The Poll Missourians weigh in on sports*

Favorite major league baseball team:

St. Louis Cardinals.....48%
Kansas City Royals......29%
Atlanta Braves...........2%

Favorite NFL team:

St. Louis Rams........43%
Kansas City Chiefs....30%
Dallas Cowboys.........5%

Favorite NBA team:

L.A. Lakers.............10%
Chicago Bulls............6%
No favorite.............64%

Favorite NHL team:

St. Louis Blues......51%
Detroit Red Wings.....4%
No favorite..........35%

Favorite college team:

Missouri basketball..18%
Missouri football....14%
Kansas basketball.....9%

State's biggest rivalry:

Missouri-Kansas....25%
Rams-Chiefs........22%
Cardinals-Royals...16%
Cardinals-Cubs.....12%

Greatest athlete who ever lived in or played for a college or pro
team in your state:

Stan Musial.............26%
George Brett............12%
Ozzie Smith,
Mark McGwire (tie)......10%

Favorite announcer:

Joe Buck.................20%
Bob Costas...............11%
John Madden,
Mike Shannon (tie)........9%

More a fan of college or pro sports?

Pro..........................72%
College......................12%
Equal........................17%

Sports played in the last year[1]:

Billiards...............33%
Swimming................33%
Fishing.................27%
Bowling.................26%
None....................23%

ENEMY OF THE STATE

Bill Bidwill................22%
Al Davis....................14%
Mike Keenan..................5%

Respondents chose Bidwill even though he probably did the state's
fans a favor by moving his woeful Cardinals to Arizona, clearing
the way for the Rams to relocate from L.A. to St. Louis and
eventually win a Super Bowl. As their most hated opponents,
Missourians chose the University of Kansas (21%), the Chicago
Cubs (20%) and the Oakland Raiders (19%).

*Harris Interactive poll, conducted online, of 417 Missouri
residents who identified themselves as sports fans. Margin of
error +/-4.8%. [1]Multiple responses allowed.

WHO & WHERE

1 Mark Buehrle
The Chicago White Sox lefthander and 2002 AL All-Star is from St.
Charles and pitched for Jefferson College in Hillsboro.

2 Bellerive Country Club
Missouri's top-rated course was the site of Gary Player's 1965
U.S. Open win and Nick Price's first major victory, at the '92
PGA. The club, in Town and Country, will host the 2004 U.S.
Senior Open.

3 Bob Costas
The New York City-born broadcaster broke in by calling ABA games
for the Spirit of St. Louis in 1974 and now calls the Gateway
City home.

4 Trent Green
Chiefs quarterback was born in Iowa but grew up in Kirkwood.

HOT SPOT
5 Bowling & Cardinals Halls of Fame
These two attractions share a building across the street from
Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The Bowling Hall's 50,000 annual
visitors have included Homer Simpson, who in an episode of the
cartoon series marveled at the exhibited car made of a bowling
pin. The Cardinals museum includes a racier set of wheels: Mark
McGwire's 1962 Corvette convertible, a gift from the team to the
slugger after he hit his 62nd homer in '98.

6 Larry Hughes
The Washington Wizards guard was honorable mention All-America at
St. Louis University, in his hometown.

7 George & Alfred Rawlings
The brothers opened a St. Louis sporting-goods store in 1887 and
built it into one of the world's foremost equipment
manufacturers. The Rawlings company invented the webbed baseball
mitt and the Gold Glove awards.

8 Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Raised across the Mississippi in East St. Louis, Ill., the
Olympic track and field great now lives in Ballwin and founded a
sports-marketing business in St. Louis.

9 Rusty Wallace
The Fenton native and former Winston Cup champion was chosen as
one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers of all time.

10 Springfield-Greene County
The city and its county are jointly honored as Missouri's SI
Sportstown for having the state's best community sports programs.

11 Grant Wistrom
The Webb City native, a former All-America at Nebraska, starts at
defensive end for the Rams.

12 Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
The chairman of the 12-year-old Kansas City attraction is former
Negro leagues All-Star Buck O'Neil, a K.C. native.

13 Missouri Valley College
The school in Marshall has had one of the nation's strongest
women's college wrestling programs the past four years.

