The Harris Poll^® #65, July 9, 2007

The New York Yankees May Be Slumping on the Field, But They Are Still America’s Favorite Baseball Team

As Major League Baseball heads into the All-Star Game, the New York Yankees find themselves on top as the favorite baseball team among those who follow Major League Baseball for the fifth year in a row. The Atlanta Braves jump up one spot to No. 2 while the Boston Red Sox are in third place on the list. Rounding out the top five are the St Louis Cardinals at No. 4 and the Chicago Cubs at No. 5.

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll conducted online by Harris Interactive^® among a nationwide sample of 2,372 U.S. adults between June 5 and 11, 2007.

Two teams have moved up eight or more places since 2006:

• The Texas Rangers move up 11 places from a tie at No. 27 to a tie at No. 16;
• The Milwaukee Brewers move up eight places from No. 18 to No. 10.

Three teams have dropped seven or more places since last year:

• The Chicago White Sox have fallen 10 places from a tie at No. 11 to No. 21;
• The Arizona Diamondbacks have fallen eight places from a tie at No. 14 to No. 22;
• The Kansas City Royals have fallen seven places from a tie at No. 21, to No. 28.

While the East is solidly behind the NY Yankees, the other regions of the country definitely are not. In the Midwest, the St. Louis Cardinals are the favorite team while in the South it is the Atlanta Braves. Out West, the Seattle Mariners, who come in at No. 8 overall, are that region’s favorite team.

With regard to age, there is not that much of a difference, as most say the Yankees are their favorite team. All, that is, but the youngest generation, with Echo Boomers (those aged 18-30) claiming the St. Louis Cardinals as their favorite team.

The disagreements between Republicans and Democrats also seem to extend to favorite baseball teams. Republicans say the Atlanta Braves are their favorite team while Democrats say it is the New York Yankees.

"What is your favorite Major League Baseball team?"

Base: U.S. Adults Who Follow Major League Baseball

*While the name may have changed, we have kept the trend from previous years since it is the same team.

**It should be noted that the sample was limited to the United States. It is therefore no surprise that the Canadian team placed last on this list in a survey where no Canadian residents are surveyed.

Base: U.S. Adults Who Follow Major League Baseball

This Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between June 5 and 11, 2007 among 2,372 adults, of whom 874 follow baseball. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

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