Facebook MLB Fandom Map Shows Giants Popular All Over NorCal, A's Fans Shut Out
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – As baseball season begins, a new map from Facebook has revealed which Major League Baseball teams are the most popular across the country. While the San Francisco Giants have the most likes in the Bay Area and Northern California, the Oakland A's have plenty of work to do on social media.
The map from Facebook's data science team shows which teams has the most Facebook fans in each county in the United States. According to the map, the A's are one of three professional baseball teams that do not have a plurality of fans in any U.S. county. The other two teams are the New York Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays.
As of Monday afternoon, the A's Facebook page has 521,000 likes. Meanwhile, the Giants page has nearly four times as many, at 2.08 million likes.
Perhaps buoyed by winning the World Series in 2010 and 2012, the Giants (which appear as dark orange on the map) have the most likes in all Bay Area counties and all of Northern California, along with much of Central California including San Luis Obispo and Fresno counties. Giants fandom also appears to be strong in southern Oregon and northwest Nevada.
While the Giants are apparently more popular on social media, the team on the field is looking to recover from a 76-86 record in 2013.
Meanwhile, the A's are hoping to build on momentum from last year, after they went 96-66 in the regular season and won their second straight American League West title.
The team with the most Facebook likes is the New York Yankees, at 7.2 million. Facebook's map shows support for the Bronx Bombers is strong outside of New York, with pockets of fans throughout the country. Indicated in dark blue, the map shows strong Yankee support in places such as Florida, where two other Major League teams play, and Mountain West states such as New Mexico and Utah.
