This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[amroad17]

I also noticed that in the area I used to live in, the Hampton Roads area--specifically Chesapeake--the people there are mostly Yankees, Red Sox, or Braves fans.  You would think that an area that is, for the most part, Washington Redskins fans would have at least some interest in the Nationals or, to a lesser extent, the Orioles (Triple A farm club in Norfolk) than the Red Sox or Yankees.  I could see Braves fans there as our cable system at the time carried TBS and showed a lot of Braves games in the early to mid 1990's.  In fact, during the 1970's, 1980's, and early 1990's, the Hampton Roads area probably were mostly Mets fans as the Tidewater (later Norfolk) Tides were the Mets' Triple A farm club back then.

[jeffandnicole]

I also noticed that in the area I used to live in, the Hampton Roads area--specifically Chesapeake--the people there are mostly Yankees, Red Sox, or Braves fans.  You would think that an area that is, for the most part, Washington Redskins fans would have at least some interest in the Nationals or, to a lesser extent, the Orioles (Triple A farm club in Norfolk) than the Red Sox or Yankees.  I could see Braves fans there as our cable system at the time carried TBS and showed a lot of Braves games in the early to mid 1990's.  In fact, during the 1970's, 1980's, and early 1990's, the Hampton Roads area probably were mostly Mets fans as the Tidewater (later Norfolk) Tides were the Mets' Triple A farm club back then.

The Nats are a fairly new team, so many people were already fans of other teams.  If the area has an influx of residents from other areas, that can explain their dedication to other teams as well.  Florida has always had this problem with Tampa and Miami because many people are retirees, and aren't suddenly going to give up a team they watched for much of their lives for another team just because of the state they now live in.

In my NJ Turnpike days at Exit 1, I think the New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup.  Someone went thru my lane and commented that we didn't have anything signifying that fact.  I probably made a comment that I was really a Philadelphia Flyers fan.  He couldn't understand why I was a fan of a team 20 minutes away (in another state), rather than rooting for a team 2 hours away simply because they played in the state.

[tchafe1978]

That Milwaukee is closer to Chicago then Green Bay. When will football fans that are around here realize that? Also Milwaukee is closer to Indianapolis about 280 miles then to Minneapolis about 330 miles. Yet I will see some Vikings stuff sold around here but never any Colts stuff.

Geographically speaking, it's rather easy to determine that Chicago is closer to Milwaukee than Green Bay is simply by taking a casual glance at a map. It's not much of an oddity, really.

As far as being fans of a particular team, it's also not hard to understand why the majority of people in Milwaukee are Packers fans and not Bears fans. #1, The Bears are from that state to the south that contains all those FIBs. #2, Milwaukee has somewhat of an inferiority complex towards Chicago. #3 Milwaukee/Wisconsin are natural rivals with Chicago/Illinois. It has more to do with this than proximity. and #4 The Bears Still Suck! As for being a Colts fan stuck in Milwaukee, I have no explanation for you  .

If you want something of an oddity regarding sports fandom and location, there are quite a few Bears fans here in Southwest Wisconsin because the Bears used to hold training camp at UW-Platteville from 1984-2000.

[SP Cook]

Sports.

- These fandom maps are like all self-selected discussions.    They are not properly a poll at all.  Not scientific.

-  If you go to Wikipedia's page "Major League Baseball blackout policy" you will find the truly goofy map of the claimed "in-market" of each baseball team.  This is based on claims from the 1970s, long before satellite TV (with later adjustments for new teams).  Pretty much each team just claimed whatever it wanted, leading to multiple "overlaps".  Iowa is claimed by 5 teams, southern Nevada is as well.  This means that you get blacked out of ALL of these teams in things like MLB EI or the MLB app.  Empty suit Selig claimed he was going to fix it, never did. 

- Two places that befuddle me as far as local fandom are Miami and Las Vegas.  I get retirees who keep their lifetime loyalities, but among younger people in both places people follow the team from "back home".  Even people who moved there at the start of their adult lives, and, more befuddling to me, people born and raised there, base their fandom on parents or even grandparents loyality and will call a town they have never lived in "back home". 

- What little time I have spent in the Tidewater, you see fans of all teams, because of all the military, which brings in people from all over.   

- The ENTIRE state of Virginia follows the Redskins.  Even places many hours closer to Cincinnati, Charlotte and Nashville.  But it stops at the state line in every case, although there are some Redskins fans in NC and the Tennessee side of the Tri-Cities left over from before the Panthers and Titans existed..

- The nationalized Braves fandom from the WTBS days seems to be ageing out.

