The St. Louis Cardinals are one of baseball’s five most-despised teams, according to the betting site casinoinsider.com, which tracks tweets that discuss hating a specific major league ballclub and published their findings back in July (well before the Astros’ cheating scandal went viral and pushed them up the ladder of most-reviled franchises). If your first reaction to people hating the Birds is, “That’s because they’re jealous of all our success,” you are:
A. Correct
B. Part of the problem
Not that being hated is really a “problem.” Winning tends to foster resentment in the fans of rival teams, which is why no one hates the Padres — lots of losing makes a franchise seem cute and harmless.