Poppy's Front Porch - in the Missouri Ozarks

Poppy's Front Porch - in the Missouri Ozarks
This photo was taken in 1949. My cousins and I remember the porch after our grandfather walled it in, added a door and big screen windows.

Monday, April 13, 2009

A man needs a good map

Thanks, Bob, for the interesting and fun post about the mapping of baseball fans. I was somewhat surprised by what I saw and would be curious to know how they collected the data.

Here are some of my surprises:

Are there really no team loyalties in the so-called Unincorporated Areas?

Does interest in the Team That Shall Not Be Named really cover more area in Iowa than in Illinois?

The Dodgers' hotbed is roughly the same size as the Pirates'?

The two teams in California's Bay Area share several bridges and a body of water, BUT the Giants fans break neatly for the coast, while the A's fans are only in central California?

How can that many people be interested in the Nationals after so little time?

There are no Blue Jays fans outside of Ontario? (I think that's mostly Ontario)

I would have loved to see a map like this 50 years ago, before any teams moved west and before there was any expansion. At that point, the Cardinals would have been the most southern and most western of any team. So imagine the Cardinal area, with the powerful help of KMOX, covering everything west of the Mississippi (except Iowa, apparently) and most of the south. It would have been them or the Yankees. Tampa would have been Yankee country, for example.

I am sure you know that aside from "location, location, location", there is another axiom that would help enlarge a team's territory and it comes from Raiders football owner Al Davis: "Just win, baby!"

Hopefully the Cards will push the "zig-zaggy-ness" a little further north this year.

P.S. The title of this post is a movie quote - any guesses?

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