America's shallow sports fans
Now everyone loathes Man U supporters who live in Surrey and have no connection with Manchester, ditto Chelsea and other Sky big four teams, but it looks as though our American friends are even worse when it comes to glory hunting, baseball-wise:
"When asked to name the Major League Baseball team they consider to be "America's Team," the Yankees were named by 41.6% of respondents with an opinion, in a national poll conducted by the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute. This was followed by the Red Sox at 16.3% and the Braves at 6.9%." (In the table it gives a figure of 7.3 for the Cubs, trumping the Braves' 6.9. Hence my chart. C)
"Other teams named with less frequency included: Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays (Yes, really. Snigger. C), Oakland As, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay, LA Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinatti Reds, San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins and LA Angels.
Granted, deeming a team 'America's Team' is not the same as supporting them, but if someone asked me who I considered to be England's cricket, football, rugby or whatever team I'd name who I follow.
Anyway, a graph:
Note that all of those teams are to the east of the Mississippi except St Louis (which is on the Mississippi) and only the Braves hail from outside the NE quadrant of the lower 48. So, what's with Texans and Californians showing so little loyalty?
For what it is worth, here is a map of where MLB think that people's loyalties should lie:
"When asked to name the Major League Baseball team they consider to be "America's Team," the Yankees were named by 41.6% of respondents with an opinion, in a national poll conducted by the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute. This was followed by the Red Sox at 16.3% and the Braves at 6.9%." (In the table it gives a figure of 7.3 for the Cubs, trumping the Braves' 6.9. Hence my chart. C)
"Other teams named with less frequency included: Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays (Yes, really. Snigger. C), Oakland As, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay, LA Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinatti Reds, San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins and LA Angels.
Granted, deeming a team 'America's Team' is not the same as supporting them, but if someone asked me who I considered to be England's cricket, football, rugby or whatever team I'd name who I follow.
Anyway, a graph:
Note that all of those teams are to the east of the Mississippi except St Louis (which is on the Mississippi) and only the Braves hail from outside the NE quadrant of the lower 48. So, what's with Texans and Californians showing so little loyalty?
For what it is worth, here is a map of where MLB think that people's loyalties should lie:
Labels: EU fun and games, this sporting life
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on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 11:08 am.
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Due to lack of credible international action America does need a 'team' in the way that the the UK does not in that we have 'England/GB/Wales' etc teams.
Nice to see the yanks go for the most successful as always!
True - although the Japanese are quite tasty, aren't they?
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