Harrison Stanfill
This year’s World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers is going to be as competitive as ever.
This puts the University of Arkansas in an awkward situation.
It’s unavoidable.
Many of the people who attend the You of A are from Texas. As any good Texan, they are unabashedly proud about all things Texas. This will explain the inordinate amount of Josh Hamilton t-shirt jerseys wandering around campus at any given time.
As a lifelong Arkansan, I would have to consider Arkansas to be Cardinal Country.
The games come in on the radio, Cardinals flags fly from homes and cars, and a statue of Albert Pujols resides in Eureka Springs looking out over all of the Natural State. OK, maybe that last one isn’t quite true, but you get my point.
Because Arkansas doesn’t have a professional sports team, many of the people’s allegiances lie with teams that are closer in region to them or if they are just jumping on the bandwagon because they are good.
This explains why both the Cardinals and Rangers are popular in this region. Every day during the summer you can catch a Ranger or Cardinal game on TV, go to any sports bar in Fayetteville and chances are you will a Cardinals flag on the wall or a Rangers sign hanging in the window.
These are two of the more popular teams in the area. No disrespect to the Kansas City Royals, but fans want to be entertained and there is no entertainment value whatsoever in the Royals or any Kansas City professional team for that matter.
These teams are very popular in this area and this week you will see just how popular they really are, all you have to do is look out across campus.
Campus is going to be split between Cardinals and Rangers fans. There are going to be Pujols jerseys and claw and antler t-shirts in every hall and all over the union. Campus will be divided into Ranger blue and Cardinal red.
You will hear random people talk about Nellie Cruz and David Freese.
This is what is going to make this series so meaningful, especially in Fayetteville. There is not only closeness in proximity, but also closeness with the team as in familiarity.
Sure there are the big guys on the team that everyone knows like Pujols, Hamilton, Kinsler and Holliday, but there are also the role players of each team that the people are familiar with like Freese, Murphy, and Jay. The familiarity with both teams in this area is what will make this series something unique especially in Fayetteville.
Baseball in October is not really baseball at all. The game is changed completely.
It’s more of a matchup-style game where pitchers are changed more times in a series than they have the entire season. Every pitch is intense and every swing of the bat has the potential to induce heartbreak or jubilee.
This week in Fayetteville is going to be very interesting.
If you find yourself at a sports bar on Wednesday there are going to be a wide range of emotions you experience. Chances are that the bar is going to be split just like campus.
Texas Rangers vs. St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series and Arkansas is trapped in the middle.
So pick a side because there are no impartial observers in this series, especially in this region of the country.
Harrison Stanfill is a guest columnist for The Arkansas Traveler.