The United Countries of Baseball

Posted by TheGoodReverend in Sports, Travel & Places on August 3, 2007 at 6:57 am


Countries of Baseball Map

This map, caught by Flickr user littlebudapest, apparently adorns a wall at the Niketown store in San Francisco’s Union Square (or at least did during the All-Star Game last month). It divides the United States (and part of Canada) into thirty “countries” (and a large swath of unincorporated mountains and desert) defined by the fan base for each of the thirty Major League Baseball teams. The boundaries seem fairly accurate, at least from my experience (I haven’t spoken with that many people in the South, for instance, but I gather from country music that much of it is Braves Country, as reflected here).

As the Flickr photo commenters point out, one glaring omission are the diasporic fans who inhabit the West: some territories, according to anecdotal evidence, follow a specific team from the East Coast or Midwest, even though not everyone in the territory ventured from that team’s country. If the commenters are to be believed, much of Idaho prefers the Mets, for whatever reason, and I recall that in the days before expansion delivered the Diamondbacks Arizona was Cubs territory (and remains so for contrarians).

Link – via Strange Maps

(Cross-posted at The Good Reverend)


Previous post
this post? Please Email this               
Next post


FUN PRODUCTS FROM THE NEATORAMA SHOP:


COMMENT

13 comments to "The United Countries of Baseball"

  1. Ashley
    August 3rd, 2007 at 8:14 am

    Georgia is definitely all Braves, since we have Atlanta. Can't speak for our surrounding states, though.

  2. matt
    August 3rd, 2007 at 8:28 am

    the sox and cubs territory is definitely off. i've travelled all over the state of illinois and lived in 4 places within the state, inlcuding chicago for 5 years. the Sox ruling the quad cities and elsewhere in northern illinois makes me laugh a wayne-and-garth-ish "shyeah, right."

  3. Miss Cellania
    August 3rd, 2007 at 8:35 am

    Accurate for my area, Cincy Reds near the Braves border. When the Reds aren't playing, locals will watch the Braves.

  4. Into the Abyss
    August 3rd, 2007 at 9:49 am

    I would beg to differ about Oklahoma being Rangers fans.
    The majority of people I know are Cardinals fans.

  5. Arthur
    August 3rd, 2007 at 10:14 am

    The territory gifted to the Nationals is absolutely ridiculous. Having spent a solid 90% of my life in the greater DC area (on the Virginia side of things), i must point out that the recent emergence of the Nats hasnt displaced the droves of Orioles fans. Really, what sort of "fan" would just jump ship after years of the Orioles being the only game in town, so to speak?

  6. Jeff
    August 3rd, 2007 at 10:21 am

    As someone who grew up in Georgia as a Braves fan, but has lived in the intermountain west (Utah, Idaho, Nevada) for the last 10 years, I'm amazed at how many Cubs and Braves fans there are out here. It's hard to overestimate how much effect TBS and WGN have had over the past 20+ years of broadcasting their teams. I would color most of the unicorporated territories some mix of Braves blue and Cubs red.

  7. SenorMysterioso
    August 3rd, 2007 at 10:54 am

    I was going to say the same thing about WGN making a lot of the mountain west into Cubs fans. There are at least as many Cubs fans as there are Rockies fans in Colorado

  8. Jake D.
    August 3rd, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    As an upstate NY Mets fan, the NY area of the map makes me feel a little ill.
    It seems to be pretty accurate, though. And at least we got the city.

  9. guy
    August 3rd, 2007 at 9:22 pm

    I live in MS and the Braves seem to be the team of choice

  10. XuYu
    August 3rd, 2007 at 11:54 pm

    I liked that Jesusland one better.

  11. anonymous
    August 5th, 2007 at 3:05 am

    I live in Idaho and i must say that no one cares about the Mets here, at all. I've never once met someone here who likes them.

  12. bb
    August 5th, 2007 at 7:12 pm

    maybe az used to be a cubs area because for some reason there were hordes of people that came to az from that area in the winter. there were snowbirds from all over, but it seemed like half of them were from illinois, and lots of people I knew growing up were from there.

    I always heard that most of the south was cardinals territory until the braves moved in, and that was a major dispute because the braves were going to take away some of their fans.

  13. Ty
    August 8th, 2007 at 10:41 pm

    That seems right for New Mexico. Baseball's not big here.


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT

Neatorama Comment Policy
You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. Comments aren't censored, but those that are abusive or off-topic may be edited or deleted.


Stay updated on the comments with Comment RSS