The Reagan-Nixon line in SoCal baseball

Screen grab from New York Times graphic.

The New York Times data team used Facebook data to map the baseball team preferences of the country, focusing on those borders between fans loyal to one team or another. The concept comes from the so-called Munson-Nixon Line, named by Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated a decade ago, describing the boundary in New England between fans of the Yankees and of the Red Sox. In some metro areas with two teams, such as in New York and the Bay Area, the second team (the Mets and A's) barely register up against the dominant Yankees and Giants. Here, the Angels own a wide swath of fandom — running mostly on the Orange side of the county border and east into the Inland Empire — but the Dodgers are still number one elsewhere. If you look statewide, the Giants rule the greatest amount of California's map.

Anyway, a fun and somewhat fascinating look at SoCal and America. Even though the NYT whiffed on naming its borders. Reagan-Nixon is weak and lacking in cleverness, if technically defensible.