MLB Power Rankings: Analyzing the Passion of All 30 Major League Fan Bases (2024)

The opening of Target field had a dramatic impact on the Twins attendance figures in 2010.

The organization that finished 23rd in 2008 and 15th in 2009 sold out for the season this past year.

All told, they sold 3,223,640 tickets in 2010, an average of 39,798 per game (100.7 percent attendance).

This is a dramatic increase, especially considering the fact that the team moved from the climate controlled indoors of the Metrodome's to the sometimes frigid environment (at the beginning and end of the season) of Minnesota's outdoors.

Eventually, heavy snow fall will disrupt a Twins playoff series.

But Minnesota sports fans certainly don't mind the snow.

The Twins are among the most successful smaller market franchises in sports.

Some of that comes from having a patient, but reliable fan base.

The mere fact that the Florida Marlins employ cheerleaders was reason enough to put them near the bottom of this list.

Baseball and cheerleaders have absolutely nothing to do with one another.

But poor attendance figures hasn't helped their cause too much either. The Marlins have finished 28th, 29th and 30th in total attendance over the past three seasons.

South Florida sports fans are self-proclaimed bandwagon jumpers.

This is keeping with the Miami attitude of doing whatever is coolest at the time.

When the Marlins aren't cool, their fans are especially horrible.

In 2005 in their first year in Washington D.C. the Nationals averaged 33,728 fans per game, good for the 11th best total in the major leagues.

Following losing seasons, their rank dropped to 20th in 2006 and 28th in 2007.

Despite the opening of a new ballpark in 2008, the Nationals still find themselves in the bottom third for attendance.

Last season, fans seemed to show up only when phenom Stephen Strasburg was supposed to start. For those games, Nationals fans were lively.

With Strasburg shelved for most or all of the 2011 season, I'd be willing to bet that the organization's attendance continues to fall.

It's not Evan Longoria's fault that his franchise has some of the worst fans in professional baseball.

Tampa Bay is a football city first; the Buccaneers are the big ticket in town.

The Rays are an afterthought in their own city. This shouldn't be a surprise since they recorded ten straight losing seasons to begin their history.

With two division titles in three years, the Rays future is bright. A fan base may develop over time, but it's not there yet.

They need to come out for the regular season, not just the playoffs.

As the only baseball team in Canada, one would think that the Blue Jays would be Canada's team.

Instead, Toronto finished dead last in attendance in 2010, despite winning 85 games and hitting more home runs than any other team in the league, by an incredible margin of 46.

They also finished 29th in 2009.

Canadians just don't care about baseball; hockey is everything in Canada.

But with successful major league players starting to emerge from our northern neighbor (Joey Votto, Jason Bay, Justin Morenau, John Axford) MLB needs to keep a presence there.

The Blue Jays need to find a way to get fans out to their games—it's becoming a problem.

It has always amazed me that Billy Beane elected to stay with the Oakland A's.

It is revealed in the book Moneyball that Beane had the opportunity to become general manager of the Boston Red Sox, but ultimately declined the job.

Instead, he's rebuilt his team, once again, across the pond from the defending World Series champions.

During their peak years in the early 2000's, the A's never finished above 13th in attendance.

With rumors that the team may eventually pack up and move south, the numbers have tumbled into the late 20's.

The few who show up are dedicated, but the San Francisco area is already claimed territory as far as fans go.

Beane could have done incredible things with such an enormous payroll and a larger fan base that cares.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a young team on the rise in the NL West.

They feature power in the middle infield, a crop of all-around outfielders and good young pitching.

2011 could be the organizations' best year since going 90-72 in 2007. Even then, the D'backs finished just 20th in attendance.

Normally the team hovers around the late 20's.

With more organizations moving their spring training sites to Arizona, baseball could grow as a sport there.

The All-Star game coming to town in 2011 could provide a boost as well.

Arizona is still just 13 seasons old as a franchise.

Fan bases take time to develop; this one very well could.

Fans of Pittsburgh sports teams are spoiled.

For a small city, they have one of the NFL's most historic franchises, four Stanley Cups in the last 25 years and successful college basketball and football programs at Pitt.

The Pittsburgh Pirates haven't been relevant since 1992; the last time they had a winning season.

The last time the team won a playoff series was when they captured the 1979 World Series.

This 31-year drought has created an attitude of negativity around the team.