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

I seem to recall that before the Panthers that the majority of North Carolina followed the Red Skins.  Arizona had mostly Broncos fans for the longest time after the Cardinals moved to the city.  That really didn't change until the Cardinals started to get pretty good and built a new stadium.  Even stranger to me is that there a HUGE Nebraska Cornhusker fan base among people who aren't transplants in the Phoenix area.  I can get Denver given the somewhat close proximity but Nebraska?....even stranger it isn't like the Sun Devils have had a poor sports history.

[jp the roadgeek]

There are some weird oddities in that MLB blackout map.  Charlotte, NC, which is 500 miles from Great American Ballpark, is claimed by the Reds.  Parts of Northeast PA which are actually closer to Boston are claimed by the Pirates.  And Fishers Island, NY, which is closer to Boston than NYC, can't get the Red Sox.

[Eth]

How many baseball cities is Buffalo closer to than New York City? I'm guessing Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Toronto.

By straight-line distance, all of those, and surprisingly also Baltimore (by 15-20 miles) and Philadelphia (by 10-15 miles). And Washington is a dead heat with NYC.

[SP Cook]

There are some weird oddities in that MLB blackout map.  Charlotte, NC, which is 500 miles from Great American Ballpark, is claimed by the Reds.  Parts of Northeast PA which are actually closer to Boston are claimed by the Pirates. 

Reds claim all of OH except metro Cleveland, all of KY, south western WV, all of TN, all of IN except metro Chicago, and, most fantastically the northern quarter of MS.  A fair Reds territory would give back the Toledo area, all of NC and MS, the Jackson Purchase in KY, and any part of IN north of the Indy TV market. 

Pirates claim all of PA except metro Philly, all of WV, the Buffalo area, extreme western MD, and not only the border rust belt areas of OH next to WV's northern panhande, but a swath of central OH all the way to Columbus.  A fair Pirates territory would be western PA, the northern edge of WV and a very small part of MD and OH. 

Indians claim all of OH except metro Cincy/Dayton, the same claim as the Reds in WV, the part of KY that gets WV TV stations, the NW quarter of PA, and Buffalo.  A fair claim would give back Toledo and forget about WV and KY totally. 

I get that the games are not available much on TV, because they are on mostly on Canadian only sports networks, but why doesn't Buffalo follow the Blue Jays?

[jp the roadgeek]

Red Sox claim all of New England except Fairfield County, CT.  A fair Red Sox territory would include Fairfield County, as well as the Capital District of NY, the Plattsburgh part of the Burlington VT/Plattsburgh NY market, and the forks of Long Island, NY.  In exchange, New York teams should be given access to all of VT except Windham County (part of the Boston market), Berkshire County and the Springfield area of MA, and all of RI.

[Takumi]

I also noticed that in the area I used to live in, the Hampton Roads area--specifically Chesapeake--the people there are mostly Yankees, Red Sox, or Braves fans.  You would think that an area that is, for the most part, Washington Redskins fans would have at least some interest in the Nationals or, to a lesser extent, the Orioles (Triple A farm club in Norfolk) than the Red Sox or Yankees.  I could see Braves fans there as our cable system at the time carried TBS and showed a lot of Braves games in the early to mid 1990's.  In fact, during the 1970's, 1980's, and early 1990's, the Hampton Roads area probably were mostly Mets fans as the Tidewater (later Norfolk) Tides were the Mets' Triple A farm club back then.

Richmond had lots of Braves fans in the 1990s due to the Triple-A R-Braves being there. The national presence certainly helped things out, too. After the Braves moved to Gwinnett, which happened about the same time the parent club stopped broadcasting on TBS, it started to fade away. Now it's mostly a mix of Yankee, Red Sox, Nats, and O's fans (I'm one of the latter). Despite Richmond's new minor league team, the Double-A Flying Squirrels, being a Giants affiliate, you very rarely see any Giants fans around here. Although it is cool to have seen a few of their recent World Series championship players play before they made it to the bigs.

[kurumi]

The size of Maine throws people for a loop. Most people assume that it's a "small New England state" but it's almost the size of Indiana.

US 1 in Maine (527 miles) is only 18 miles shorter than US 1 in Florida including the Keys (545 miles).

[tckma]

Some things that physically make Arkansas seem smaller than it is are being a smaller population, and when you drive through, Little Rock is smack in the middle, making it seem like a shorter distance.  That and it's almost square shape...

I drove from St. Louis to Houston in April 2015.  Missouri seemed to go on forever but that's because we took US-67, and there was a part at which my wife said "I need to go to the bathroom" and we didn't find ANY place to stop, not even a porta-potty, for almost an hour and a half.  Arkansas seemed to never end, but I think that's because we pretty much went diagonally from the northeast corner of the state to the southwest corner via US-67 and then I-30.  Once we FINALLY got into Texas it was 8 or 9 PM.  Almost done, I thought, then we stopped at a Subway and I was told by the cashier that it was 4 1/2 hours further to Houston.

