Let's get this out of the way real quick: the Giants are very popular.
They just won the World Series. They're full of hysterical "characters" like Brian Wilson. They have stars -- Tim Lincecum, Wilson and, before his injury, Buster Posey -- who are nationally recognizable.
You get the point.
And yet, a Harris Poll released on Monday indicates that the Giants are the 14th most-popular team in baseball.
Um, what?
Here's the list of folks that the Giants fall behind, in order of their supposed popularity, punctuation mine: the Yankees, Red Sox, Braves (?), Cubs, Dodgers (!!), Mets (!!!!!), Phillies, Rangers, Cardinals, Tigers, Mariners (/passes out), Twins, Orioles.
This has to be a joke, I think. Or perhaps it's just the most poorly-run poll in the history of polls. Because there is ZERO chance that the Mariners are more popular than the Giants.
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Or that the Dodgers even get as many people at an average game as the Giants got at the World-Series parade. (Boom, roasted.)
The worst part, though, is that the Giants DROPPED this past year, from seventh to 14th! Dropped! After winning a championship!
Actually, I take that back -- the worst part might be that only 2,163 adults were surveyed for this poll, which makes it inherently skewed and a poor representation of baseball fans.
Of course, one of the questions asked in this poll -- "Do you follow major league baseball or not?" -- and the answer that follows -- only 36% of the people polled said "Yes" -- might be indicative of how silly it is.
2,000 random adults who don't really follow baseball are obviously going to know that the Yankees and Red Sox are "more popular," since those are the two most-famous teams in baseball.
And, incidentally, the two teams who are shoved down America's throat the most; and certainly more than last year's World Series champions.