The Pirates are consistently draw among the fewest fans in baseball.

They need to bring back the attitude of the 1970's "We Are Family" Pirates and unite the city of Pittsburgh around their organization.

Andrew McCutchen can't wait to show some new fans what he's capable of doing.

The Royals are a lot like the Pirates in that they haven't been relevant in a long time.

The club's last two winning seasons came in 2003 and 1993.

The last time they appeared in the playoffs was 1985, when they defeated the Cardinals in an exciting seven game World Series.

Over the past decade, the Royals have continuously ranked among the bottom five teams in attendance.

Kansas residents care about the Chiefs and KU basketball.

They feel no loyalty for a losing team with a crazed, selfish owner.

Those outfield fountains are pretty sweet, however.

These days, most of the Indians fans belong to the Shin-Soo Choo fan club.

The Korean outfielder has a large following, but Cleveland still finished 28th in attendance in 2010.

After management traded away various parts of a contending team (C.C. Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, etc.) the Indians fan base appeared to turn on ownership and stopped coming to games.

With Grady Sizemore out injured, Shin-Soo Choo has been the lone star in northern Ohio.

But even he can't rile up the fan base of this mediocre AL Central team.

Even when this team was winning 90 games and making the playoffs, they still finished middle of the pack in attendance numbers.

Even during a season in which they reached the World Series, winning the AL West and AL Pennant, the Texas Rangers finished just 16th in attendance (14th in total).

Depending on the success of the team, the Rangers usually finish in or around the late teens.

When the team went 79-83 in 2008, they finished 27th.

Texas is a football state and the Cowboys are the Holy Grail in the Dallas area.

When the Cowboys are good, there's no need to care about the Rangers.

They're missing out, because this Texas team has a much brighter future than their football counterpart.

Maybe the weather in Seattle is just too cold to go to baseball games.

Either that, or all of Seattle's inhabitants are just busy programming the future of the internet.

The Seattle Mariners are known for having dedicated fans, but a rough patch this past decade has really hurt their attendance numbers.

Seattle drew extremely well in the early part of the 2000's, en route to winning 116, 93 and 93 games from 2001-2003. (The Mariners finished in the top four of attendance all three seasons.)

Those years were the last time Seattle would make the playoffs.

Their attendance fell into the bottom half of the league the past five years and into the bottom third of the league the past three years.

When they win, the fans come. When they don't, fans stay away.

Even Mariner Moose and some squirt guns can't help that.

It's often said that the Cincinnati Reds have among the most dedicated and loyal fans in baseball.

Even despite a 91-71 record and an NL Central championship in 2010, the club still finished 19th in attendance.

The Reds are poised to become one of the most dominant teams in the National League for the next few years.

Jay Bruce and Joey Votto are already All-Stars and will continue to improve.

Homer Bailey, Aroldis Chapman, Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto should form a nice quartet as part of a reliable rotation.

The Reds deserve more than 60 percent capacity from their fans.

As one of the few winning teams in Ohio, they'll likely see more support.

It's tough to be a fan of the worst team in the toughest division in Major League Baseball.

The Baltimore Orioles are one of the American League's eight original charter franchises.

As a result, baseball is a little better when they're good.

Jeffry Maier's fan interference in 1996, which allowed a series changing Derek Jeter home run, sent the Orioles into a tailspin that has resulted in 13 straight losing seasons.

They finished with the seventh-worst home attendance in the league in 2010 (21,662 per game) despite their beautiful modern retro ballpark.

If the Orioles return to prominence, they do have a rowdy fanbase that is ready to show up for their team again.

Pro: The chop, when done correctly, is awesome.

Con: It's stolen from other places; most notably from Florida State when Deion Sanders came to the Braves.

Con: The fans also don't care about baseball; Georgia is a football state.

Pro: They have Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman; the fans might care more as this team matures and gets better.

Con: They had Chipper Jones and won 11 straight division titles from 1995-2005 yet the fans didn't care until the playoffs.

Verdict: The Braves have a spoiled fan base; they've seen a lot of consistent success, yet they don't show the same steady support for their team

It will be interesting to see what kind of an impact the loss of Adrian Gonzalez has not only on the Padres lineup, but also on their attendance.

San Diego relied heavily on marketing their Mexican American star to the Southern California population.

Even still, the Padres can't seem to make it out of the mid to late teens when it comes to ticket sales.

