Harris Interactive does polling to determine the popularity of baseball clubs. I remember seeing the last one of these - it is probably discussed somewhere in the archives - which reported that the Pirates were a top ten team. As in, one of the ten-most popular baseball clubs in the nation.
This high ranking, obviously, had little to do with recent won-loss records. And it could hardly be the product of the size of the team's market. The fact that the Pirates were ranked at #8 as recently as last year testifies to the loyalty of Pittsburgh fans, who, in my experience at least, are raised to root for one team only. They rarely go over to the dark side when they move to another section of the country.
Well, surprise surpise, that's changing, at least according to this Puget Sound Business Journal report describing the most recent poll, in which our good friends in Seattle spread the word, on the eve of the All-Star game, of "Seattle up, Pittsburgh down." The Pirates have fallen to #21.
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