We’ve made it to the end of our Twitter list. While we’ll shuffle the numbers a little this afternoon, we need to get the Fab Five* of Cardinals Twitter listed out.
*–It’s really seven, because…..you’ll see.
Number 5: buffa82
@ksdknews baseball columnist and film critic. Love coffee and cigars, but hates bugs. Part time radio/podcaster. Sometimes runner. @RottenTomatoes certified.
#Waino https://t.co/EQgVZHetUx
— Dan Buffa (@buffa82) December 12, 2020
On Twitter since: January 2011
Number of Tweets: 181.2K
Following: 6,229
Followers: 13,105
Total points: 898
Average: 7.610
Number of ballots: 118
Maximum: 10
Minimum: 1
% that were 10: 24.58%
% that were 1: 4.24%
Ranking history: 7 (2015), 8 (2016), 20 (2017), 11 (2018), 21 (2019)
Last year, given how the voting went, I termed Dan a “polarizing figure”. Pretty sure he didn’t change one iota from last year but he connected with the voters much more strongly this year, jumping 16 spots on our list. Last year, he had as many 1s as he had 10s, a mix that unbalanced to the positive in 2020. Dan’s doing it all as normal, of course, and his movie reviews now show up on Rotten Tomatoes but he still finds time to talk about the Cardinals and other things sporting.
Number 4: kyler416
Fancy Printed Words, 280 Letters Long. General Waywardness. Dweller On The Threshold. Weird head. Minors guy for @birdsontheblack. Loves animal Twitter. #PaD
Prospects after Dark time!! I don’t even know what baseball is anymore! Go Cards!…? let’s drink, it’s our BDay! https://t.co/tsZBCUsmwL
— Kyle Reis (@kyler416) December 11, 2020
On Twitter since: December 2012
Number of Tweets: 48.4K
Following: 986
Followers: 5,299
Total points: 934
Average: 8.729
Number of ballots: 118
Maximum: 10
Minimum: 1
% that were 10: 51.40%
% that were 1: 1.87%
Ranking history: 65 (2016), 33 (2017), 5 (2018), 8 (2019)
The loss of the minor leagues this year meant we got a lot less of Kyle. Just another issue to lay at the doorstep of 2020, in my opinion. Nobody knows the Cardinal minors like Kyle and even if they did, they couldn’t explain it or get people excited about these guys to the level that Kyle can. Hopefully next season we’ll get more of the Dirty 35, more Prospects After Dark, and more prospects to get excited about.
Number 3: bschaeffer12
Cardinals writer for @KMOV. Mizzou grad. Cat dad. Pro-boba tea. Bowling’s a sport. Likes all Star Wars films. GIF has a hard g. I’m no Seth.
Mizzou fans, you can only have one tomorrow. Which would you prefer?
— Brenden Schaeffer (@bschaeffer12) December 11, 2020
On Twitter since: July 2011
Number of Tweets: 100.2K
Following: 854
Followers: 14,463
Total points: 990
Average: 8.376
Number of ballots: 117
Maximum: 10
Minimum: 2
% that were 10: 34.19%
% that were 1: 0.00%
Ranking history: 26 (2016), 7 (2017), 6 (2018), 6 (2019)
Schaeffer at 3. 2020 is just full of a certain type of surprise. More seriously, Brenden’s always hanging around here at the top of the list. He’s a media member that doesn’t always act like it (that’s a good thing) and his poll fetish does help the offseason pass by a little quicker. Plenty of news in all Missouri sports and, if you are into that sort of thing, plenty of gambling talk as well (perhaps he can get some screen time on the new Bally’s Sports Midwest).
My tradition every year is to note where I would have come in but not actually count myself in the rankings, in part because it’s my project and in part because I don’t want to talk about myself. But thanks to everyone who voted for me enough that I would have slipped in right ahead of Brenden.
Number 2: DannyMacTV
Baseball broadcaster for the StL Cardinals | Janitor at Scoops w/ Danny Mac | Insta: @scoopswithdannymac
Bernie Miklasz (@miklasz) takes a look at the “improve from within strategy.” However, with Bernie, he asked a logical question, “is it feasible?” Subscribe to his daily columns at https://t.co/9mId6yapAL https://t.co/l6ovapM0iz
— Dan McLaughlin (@DannyMacTV) December 12, 2020
On Twitter since: March 2013
Number of Tweets: 13.4K
Following: 974
Followers: 87,007
Total points: 1,015
Average: 8.529
Number of ballots: 119
Maximum: 10
Minimum: 1
% that were 10: 42.86%
% that were 1: 1.68%
Ranking history: 127 (2018), 3 (2019)
I have to think Danny Mac has more reach than anyone else on this list, given that he shows up in most everyone’s house almost every day with the television broadcast. (Has Dan missed a game as play-by-play guy? I can’t think of a time.) Not content with being a video man, he went out and opened his Scoops website, which now has regular podcasts and a little guy named Bernie Miklasz writing for it. I’m not saying that he has the biggest media empire in St. Louis but I’m not not saying it.
Number 1: dgoold
Lead Cardinals beat writer for St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Proud father. Bookworm. Lapsed cartoonist. World Record-holding INF. Friendly neighborhood word slinger.
Consider the hindsight Twitter angst to this deal through modern metrics.#Brewers get 19.0 WAR from these players, and a Cy Young/MVP winner.#stlcards get 9.0 WAR, but do win the ’82 World Series. https://t.co/r5Iigmj4mP
— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) December 12, 2020
On Twitter since: September 2008
Number of Tweets: 162K
Following: 1,799
Followers: 115,464
Total points: 1,061
Average: 8.626
Number of ballots: 123
Maximum: 10
Minimum: 2
% that were 10: 45.53%
% that were 1: 0.00%
Ranking history: 1 (2015), 2 (2016), 2 (2017), 2 (2018), 2 (2019)
Look at that ranking history. Derrick dominates this voting like no one else (with one exception). Being the beat writer for the team in the only paper in town definitely helps with that, but DG’s also plenty active on the medium along with his regular chats on the P-D site. Derrick’s going to have the news (and a link to the story) out quickly and no one is more plugged into the franchise.
So you are probably wondering about a notable absence on this list. After he placed first in the whole thing for the third straight year, cardinalsgifs asked to be taken out of active consideration. So I compromised and I am listing him here, where he would have been (with 1,227 points, the gap between him and Derrick being about the same as the gap from Derrick to Buffa) and inducting him into the Cardinal Twitter Hall of Fame. When anyone puts up three wins, I’ll do the same for them (with two wins, Mr. Goold may be closing in) while leaving them on the list so people can still register their approval.
Congrats to everyone on this list, from 1 to 233. Like I say, we’ll do a little analytic work this afternoon to finish everything up!
