Kansas City Royals: What’s behind the fan hatred for the St. Louis Cardinals

The Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals both share the state of Missouri. That’s about it when it comes to the fans of these two teams.

In a recent poll. fans were asked if it’s ok to like both the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals. Perhaps not surprising to many readers, the results were extremely lop-sided with a majority of an astounding no.

This result led me to investigate why the two fan bases showed little to no love towards each other. It’s a fairly young rivalry, with the first meeting between the two teams came in the 1985 World Series. The Royals of course won the championship that year four games to three, in a seven game series.

It would be 29 years after that World Series before the Royals made the postseason again. The Cardinals continued to have success. And there it is. Fellow writer here at KC KIngdom Leigh Oleszczak hates the Cardinals, just ask her, she’ll tell you.

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Her response in that article is the pinnacle of the relationship between the two fan bases. Cardinals fans have always had a bit of a cockiness about them. It comes with winning. Look around at all the winning franchises out there, their fans are labeled the worst. Patriots fans, blah. Cowboys fans in the 90’s, ugh. Warriors fans, sheesh. Browns fans, just making sure you are paying attention.

Some of the responses i got from Cardinals fans when asked this question of hatred helped make Leigh’s point. One fan mentioned he didn’t have a problem with the Royals or its fans, calling both “irrelevant”. Another Cardinals fan told me “they’re too jealous”. Yet another suggested I ask when the Royals have won 11 Championships.

A vicious cycle 

Cardinal fans don’t like how Royals fans go overboard when Kansas City wins a game against St. Louis. Suggesting they blow it out of proportion. It’s no big deal when the Cardinals beat the Royals because the attitude is, well, they should beat the Royals.

Royals fans hate the cockiness. They dislike the fact that Cardinals fans were the first ones to rain on their parade in 2014. Royals fans just wanted some respect. Cards fans gave them the exact opposite.

The Royals may never catch the Cardinals in wins or championships. That would be a hard task when a team is nearly 100 years older than your own. They are a more recent champion than the Cards however. There were a lot of expletives i won’t repeat from both sides when approached about the other team. The good news? There is no doubt the rivalry is alive and well.

Like a marriage counselor to a feuding couple, the Royals need respect, the Cardinals require love. When neither side is willing to budge, hatred becomes a reality. Royals fans will tell you they can not love something they do not respect, nor respects them back. Cardinals fans will tell you they can not respect something that doesn’t love them. The word love is greatly exaggerated here, but you get what I’m saying.

Fans of both

So why aren’t there more fans of both teams? Quite frankly the two teams are polar opposites. They both stand for something completely different. The Cardinals are a winning team with a winning tradition, and it’s gone to some of their fans head. Constantly called the best fans in baseball, the organization that does it right, the outright leader when it comes to championships in the National League.

The Royals are a blue-collar team. A scrappy bunch that have been knocked down more times than they’ve finished the fight. They have finished fights however. Royals fans are extremely faithful to their team. They allow the ups and downs of baseball to happen, waiting for their chance to reign supreme. The Cardinals fans call for heads if they don’t finish in first place of their division.

Next: 20 bold predictions for 2018

Also, the Cardinals allow their pitchers to swing a bat. Ha.