What is the "coolest" franchise in sports?

Pirates and Tigers in baseball are cool. Old school, win enough to not be a joke but not too often where you can be excused of being a front-runner.

 

I could get on board with those two as well.

 

This guy helps your image, if you're the Tigers.

 

So does this guy, and starting a season 35-5.

 

You'd think on St. Patrick's Day, the Lakers would hold a no-holds-barred Purple-Out.

 

The Cardinals have a huge fanbase because for years and years, up until the 1950s, they were the westernmost team in baseball and had most of the Midwest and South — heck, everything west of the Mississippi — all to themselves. Their games could be heard clearly on KMOX at night. Obviously western expansion changed that, but the older fans have passed their fandom on to younger generations.

 

Madden and these young guys have given the Cubs a cool vibe, for sure.

 

Non US/Stick-and-ball division:

Team SKY

 

There's a radio station owner in town who made his station a Cardinals affiliate for just that reason. We're on the outer fringes of their fan base (about seven hours from St. Louis), but he grew up listening to them on KMOX and figured a lot of other people did too. So, he became part of the Cardinals radio network, however that works, because he wanted to hear their games locally.

 

Some definite similarities between the Packers and Cardinals franchises. Both ancient franchises going back to their league's origins, both small market midwestern, yet with long history of swinging way above their small market weight class, both in terms of winning and huge national fan base. And, oh yeah, both utterly despised by Chicagoans.

 

I would not wear their stuff, but the NFL would be a lot more fun is the Raiders were bad asses once again.

 

St. Louis wasn't really a small market during the 30s and 40s when they became so huge. It was one of the 10 largest cities in the country at a time when Southern California and the Bay Area weren't represented in the major leagues. Bigger than Boston, Pittsburgh or DC at the time. I'm not sure I buy the "swinging above their weight class" comparison to Green Bay -- the city itself had a population of almost a million in 1940. It's about a third of that now, but still a metro area of about 3 million.