They have continued to put a good product on the field, but fans still aren't showing up to the games.

Their one saving grace is that they continue coming even when the team is bad; the Padres finished 14th in attendance in 2008 despite losing 99 games.

The White Sox have good fans, but they will always be compared unfavorably to their counterparts on the north side of Chicago.

Perhaps it's the fact that they're not lovable losers. Or it could be their blue collar reputation.

Due to low attendance numbers, White Sox fans probably aren't given the credit that they deserve.

Even in their World Series winning year of 2005, the White Sox still finished just 12th in average percentage of seats filled.

Chicago Sports fans are still very good fans in general, but the town doesn't have enough room for two major baseball teams.

The die-hards will continue to stay loyal.

Their overall numbers, however, will stay in the middle of the pack.

The Rockies have only been around for eighteen seasons.As they mature into their first true period of success, they are building their fan base.

While toiling below .500 for the early part of the 2000's, the Rockies were consistently in the bottom 10 in the attendance standings.

With stars like Troy Tulowitzki, Ubaldo Jimenez and Carlos Gonzalez now carrying the team, it's clear that the people of Denver are excited about their baseball.

Colorado climbed to 13th in the attendance rankings last year.

Denver is a great sports city. As expectations are raised, fans will continue to come to games; win or lose.

The Rockies fans will only continue to improve.

It probably is already enough that in the past three years the Tigers have placed 11th, 10th and third in overall attendance.

But Tigers fans also have the reputation of being some of the most respectful and polite fans in all of baseball.

The day after umpire Jim Joyce blew Armando Galarraga's perfect game, Tiger fans applauded him as he entered the field.

This was a wonderful moment not only for Joyce, but for sports fans everywhere who have ever made a mistake in their own lives.

Detroit may be "Hockey Town", but they certainly care about their Tigers as well.

Unlike their Texas counterpart in Dallas, fans of the Houston Astros are among the most loyal and passionate in baseball.

Attendance for the Astros is consistently around the top ten in the league. They finished 14th in 2010 and 12th in 2009 despite having losing records.

When the Astros went to two straight NLCS trips and lost a World Series to the White Sox in 2004-2005, they finished fifth in attendance in 2004, and seventh in 2005.

This current crop of Astros is rebuilding, but when the team finally matures, a hungry fan base will be waiting.

The Dodgers are the trendy, and more historic team in Los Angeles.

But the reputation for their fans to come early and leave late is a major detriment to their rank on this list.

The Dodgers certainly have knowledgeable and passionate fans; this is an organization with a rich history dating back to its days in Brooklyn.

But good fans need to be there from the start of the game until the end; the volume of empty seats is noticeable sometimes, even on T.V.

The Dodgers have good fans, but not the best fans in their own town.

With their recent success, it's easy to forget that Phillies fans used to be much more indifferent about their baseball team.

The additions of players such as Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cliff Lee to a World Series contending team put the Phillies as the No. 1 attended team for each of the past two seasons.

But during a period from 1994-2002 that saw just one winning season, the Phillies consistently hovered in the bottom third for attendance.

As I've said before, good fans show up even when the team isn't.

Phillies fans care, but they care a whole lot less when they don't have a true contender to follow.

Wisconsin is known for its football when it comes to the Packers and the Badgers.

But Wisconsinites also care very deeply about the Brewers and baseball.

Sausage races and Bernie Brewer's slide are among the best traditions in the sport.

With their attendance figures consistently inside of the top ten, the fans are coming to the games as well.

With the additions of Zack Greinke and Shawn Marcum, the Brewers are expected to seriously compete in 2011.They should generate even more ticket sales this season.

Hopefully they can make enough money back to re-sign Prince Fielder, and remain a contender for their loyal supporters.

If not for the San Francisco Giants, the Los Angeles Angels would have the best fans in California.

The inventors of the rally monkey have tormented opponents over the last decade, especially in the late innings of games at home.

The Angels have finished in the top six of attendance figures each of the past three seasons. They even bested the Yankees in 2010.

Angels fans are among the loudest and most passionate fans in baseball.

They annoyed all of America with their use of thunder sticks during their playoff runs in the early 2000's.

The Los Angeles Angels have perhaps the most underrated fans in baseball.

Since the sport is a hotbed in southern california, baseball struck gold with their Anaheim franchise.

The opening of Target field had a dramatic impact on the Twins attendance figures in 2010.

