Most popular MLB team in every U.S. county

A new map shows the most popular MLB teams by county in the United States and the blanket Blue Jays coverage in Canada.

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You could break down the areas in Canada where certain fans reside, but why bother when it’s pretty clear that most of Canada is just one big Blue Jays fan. Thus why the map released by Business Insider only shows the lower half of Canada in Blue Jays periwinkle. Not only that, but it doesn’t appear that any Blue Jays fans exist outside of Canada, at least not in large enough numbers to turn a county. Don’t tell that to Seattle fans attending Mariners home games however, for some reason throngs of raucous Blue Jays fans turn up out of the blue when the two teams meet every season.

The Mariners, predictably, cover all of Washington, some clusters in Alaska, a good chunk of Idaho and another chunk of Oregon. The southern quadrant is made up of Giants-supporting counties, save one strange county that must be full of Boston transplants, judging by their Red Sox fandom. The southern half of Idaho is a more interesting mixed bag with Giants counties, Yankees counties, Red Sox counties and one random Pirates county.

Speaking of the Giants and the other World Series contender from last season, their influence has spread thanks to their postseason runs. The Royals simply extended their influence in the same two states, but the Giants gained some counties in Oregon, Nevada and Idaho where they didn’t have them the previous year. The Giants are also way more popular in California and Nevada as a whole, with the Dodgers coming in a distant second, while the A’s, Angels and Padres barely register. In the A’s case they don’t register at all.

The rest of the country is more predictable, with only the Red Sox and the Yankees taking up clusters of counties where they wouldn’t presumably belong. Possibly because they are the go-to teams in areas without any other close franchise.

Florida is an interesting case though. Despite having two actual Florida teams in the Marlins and Rays, the state is pretty equally divided between the local teams, the Yankees and then the entire panhandle is devoted to the Braves. You would suspect this has to do with transplants or people wintering in Florida, but if the same phenomenon is going on in the Southwest, it’s only happening in New Mexico where there are more Yankees fans than Dbacks fans. Arizona is firmly in the Diamondbacks court.

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