FAN MAPS: MLB Fan Map Breaks Down Baseball Fans Geographically

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For the next four days we’ll be running a “Fan Maps” post, with each one featuring the best fan map for each of the four major league sports: MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL.

There are a bunch of these maps around the internet, but we picked what we felt were the best ones.

We also considered making our own, but again, if you know us well, we prefer to let other people do the hard work.

The first one we are featuring is the Major League Baseball fan map. It was designed by Nike and it is called “The United Countres of Baseball.”

I like this one a lot because it has a very classic feel to it.

For the most part, it seems pretty accurate. I would be willing to bet that the Devil Rays have a bit more fans in Florida now than the Marlins, but this was made a couple years ago, before the Rays were worth a crap.

What makes these maps so interesting is that they highlight the local nature of sports.  Wherever you are, there’s a team somewhere nearby.

Go to Columbus and you’ll be swamped with Buckeye merch.  Go to Minneapolis and check out the row after row of  Vikings #4 jerseys.

Obviously these maps don’t take into account how many fans of a team live elsewhere and we often compare our athletes to soldiers.  The stadium is our turf.

These maps are simply a fun graphical representation of imaginary territories, defended by our favorite teams.