The organization that finished 23rd in 2008 and 15th in 2009 sold out for the season this past year.

All told, they sold 3,223,640 tickets in 2010, an average of 39,798 per game (100.7 percent attendance).

This is a dramatic increase, especially considering the fact that the team moved from the climate controlled indoors of the Metrodome's to the sometimes frigid environment (at the beginning and end of the season) of Minnesota's outdoors.

Eventually, heavy snow fall will disrupt a Twins playoff series.

But Minnesota sports fans certainly don't mind the snow.

The Twins are among the most successful smaller market franchises in sports.

Some of that comes from having a patient, but reliable fan base.

Win or lose, rain or shine, Mets fans always believe.

It's the main factor that drives this fan base, which has seen two improbable World Series victories in 1969 and 1986.

It's also what gets them through the tough times, such as their two massive late season collapses to the rival Phillies in the past four years.

The Mets may have obnoxious fans, but they have good fans.

They are consistently around the top ten for attendance. In 2009, their first year in Citi Field, the Mets finished as the No. 4 team.

But with the club in major financial trouble, the Wilpons may increase ticket prices to offset some costs.

Ticket increases for a bad product might price out even the most die-hard of Mets fans.

The Giants are consistently one of baseball's top six most highly attended teams.

Coming off of a World Series victory in 2010, an increase in season ticket sales should push that number higher.

Of the five baseball teams in California, the Giants have the best fans. They show up win or lose, stay throughout the game and are loud for the whole game.

Giants fans truly love their team; orange and black are the only colors seen inside AT&T park on gamedays.

With their World Series drought finally over, the Giants will gain an even bigger following.

This is already one of the best fan bases in baseball, and it's about to get bigger.

Ah, the tortured fan base of Chicago's north side.

What else is there to say about the Cubs? They have high expectations going into every season, and every year they disappoint.

But if they ever do win a title, the value of their franchise will probably decrease, since America doesn't care about the Cubs winning twice.

The club has an expansive fan base.

For combined home and road attendance, they consistently place in the top three with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

Cubs fans are better among the two Chicago teams, but they fall short to those of a rival organization in their own division.

Yankees fans are among the most passionate in baseball.

They are also considered among the meanest and most obnoxious as well.

The Yankee empire extends far and wide. Forbes has placed a value on the organization (the team, YES Network, Yankee Stadium) of around $3.5 billion.

With fans all around the world, the Yankees have enough revenue streams to support the highest payroll in baseball.

Their total salaries exceeded $200 million each of the past few years, nearly $70 million more per season than any other team.

But the Yankees are expected to win, every season; their last losing year came in 1992.

Even astronomical ticket prices couldn't keep the Yankees from having the third best attendance in 2010.

The Yankees are the biggest brand in Major League Baseball because of the sheer number of their fans.

The atmosphere outside of Fenway Park before Red Sox games is unlike anything else seen in Major League Baseball.

Fans mill outside of the stadium for hours leading up to the game; shopping at stores, drinking at bars and grabbing good food from concessions.

Once the game starts, Fenway is always a packed house.

The Red Sox crowd has declined in overall quality since winning their two World Series in 2004 and 2007.

Higher expectations have led to an increase in ticket prices, forcing out the die-hards and replacing them with more indifferent business folk.

But Red Sox fans still care about their team more than any other fans in baseball.

Players have gone so far as to request to leave Boston because they constantly felt hounded by inhabitants of the city.

Perhaps Boston fans are too passionate.

The Celtics are one of the NBA's elite franchises, and the Patriots are currently among the kings of the NFL.

But when the Red Sox are good, Boston is first and foremost a Baseball town.

The Red Sox have sold out every year since 2005.

Not only are Cardinals fans among the most knowledgeable and passionate in the sport of baseball, they are also, by all accounts, the most polite.

Even Cubs fans have said that it's really, really tough to hate Cardinals fans.

They are extremely respectful not only to their players and the game of baseball, but also to great players on other teams.

When Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 500th career home run, on Father's Day, in St. Louis, the fans not only didn't boo him but gave him an extended standing ovation.

Perhaps Cardinals fans learned about respecting the game from their rich history that included players like Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Dizzy Dean and Lou Brock.

With 10 World Series titles, they certainly act like they've been there before.

In terms of everything: respect for the game, knowledge of the game and showing up win or lose, Cardinals fans have it all.