San Francisco Literature: The San Francisco Sports Contado

What status symbol best connotes the majesty and grandeur of a major U.S. metropolitan center? I can think of no better acquisition than that of a Sports team. When a city gains a major sports team it also gains a stadium (which can have many uses other than just sports), team and regional pride, increased tourism and revenue, as well as national notoriety. So how does a city obtain a major sports franchise? Well, unless the league that runs the sport allows for the creation of a new team, one must hope that an already existing team will move from their home to the city being discussed. This was the case with the New York Giants in 1957. Their attendance was slumping, and another prominent New York Major League Baseball team, The Brooklyn Dodgers was beginning to consider moving to Los Angeles.

While The Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles portrays the influence of the Southern California/ Los Angeles contado, the Giants’ move to San Francisco illustrates the pull of the Northern California/ San Francisco contado and begins one of the greatest sports rivalries of all time. I believe it is worth noting that Los Angeles and San Francisco’s feuds stem from being the southern point of power and the northern point of power respectively, in one of the most powerful states in the U.S. (leaving no centralized city of power or importance). The rivalry of The Dodgers and The Giants is a powerful example of how each city attempts to broaden its conceived power, influence, and importance; in other words expand its perceived cultural contado further, perhaps even in an attempt to encompass its rival city (in a more serious note many have died in this struggle as a result of the consolidation of California gangs into either the Surenos (southern) or the Nortenos (northern)).

Although both San Francisco and Los Angeles were happy to obtain a baseball team, the moves left the people of New York distraught to say the least as they were faced with the grim reality that their three team rich city had dwindled down to a rather ordinary looking baseball town. The dominance of New York baseball had become a victim to the pull of San Francisco consumption. One should also keep in mind the importance of baseball in American life in the Nineteen Fifties. The teams moves lead to New York’s own cultural contado shrinking as it was forced to share not only its baseball teams but its dominance of economic, cultural, and artistic influences with the rise of the great western cities.

The idea of the contado as the subordinate area, which helps feed the great consumption of a major urban city whether willingly or not, would hint at, when coupled with the opinions stated earlier San Francisco’s contado stretching all the way across mainland U.S. to obtain even New York as a region in its contado, at least in a small and symbolic way.

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