Then there's my cross-country drive in 2006.  "It's been THREE DAYS.  How am I STILL in California?"  Well, came in from the Las Vegas area on southbound I-15, then cut across and up to the San Francisco area via CA-58 and CA-99, crossed the Golden Gate and went up CA-1 for the scenery, then gave that up when my then-girlfriend started to worry about how long it was taking and we cut across to US-101 via CA-12, then all the way up US-101 to US-199 and then US-199 into Oregon.  PHEW!

Sports fandom is really more cultural than anything else and based almost entirely on media market. The parts of MA and VT that are in the Albany media market tends to be dominated by Yankees fans, same for the parts of NY that are in the Burlington media market. The Yankees have a national fanbase because they're most often featured on national TV and thus easy for most of the country to watch. If geographic proximity determined fandom then we'd see Toronto Blue Jays fans in Buffalo and Western New York. But Buffalo and the rest of New York State root for New York's American League team.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/24/upshot/facebook-baseball-map.html#6,43.676,-88.120

Having grown up in Mets Country on Long Island, with a family half-divided between the Mets and the Yankees, then having moved to the Boston area where I was hated on just for being From New York (heaven forfend), it's hard for me to imagine ANY part of Massachusetts, or New England as a whole for that matter, rooting for any other team besides the Red Sox.  Heck, most people I know who live in the Albany area seem to cheer for the Red Sox and the Patriots versus the Yankees and the Jets.

Anyone who has taken I-80 across Pennsylvania can testify to how that state seems to never end.

Anyone who has taken I-81 through Virginia from the West Viriginia line to the Tennessee line can testify to the fact that Virginia is actually larger than it seems, and seems to go on FOREVER.

[TravelingBethelite]

Some things that physically make Arkansas seem smaller than it is are being a smaller population, and when you drive through, Little Rock is smack in the middle, making it seem like a shorter distance.  That and it's almost square shape...

I drove from St. Louis to Houston in April 2015.  Missouri seemed to go on forever but that's because we took US-67, and there was a part at which my wife said "I need to go to the bathroom" and we didn't find ANY place to stop, not even a porta-potty, for almost an hour and a half.  Arkansas seemed to never end, but I think that's because we pretty much went diagonally from the northeast corner of the state to the southwest corner via US-67 and then I-30.  Once we FINALLY got into Texas it was 8 or 9 PM.  Almost done, I thought, then we stopped at a Subway and I was told by the cashier that it was 4 1/2 hours further to Houston.

Then there's my cross-country drive in 2006.  "It's been THREE DAYS.  How am I STILL in California?"  Well, came in from the Las Vegas area on southbound I-15, then cut across and up to the San Francisco area via CA-58 and CA-99, crossed the Golden Gate and went up CA-1 for the scenery, then gave that up when my then-girlfriend started to worry about how long it was taking and we cut across to US-101 via CA-12, then all the way up US-101 to US-199 and then US-199 into Oregon.  PHEW!

Sports fandom is really more cultural than anything else and based almost entirely on media market. The parts of MA and VT that are in the Albany media market tends to be dominated by Yankees fans, same for the parts of NY that are in the Burlington media market. The Yankees have a national fanbase because they're most often featured on national TV and thus easy for most of the country to watch. If geographic proximity determined fandom then we'd see Toronto Blue Jays fans in Buffalo and Western New York. But Buffalo and the rest of New York State root for New York's American League team.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/24/upshot/facebook-baseball-map.html#6,43.676,-88.120

Having grown up in Mets Country on Long Island, with a family half-divided between the Mets and the Yankees, then having moved to the Boston area where I was hated on just for being From New York (heaven forfend), it's hard for me to imagine ANY part of Massachusetts, or New England as a whole for that matter, rooting for any other team besides the Red Sox.  Heck, most people I know who live in the Albany area seem to cheer for the Red Sox and the Patriots versus the Yankees and the Jets.

Anyone who has taken I-80 across Pennsylvania can testify to how that state seems to never end.

Anyone who has taken I-81 through Virginia from the West Viriginia line to the Tennessee line can testify to the fact that Virginia is actually larger than it seems, and seems to go on FOREVER.

Now about Iowa...don't get me started on Iowa!

[PColumbus73]

Some things that physically make Arkansas seem smaller than it is are being a smaller population, and when you drive through, Little Rock is smack in the middle, making it seem like a shorter distance.  That and it's almost square shape...

