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The New York Times came out with a map today showing how baseball fans' allegiances shake out on Facebook.
Much has been made on the East Coast of the fact that the Mets don't seem to have any territory. The Yankees not only dominate the New York area but they're a number 2 team in ZIP codes all across the nation. (They're number three in Los Angeles, narrowly edged out by the Angels.) On the West Coast, the Oakland A's don't seem to fare any better. At least the oddly-named Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim seem to do well in their own territory—and even some of the whiter parts of the 909. Maybe the next time there's a debate about who is rioting in Huntington Beach, we can safely blame it on Angels fans?
According to the map, the heart of Dodgers isn't near the stadium so much as the Eastside—the true Eastside and Doyers territory. It continues down along the 710 corridor until about the 91 freeway, where Angels fandom starts picking up steam. The crossover line seems to more or less correlate with the Orange Curtain. Some other pockets of Dodger love are in the North Valley, Gardena, Carson, Baldwin Park and the middle swatch of South Los Angeles. The most tepid Dodger fandom in the county is on the Westside, from the Pacific Palisades to Marina Del Rey. Maybe that's where there's a concentration of transplants with their own previous allegiances?
The dividing line between Dodgers and Giants fandom is as good a dividing line between Northern California and Southern California as any we've seen. Tulare County is split right down the middle in terms of its fans. It makes sense that San Luis Obispo is the dividing line on the coast: it's culturally very Central, since it's a little too far away from both San Francisco and Los Angeles for an easy weekend or day trip.
We'd be curious to overlay this map with people who say "hella" or put "the" in front of their freeways.
