Spatial Analysis of Baseball Fans

Link for the interactive map: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/24/upshot/facebook-baseball-map.html#6,35.214,-97.337
To view county percentage you have to zoom in a lot.

I don't typically read the NY Times but this post caught my attention. Combining two of my loves: maps and baseball this interactive map allows viewers to zero in on specific U.S. counties and find out who is loyal to what MLB team. Keep in mind the map was based on Facebook "likes" and may not represent every fan also it only includes U.S. teams so the Toronto Bluejays are not represented. I played around with it for a while, and this map was able to answer questions I would not have been able to answer without personally visiting the location and surveying hundreds of people! Here are some cool things I found:

1) The Yankees are America's Team.
What about the states that do not have MLB teams? Who do they follow? Well it seems that the Yankees are the default team. For states such as New Mexico, Montana South Carolina, Alaska, and Hawaii the overwhelming majority of fans are Yankee fans. Of course, the Yankees happen to be the most well known team and they are able to snag favorite players with their millions upon millions of dollars, so this makes perfect sense!

2) Illinois is losing their fans to St. Louis.
For having two teams (the White Sox and the Cubs) a lot of southern.. Illinoisians? Illinoisites? Illinois Residents are surprisingly Cardinal Fans. The Cardinals are doing relatively well this year, better than the Sox and Cubs this may be a possible explanation. Oh it could also be the fact that the Cardinals won the World Series in 2011, went to the league championship in 2012 and the 2013 World Series. Yeah that's probably it.

3) Texas is a Ranger state.

Had this map been made almost 10 years ago, Texas would have mostly been Houston Astros fans, but since the 2005 loss at the World Series the Astros haven't taken a pennant. The Rangers however, went to the World Series in 2011 and have been holding their own since, resulting in the domination of Texas baseball fans and the leaking of their fandom into the surrounding states. Now it seems only the Houston area bleeds vintage orange. 

4) State Lines don't matter.

I think it's super neat that the fans are not effected by state lines at all! The team colors have a radial pattern which means the biggest factor is not what city or state the team belongs to but distance from the home field. Your geography has a huge effect on what team you root for, we may not agree on what team to support but there is one thing I know: Baseball games are infinity better in person than on TV. So, whichever ballpark is the shortest drive is the one I'm going to go to.