Friday, April 30, 2010
Sports owes a lot to mathematics.
Counting the number of bench reps by an athlete at the combine approximates his strength. Simple arithmetic allows us to calculate how many strikeouts a pitcher has per nine innings. Mathematics and statistics allow us to quantify the excellence we see on the diamond, the hardwood or the ice rink.
But it appears that The Nielsen Company got it all wrong.
See, the company released a study that says the Cleveland Indians — yes, the Cleveland Indians — are the most hated team in baseball. The Indians are in the Royals’ division, haven’t won a World Series since 1948 and rank 24th in the MLB in payroll for the 2010 season.
The Nielsen formula helped determine whether online consumers have positive, negative or neutral reactions to brands in their online messages.
If you somehow quantified all the hate from baseball fans in this country toward particular ballclubs, I can guarantee you two things.
One: So many people would forget the Indians that they wouldn’t crack the top-five most hated.
Two: The New York Yankees would finish first.
I realize that New York has a national fanbase filled with bandwagon-jumpers and former New York residents. If the study was done in the East Coast, the Yankee-Red Sox feud would bring about the most combined hate, but it would be split between the clubs and the Yankees might not finish first.
But a national poll that places the Cleveland Indians at the top of the most-hated teams list and the Yankees fourth shouldn’t carry much weight.
The Yankees pay their 25-player roster $145,129,422 more than the Indians. The Chicago Cubs, the team with the third-highest payroll behind Boston and New York, spent a total of $146,859,000.
Simply, the difference between New York’s payroll and Cleveland’s payroll is approximately the Chicago Cubs.
And this is where mathematics fails. There is no real way to quantify the hate of the Bronx Bombers from small-market baseball fans. The Brew didn’t have the time to conduct extensive research, but if you ask the fans of the bottom 10 teams in payroll which team they hate the most, I bet a majority answer “The Yankees”. If you ask those same fans about their feelings for the Cleveland Indians, I bet you get more references to “Major League” than to the actual team.
Are the Yankees good? Absolutely. They sit in second in the top-heavy AL East. They won the World Series last year.
But that only adds to the hate.
An Indians blogger told the Wall Street Journal that he could believe the Indians’ ranking because the team alienates its fans. Cleveland can alienate its fans as much it wants; the Yankees do enough alienating by spending $50 million more than any other team.
It appears that the math has failed.
FRIDAY YOUTUBE SESH
I am not a bald, middle-aged St. Louis Cardinals fan.
But this guy’s rant after the Yankees won the World Series speaks for small-market baseball fans everywhere.
Search “Why I Hate the New York Yankees” on YouTube and relate to this guy’s frustration.
— Edited by Cory Bunting
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