North Carolina feels like it never ends either. Especially US 421/NC 87 between Greensboro and Fayetteville.

I drove from St. Louis to Houston in April 2015.  Missouri seemed to go on forever but that's because we took US-67, and there was a part at which my wife said "I need to go to the bathroom" and we didn't find ANY place to stop, not even a porta-potty, for almost an hour and a half.  Arkansas seemed to never end, but I think that's because we pretty much went diagonally from the northeast corner of the state to the southwest corner via US-67 and then I-30.  Once we FINALLY got into Texas it was 8 or 9 PM.  Almost done, I thought, then we stopped at a Subway and I was told by the cashier that it was 4 1/2 hours further to Houston.

Then there's my cross-country drive in 2006.  "It's been THREE DAYS.  How am I STILL in California?"  Well, came in from the Las Vegas area on southbound I-15, then cut across and up to the San Francisco area via CA-58 and CA-99, crossed the Golden Gate and went up CA-1 for the scenery, then gave that up when my then-girlfriend started to worry about how long it was taking and we cut across to US-101 via CA-12, then all the way up US-101 to US-199 and then US-199 into Oregon.  PHEW!

Sports fandom is really more cultural than anything else and based almost entirely on media market. The parts of MA and VT that are in the Albany media market tends to be dominated by Yankees fans, same for the parts of NY that are in the Burlington media market. The Yankees have a national fanbase because they're most often featured on national TV and thus easy for most of the country to watch. If geographic proximity determined fandom then we'd see Toronto Blue Jays fans in Buffalo and Western New York. But Buffalo and the rest of New York State root for New York's American League team.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/24/upshot/facebook-baseball-map.html#6,43.676,-88.120

Having grown up in Mets Country on Long Island, with a family half-divided between the Mets and the Yankees, then having moved to the Boston area where I was hated on just for being From New York (heaven forfend), it's hard for me to imagine ANY part of Massachusetts, or New England as a whole for that matter, rooting for any other team besides the Red Sox.  Heck, most people I know who live in the Albany area seem to cheer for the Red Sox and the Patriots versus the Yankees and the Jets.

Anyone who has taken I-80 across Pennsylvania can testify to how that state seems to never end.

Anyone who has taken I-81 through Virginia from the West Viriginia line to the Tennessee line can testify to the fact that Virginia is actually larger than it seems, and seems to go on FOREVER.

Now about Iowa...don't get me started on Iowa!

[dvferyance]

That Milwaukee is closer to Chicago then Green Bay. When will football fans that are around here realize that? Also Milwaukee is closer to Indianapolis about 280 miles then to Minneapolis about 330 miles. Yet I will see some Vikings stuff sold around here but never any Colts stuff.

Geographically speaking, it's rather easy to determine that Chicago is closer to Milwaukee than Green Bay is simply by taking a casual glance at a map. It's not much of an oddity, really.

As far as being fans of a particular team, it's also not hard to understand why the majority of people in Milwaukee are Packers fans and not Bears fans. #1, The Bears are from that state to the south that contains all those FIBs. #2, Milwaukee has somewhat of an inferiority complex towards Chicago. #3 Milwaukee/Wisconsin are natural rivals with Chicago/Illinois. It has more to do with this than proximity. and #4 The Bears Still Suck! As for being a Colts fan stuck in Milwaukee, I have no explanation for you  .

If you want something of an oddity regarding sports fandom and location, there are quite a few Bears fans here in Southwest Wisconsin because the Bears used to hold training camp at UW-Platteville from 1984-2000.

NW Indiana supports the Bears over the Colts and southern Illinois supports the Cards over the Cubs. So fan bases do cross state lines. I became a Colts fan becasue I liked Manning my choice to support them had nothing to do with location.

[The Nature Boy]

That Milwaukee is closer to Chicago then Green Bay. When will football fans that are around here realize that? Also Milwaukee is closer to Indianapolis about 280 miles then to Minneapolis about 330 miles. Yet I will see some Vikings stuff sold around here but never any Colts stuff.

Geographically speaking, it's rather easy to determine that Chicago is closer to Milwaukee than Green Bay is simply by taking a casual glance at a map. It's not much of an oddity, really.

As far as being fans of a particular team, it's also not hard to understand why the majority of people in Milwaukee are Packers fans and not Bears fans. #1, The Bears are from that state to the south that contains all those FIBs. #2, Milwaukee has somewhat of an inferiority complex towards Chicago. #3 Milwaukee/Wisconsin are natural rivals with Chicago/Illinois. It has more to do with this than proximity. and #4 The Bears Still Suck! As for being a Colts fan stuck in Milwaukee, I have no explanation for you  .

