The Marlins finished 25th in Harris Poll

Harris did a poll on the popularity of each baseball team and baseball in general.  The Marlins finished tied for 25th, which is about usual for the franchise.

The results of the poll are here:

Favorite Baseball Team   (be ye warned, it is a pdf)

The Marlins finished 25th in 1999, 2003, 2008 and again in 2009.  In the the interim years they finished as high as 21 (2004) and as low as 28 (2005).  So basically the Marlins position of being a fan favorite really hasn't change all that much, big surprise.

The interesting thing is that the Marlins finished ahead of the (whatever their names are) Angels and the Toronto Blue Jays.  The Blue Jays get a pass since the poll didn't bother to contact anyone in Canada.  But the Angels are leading their division and have been to the playoffs five times in the last seven years and winning the World Series once in the process.  And they are behind us?

Then again it may have something to do with being the second team into the market.  The Yankees finished their usual first while the Mets finished 11th.  Just to keep the theme going the Cubs came in tied for number 4 with the Dodgers while the White Sox ended up being 12th.  I have no idea which franchise was founded first when it comes to the Chicago teams, but I do know both are quite old.

But be that as it may, the Angels aren't getting much love in Southern California.  Not that I care.

One of the other interesting aspects of the poll was that when asked: Do you follow major league baseball or not?  Males responded positively 53% and females 29%.  Interesting.  Here at FishStripes if one were to break down the numbers by sex, the total would be much higher than 29% female.  In this, I'm not talking about those who actively comment but members of the site.

Perhaps, since the Marlins haven't been around all that long, the game is more becoming to younger females than it is to older females.  I'm just guessing here.

But whatever the case, the Marlins are still 25th.  But that doesn't concern me in the least.  We are growing a fan base, and that takes time.