From Madawaska, Maine to Stamford, Connecticut, Red Sox fandom is just part of the way of life in New England. The phrase “Red Sox Nation” was coined in the 1980s, but not really popularized until Boston Globe sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy’s book, At Fenway: Dispatches From Red Sox Nation, was published in 1996.
Apparently the Nike folks liked that idea enough to decide that not only was there a Red Sox nation, but that the whole map of the United States could be parceled up into 30-odd “nations” of fandom, one for each team in Major League Baseball (via). This map went up in the Niketown store in San Francisco during the All-Star break earlier this month.
Unfortunately, you can only see just the western-most sliver of Red Sox Nation in that photo. Personally, I’d like to know how they decided on the borders — I assume some of it must come from local broadcast coverage of teams where some cities might not have their own major league team to root for, and some of it is probably traditional from the days when there weren’t so many teams. I also wonder how genuine some of the fandom is in those outlying places. Cool map, anyway. And cool blog, too; I’ve added Strange Maps to my RSS reader.
