Is Dallas, Texas Now a Baseball Town?

With the Texas Rangers beating the Yankees in Game Six of the American League Championship Series and going to the World Series (yes, the Texas Rangers are going to the World Series), and with the Dallas Cowboys bumbling along with a putrid 1 and 4 record, is Dallas, for one brief shining moment, more a baseball town than a football town?

The Dallas Cowboys have always reigned supreme in Big D. By any reasonable measure, Dallas' NFL franchise has far outranked the Rangers when it came to the hearts and minds of the fans.

Cowboy preseason games routinely deliver far bigger ratings than critical pennant drive Rangers games. While the NFL is a more popular sport, generally, across the country, in some areas the difference is more pronounced than it is in others. In Dallas, the Cowboys eclipse all other teams.

This October, however, we are seeing a change. Dallas and Arlington, and really the entire Metroplex area, has become indisputably a baseball town. Ratings throughout the American League Championship series have been impressive and the buzz on the streets of Dallas and the entire area is, for once, more about the Rangers than the Cowboys.

Even Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones is on the Rangers bandwagon, saying recently, ""There's a championship feeling in the air over there with the Rangers. It's an exciting time. It lifts all boats. You've heard me say a lot of times: I think we have the highest per capita interest in sports in this area than any place in the country. We have always thought [that], and one of the reasons that Arlington was so appealing is that the fact that it's in the center of North Texas. But it was also with the Rangers right there, it created a perception of competition and entertainment. We had it aggregated because of the Rangers and us being there. All of that lifts the boat, and what makes that really work is when everybody's winning. I know one that's winning out there. That's the Rangers, and that's exciting and ought to lift our boat."

While it's doubtful that Dallas has been transformed permanently into a baseball town, there is no question that the Texas Rangers are now a formidable franchise and have transitioned Dallas, for now anyway, into a baseball town.

The Cowboys, ironically, play the Giants on Sunday and try to keep their very faint playoff hopes alive. For once, the game will take a back seat as Dallas, a newfound baseball town, turns its attention to the World Series and the Texas Rangers.Source:

ESPN