Did you know 5 percent of Minnesota residents who live in the 55744 zip code – the Grand Rapids area – identify as Red Sox fans? And if that lovable (former) loser wasn’t enough, another 2 percent call themselves Cubs fans.
That’s how specific you can get with this new interactive map from The UpShot, a New York Times visual journalism project.
The map itself divides the United States down to county or zip code, detailing the fandom of each with color-coded percentages. The darker a color, the more overwhelming an area’s support for a team. Pulled back completely (as seen in the photo below), you can see which teams dominate which regions, and how their influence fades as it stretches out across the land.
The Grand Rapids, Minnesota area, by the way, says it’s 78 percent Twins fans.
Curiously, the strongest support for the hometown team is north of the team’s home of Minneapolis. In the St. Cloud area, Twins fan numbers range anywhere from about 81 to 86 percent. While around Minneapolis and St. Paul, the highest it gets is about 78 percent.
There’s another strong collection way up north, just above Chisholm and stretching up toward Ely, where support is at about 80 percent.
The map, The Upshot explains, compiles team “likes” on Facebook and codes them to zip codes.
The site also highights what it calls “The Molitor Line” – where Twins fans and Brewers fans collide on the map (named after infielder Paul Molitor, who played for both teams). The site finds the divide basically follows state lines, with the exception of a few Twins fans that live just over the border into Wisconsin.
The entire project is very cool and worth clicking around. You can find the exact spot Chicago splits between Cubs and White Sox fans, how the Yankees and Mets share New York, and the swath of land each California team holds.