14 Justin Smith
Cincinnati Bengals defensive end is from Holts Summit and starred
at Missouri.

GREATEST MOMENT

Sure, the 1985 World Series had Cardinals and Royals fans racing
back and forth across the state on I-70, but no Missouri moment
surpasses what happened at Busch Stadium on Sept. 8, 1998. With a
341-foot line drive that barely cleared the leftfield wall, Mark
McGwire broke Roger Maris's season mark of 61 home runs, and all
of America stood and cheered.

NUMBERS

0
Stanley Cup championships won in the 35-year history of the St.
Louis Blues, who reached the finals in their first three seasons
and haven't been back since.

19
Players who have gone from Moberly (Mo.) Junior College to the
NBA, including Mitch Richmond, Gerald Wilkins and Qyntel Woods.

95
Height in feet of the famous block M behind the north end zone of
the University of Missouri's Memorial Stadium; freshmen built the
letter from whitewashed rocks in 1927.

200
Hate letters that Don Denkinger received in the two months after
the 1985 World Series, in which the umpire blew a ninth-inning
call in Game 6, enabling the Royals to rally to victory over the
Cardinals; Kansas City went on to win Game 7.

ALLTIME BEST
For Missouri's top 50 homegrown sports figures, go to SI.com/50

YOGI BERRA New York Yankees catcher

The St. Louis native played for 10 world championship teams, won
three AL MVP awards and appeared in every All-Star Game from 1948
through '62. He caught three no-hitters, including Don Larsen's
perfect game in the '56 Series.

CASEY STENGEL Major league manager

The skipper from Kansas City managed the Yankees to seven world
titles between 1949 and '60 and added levity to the Mets' 40-120
inaugural season. A lefthanded-hitting outfielder, he was with
the '21 and '22 Series-winning New York Giants.

COOL PAPA BELL Negro leagues outfielder

Bell was a brilliant leadoff hitter and Hall of Famer who,
according to Satchel Paige, "was so fast he could turn out the
light and be in bed before the room got dark." Bell was born in
Starkville, Miss., but lived most of his life in St. Louis.

TOM WATSON Golfer

The Kansas City native has won eight major championships and 34
PGA Tour events. His chip-in at the 71st hole of the 1982 U.S.
Open, which spurred him to victory over Jack Nicklaus, was one of
the most dramatic shots in golf.

BILL BRADLEY New York Knicks forward

The Hall of Famer from Crystal City led Princeton to the Final
Four in 1965 and was voted College Player of the Year. He won two
NBA titles in 10 seasons with the Knicks before retiring and
winning election to the U.S. Senate from New Jersey.

PHOG ALLEN Basketball coach

Known as the Father of Basketball Coaching, the Jamesport native
won 746 games in a 48-year college coaching career that ended in
1956. In 39 seasons at Kansas he won 24 conference titles and the
1952 NCAA championship.

COLOR CHART Enthuse-o-meter On a scale of 1 to 100, how would you rate your state's enthusiasm for sports, relative to other states'? COLD 82.2 HOT

COLOR PHOTO: CARL IWASAKI (BIDWILL)

COLOR MAP: MAP ILLUSTRATION BY JOE ZEFF

COLOR PHOTO: INTERNATIONAL BOWLING MUSEUM AND HALL OF FAME

TWO COLOR PHOTOS: DAVID E. KLUTHO MCGWIRE CELEBRATED NUMBER 62 WITH HIS SON, MATTHEW.

COLOR PHOTO: CORBIS

COLOR PHOTO: GEORGE TIEDEMANN/GT IMAGES

COLOR PHOTO: JOHN D. HANLON

B/W PHOTO: DUKE D'AMBRA/KANSAS UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES/NCAA PHOTOS

B/W PHOTO: NATIONAL BASEBALL LIBRARY

B/W PHOTO: BETTMANN/CORBIS

COLOR PHOTO: JAMES DRAKE (SPINKS)

MEMORABLE QUOTE

"Ali is the greatest, but Leon is the latest."
--ST. LOUIS NATIVE LEON SPINKS AFTER HIS SHOCKING 15-ROUND UPSET
OF MUHAMMAD ALI ON FEB. 18, 1978, FOR THE HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE;
SPINKS HAD LOST HIS TWO FRONT TEETH IN STREET FIGHTS WHILE
GROWING UP IN A TOUGH ST. LOUIS NEIGHBORHOOD.

To see a gallery of every Cardinals cover, read archival SI
stories from the 1985 World Series and the 2000 Super Bowl, or
submit a Show-Me State sports memory, go to
si.com/magazine/features/si50/states/missouri/.