If you want something of an oddity regarding sports fandom and location, there are quite a few Bears fans here in Southwest Wisconsin because the Bears used to hold training camp at UW-Platteville from 1984-2000.

NW Indiana supports the Bears over the Colts and southern Illinois supports the Cards over the Cubs. So fan bases do cross state lines. I became a Colts fan becasue I liked Manning my choice to support them had nothing to do with location.

To be fair, both of those places have more in common with the cities that those teams represent than the rest of their state. NW Indiana is in Chicagoland and Southern Illinois has more in common with Missouri and Kentucky than Great Lakes region.

Like I said, broad scale sports fandom tends to be cultural.

[hbelkins]

I don't know about the blackout rules or anything like that, but I do know that western Kentucky is Cardinals territory. There's a pretty sharp line between Reds and Cards country, but I'm not sure exactly where it is. Somewhere between I-65 and the Natcher Parkway, though.

[jp the roadgeek]

As far as being fans of a particular team, it's also not hard to understand why the majority of people in Milwaukee are Packers fans and not Bears fans. #1, The Bears are from that state to the south that contains all those FIBs. #2, Milwaukee has somewhat of an inferiority complex towards Chicago. #3 Milwaukee/Wisconsin are natural rivals with Chicago/Illinois. It has more to do with this than proximity. and #4 The Bears Still Suck! As for being a Colts fan stuck in Milwaukee, I have no explanation for you  .

5. The Packers used to play 2 home games a year at County Stadium in Milwaukee until the 1990's.

[Big John]

As far as being fans of a particular team, it's also not hard to understand why the majority of people in Milwaukee are Packers fans and not Bears fans. #1, The Bears are from that state to the south that contains all those FIBs. #2, Milwaukee has somewhat of an inferiority complex towards Chicago. #3 Milwaukee/Wisconsin are natural rivals with Chicago/Illinois. It has more to do with this than proximity. and #4 The Bears Still Suck! As for being a Colts fan stuck in Milwaukee, I have no explanation for you  .

5. The Packers used to play 2 home games a year at County Stadium in Milwaukee until the 1990's.

actually 3.

[hotdogPi]

Jacksonville FL, Columbus OH, and Charlotte NC are all larger in population than Denver, El Paso, Washington DC, Boston, Kansas City (MO and KS combined), Atlanta, Miami, and St. Louis.

There are 24 combinations here. While a few might not be surprising, most of them are.

[bing101]

Hell there are hundreds of ghost towns and former rail sidings all over California that aren't even on those lists.  What will throw most for a loop is that there several hundred ghost towns in Florida of all places.  Most had something to do with; rails, lumber, citrus, or even phosphate mining.

Also some of these ghost towns are now parts of other cities. Plus Drawbridge, CA is an abandoned town in the middle of the Bay area sprawl of Silicon valley.

[The Nature Boy]

I don't know about the blackout rules or anything like that, but I do know that western Kentucky is Cardinals territory. There's a pretty sharp line between Reds and Cards country, but I'm not sure exactly where it is. Somewhere between I-65 and the Natcher Parkway, though.

From my own limited experience in the area (dated a girl from there), Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky, and Southeast Missouri really form a cultural enclave that is distinct from the three states that they're apart of.

[Desert Man]

The Palm Springs area or Coachella Valley: Palm Springs is the most famous city, but not the largest (Indio), oldest (Coachella) nor the geographic center (Palm Desert). It's not a county of it's own either, the county seat is in Riverside, 60 miles from Palm Springs and the county's named after the seat. And the county goes to Blythe - 150 miles to the east. And Indio's original name before 1890 was Indian Wells, but there's an Indian Wells (pop: 4,600) 5 miles away, known to be the top 100 wealthiest towns in America and top 50 in California.

[Roadgeekteen]

Jacksonville FL, Columbus OH, and Charlotte NC are all larger in population than Denver, El Paso, Washington DC, Boston, Kansas City (MO and KS combined), Atlanta, Miami, and St. Louis.

There are 24 combinations here. While a few might not be surprising, most of them are.

Metro area, however are different.

[The Nature Boy]

Jacksonville FL, Columbus OH, and Charlotte NC are all larger in population than Denver, El Paso, Washington DC, Boston, Kansas City (MO and KS combined), Atlanta, Miami, and St. Louis.

There are 24 combinations here. While a few might not be surprising, most of them are.

Metro area, however are different.

Jacksonville and Charlotte have highly inflated populations due to overzealous annexing. DC and Boston would be MUCH larger cities if they could annex what is around them.