the defending American League champs and Cleveland held a small lead late in the season. "We had our biggest crowds of the season for that three-game series," says Lewis. The Indians won the series and went on to win the division.
With ticket sales down across the league by 1 million compared to this time last year, according to MLB, clubs need to take advantage of whatever opportunities they have to drum up interest in this recession. Expect to see more rivalry hype as team executives struggle to overcome the broader economic climate.
Unfortunately, it's history that makes for rivalries, not slick advertising and promotions. There's not much chance you'll be hopelessly devoted to the outcome of the Baltimore Orioles-Toronto Blue Jays season series this year.
But then again, stranger things have happened. After all, it's easy to get tickets to the Yankees and Red Sox series next week – if you can afford it.
The top five:
1. San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers: Slideshow
2. New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox: Slideshow
3. Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians: Slideshow
4. Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians: Slideshow
5. Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies: Slideshow
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