In La Jolla ZIP Code 92037, 43 percent of Facebook users are Padres fans. No surprise.
But data displayed by The New York Times also show that 11 percent of La Jollans root for the Giants and 8 percent for the Yankees.
An interactive map called Baseball Nation lets users see the fan breakdown by every ZIP Code in the country.
In 92055 Camp Pendleton, for example, Padres command 32 percent Padres allegiance along with 12 percent for the Angels and 9 percent for the Dodgers. In 91932 Imperial Beach, it’s Padres 59, Dodgers 10 and Yankees 6.
As The New York Times noted: “Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated has called the line running through Connecticut that separates Yankee fans and Red Sox fans the Munson-Nixon line. Mr. Rushin came up with the name — in honor of the late Yankee catcher Thurman Munson and the retired Red Sox right fielder Trot Nixon — in 2003, and he had to guess where the line ran: “north of New Haven but south of Hartford, running the breadth of central Connecticut.”
But the Times revealed that both Hartford and New Haven are “Yankee outposts.”
“We can also determine the precise Chicago neighborhoods where White Sox jerseys stop being welcome and the central California town where the Dodgers cede fan favorite status to the Giants,” the Times said.
The Orange County Register, in its own report, said: “As expected, the border between Orange County and Los Angeles County is where loyalties split, as if traveling a little north on the I-5 automatically switches the radio to Vin Scully’s simulcast. The Times called this the Reagan-Nixon Line.”
The Times further noted:
“San Luis Obispo, often considered a halfway point between the Giants and the Dodgers, is squarely Dodgers territory, according to Facebook users. Further south, the Padres have problems. The baseball writer Joe Sheehan has noted their major challenges in raising revenue, given that they are hemmed in by the Pacific Ocean, the Mexican border, a desert and the Dodgers and the Angels.
“No one symbolizes the plight of the Padres, who have never won a World Series, quite as well as Adrian Gonzalez. Born in San Diego, he spent five years as a Padres slugger. But they couldn’t afford him, and he now leads the Dodgers in home runs.”
How does your ZIP fare? Any surprises there?