the map that was previously posted has been revised…see below.
some of the not so major updates from the updater himself:
-The original map had a San Francisco Giants following all the way up to the state of Washington. I know that’s not correct. Those in Oregon that care about Major League Baseball don’t root for the Giants. They’re more likely to be Mariners fans. But, Giants fans are much more prevalent in the state of California and parts of Western Nevada than was shown on the original. Those were both easy and obvious changes.
-The original map also severely underestimated the Los Angeles Dodgers fan base. About the size of Tennessee? I think not. I realize that’s a highly populated region, but the Dodgers have been a staple on the West Coast for about 60 years now. They have a good amount of fans in the most southern edges of California and even western Arizona.
-I would have liked to shrink the size of that Diamondbacks region. But, I’d be making it unincorporated territory, so I decided against it. I’ll let them pretend to have that large of a following. About two thirds of that is desert anyway. The same goes for the Rockies. They’re not that popular. There should be spatterings of Cardinal red and Cubbie orange (?) in that black region. If not, it should be unincorporated. But, again, I didn’t see the point in doing that.
-The original map didn’t take into account the Cardinals’ following in Oklahoma. It’s for real, so I added it. A lot of those Oklahomans grew up on KMOX, a station that once carried Cardinals games to much of the Midwest. The Cards are really considered the “team of the Midwest.” I think the original map did a good job of showing that, but decided to give all of Oklahoma to the Rangers, which was wrong.
-The original map also surrounded Astros country with Rangers fans, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. From what I’ve read and heard in the past, the Astros‘ following spreads down through southern Texas and into Mexico. That was changed.
-The Braves have a gigantic following in the southeast United States. The original did a fine job of showing that, but I expanded it even more. The original didn’t account for Braves fans in the Florida panhandle, North Carolina, or western Virginia. All of which are legit.
-The original also had this weird narrow flow of Indians fans through West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. I think most of Kentucky is Reds’ country. I’m pretty positive that’s right.
-The last change I made was shrinking the Mets‘ fan base. Their following is pretty much concentrated around northern New Jersey and the boroughs of New York City. I’m not sure why the original expanded their territory into Pennsylvania.
(via onedroohill.com)
