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Your Strange Item of the Day

By Chuck Sudo in Miscellaneous on Aug 4, 2007 3:00PM

2007_08_baseball_map.jpg


We were reading Deadspin yesterday and came across the map you see above, via flickr user "littlebudapest" and the website Strange Maps. As you can see, the map breaks down the continental United States by baseball allegiances. Notice the little fiefdom the White Sox hold within Cubs Country, like West Berlin surrounded by East Germany during the Cold War. One would think that, with one World Series win in the past ninety years, the Sox would have a larger section.

What some of you might find surprising is just how far into southern and central Illinois Cardinals country runs. Don't be: before they switched stations last year, the 50,000 watt powerhouse of KMOX radio broadcast Cardinals games across the Midwest. Also, during the Golden Days of Radio, the broadcast team for the Cardinals was Harry Caray and Jack Buck, two personalities who each could dominate a broadcast. We've only heard small clips of them calling a Redbirds game together, and with the way they sucked listeners into a game can understand why some downstate feel the Cardinals are the true baseball team of Illinois.