Mets Fans Feel More, For Better or Worse

by
February 18, 2015

Rob Arthur took a very interesting look at how fans are talking about their teams on Reddit, and if you measure things by quantity, there’s only one team more active than Mets fans right now. It’s not surprising that the Giants rate highest when it comes to total emotional words on reddit, though — their team is on quite a run.

Re-sort the list to reflect average positive words per negative word, though, and a different picture emerges:

Name Total Affect Rating Projected Wins Last Year’s Wins Ratio (Postive/Negative Affect
Miami Marlins 1184 80 77 2.624142661
Seattle Mariners 4172 87 87 2.596021423
Pittsburgh Pirates 1574 81 88 2.569292124
Tampa Bay Rays 320 86 77 2.531100478
Chicago White Sox 2214 79 73 2.410191083
San Diego Padres 1540 85 77 2.295206056
Milwaukee Brewers 1984 80 82 2.242329368
Oakland Athletics 2816 85 88 2.222752931
Cleveland Indians 771 80 85 2.164652568
Houston Astros 1289 77 70 2.141718335
Boston Red Sox 3914 88 71 2.100056211
Cincinnati Reds 1618 79 76 2.091031693
New York Yankees 684 80 84 2.055555556
Atlanta Braves 6967 75 79 2.008832899
Chicago Cubs 4096 81 73 2.007130563
Kansas City Royals 1000 71 89 1.996015936
Washington Nationals 3706 91 96 1.988266667
San Francisco Giants 12082 84 88 1.98363592
Detroit Tigers 2163 83 90 1.916525424
Texas Rangers 1849 79 67 1.912185496
Toronto Blue Jays 4263 83 83 1.884439834
Minnesota Twins 791 70 70 1.873068433
St. Louis Cardinals 7185 89 90 1.868382886
Philadelphia Phillies 1475 70 73 1.866627497
Baltimore Orioles 2623 78 96 1.852453689
New York Mets 8087 81 79 1.823188111
Los Angeles Angels 433 91 98 1.803339518
Arizona D-backs 624 73 64 1.794904459
Colorado Rockies 504 71 66 1.760180995
Los Angeles Dodgers 5214 97 94 1.574418861

Yup, down there at 26th you’ll find the Mets. So it looks like Mets fans ‘feel’ the most, at least if you define it by amount of words on Reddit. It’s a Shakespearean question: would you rather feel the most, good and bad, or be a Rays fan, feeling very little, but most of it upbeat?

One missing factor here is the size of the fanbase. For lack of a better easily found way to measure that, we’ll use total attendance. Let’s divide number of affect words by the yearly attendance last year to see of Mets fans are truly dedicated in their misery.

Name Total Affect Rating Projected Wins Last Year’s Wins Ratio Fans Words/Fan
New York Mets 8087 81 79 1.82 2,148,808 0.0038
San Francisco Giants 12082 84 88 1.98 3,368,697 0.0036
Atlanta Braves 6967 75 79 2.01 2,354,305 0.0030
St. Louis Cardinals 7185 89 90 1.87 3,540,649 0.0020
Seattle Mariners 4172 87 87 2.60 2,064,334 0.0020
Toronto Blue Jays 4263 83 83 1.88 2,375,525 0.0018
Chicago Cubs 4096 81 73 2.01 2,652,113 0.0015
Washington Nationals 3706 91 96 1.99 2,579,389 0.0014
Oakland Athletics 2816 85 88 2.22 2,003,628 0.0014
Los Angeles Dodgers 5214 97 94 1.57 3,782,337 0.0014
Chicago White Sox 2214 79 73 2.41 1,650,821 0.0013
Boston Red Sox 3914 88 71 2.10 2,956,089 0.0013
Baltimore Orioles 2623 78 96 1.85 2,464,473 0.0011
Detroit Tigers 2163 83 90 1.92 2,917,209 0.0007
Houston Astros 1289 77 70 2.14 1,751,829 0.0007
Milwaukee Brewers 1984 80 82 2.24 2,797,384 0.0007
San Diego Padres 1540 85 77 2.30 2,195,373 0.0007
Miami Marlins 1184 80 77 2.62 1,732,283 0.0007
Texas Rangers 1849 79 67 1.91 2,718,733 0.0007
Cincinnati Reds 1618 79 76 2.09 2,476,664 0.0007
Pittsburgh Pirates 1574 81 88 2.57 2,442,564 0.0006
Philadelphia Phillies 1475 70 73 1.87 2,423,852 0.0006
Cleveland Indians 771 80 85 2.16 1,437,393 0.0005
Kansas City Royals 1000 71 89 2.00 1,956,482 0.0005
Minnesota Twins 791 70 70 1.87 2,250,606 0.0004
Arizona D-backs 624 73 64 1.79 2,073,730 0.0003
Tampa Bay Rays 320 86 77 2.53 1,446,464 0.0002
New York Yankees 684 80 84 2.06 3,401,624 0.0002
Colorado Rockies 504 71 66 1.76 2,680,329 0.0002
Los Angeles Angels 433 91 98 1.80 3,095,935 0.0001

Yup. Mets fans feel. They feel a lot, at least on Reddit. More than any team in baseball, perhaps. For better or for worse.





 

With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.

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Bryan da Ca$hman
10 years ago

I think Jets and Knicks fans are the equivalent of Mets fans.

2
Benzedrine
10 years ago
Reply to  Bryan da Ca$hman

Just from growing up in Hudson County, NJ Jets fans and Mets fans tend to be alike while Yanks fans are usually Giants (football) fans. The Knicks went by both fanbases since they were the only NY team for a long time.

Also from reading comments, a lot of this feeling seems unfairly directed towards Wilmer Flores. Give him a chance!

-1
3D
10 years ago
Reply to  Benzedrine

>>>>>Just from growing up in Hudson County, NJ Jets fans and Mets fans tend to be alike while Yanks fans are usually Giants (football) fans.<<<<

I see this thrown around all the time and would love to see some documentation for it. I still haven't. I'm a Mets/Giants fan and I know hundreds of other Mets/Giants fans.

It seems like one of those Colbert "truthiness" things. Everyone says it, so it's true.

1
Brian
10 years ago
Reply to  3D

It’s not a “truthiness” thing. It’s real.

The football Giants, before moving to Jersey in 1974, played in Yankee Stadium. The Jets played in Shea Stadium. Before the age of vast TV coverage, you rooted for he team you could go see the easiest. Thus, the same people that were closest to seeing the Yankees play were closest to seeing the Giants play, and same thing for the Jets and Mets.

Combine that with the fact that most people still “inherit” their fandom from dad, grandfather, etc, you get the Giants/Yankee fan, and the Jets/Mets fan.

I’m not sure if that’s scientific enough for you, but it holds true.

3
jpg
10 years ago
Reply to  Bryan da Ca$hman

If you’re a Mets, Jets and Knicks fan under 40, you have either never seen one of your teams win a title or saw them win in 86′ but didn’t really understand what was going on (I was 6) like me. At best, you were around 10 years old and could grasp what was going on but your ability to really appreciate its significance isn’t really there yet at that age.

On the scale of suffering fan bases, NY is pretty underrated. Unless you root for the Yankees or football Giants, you’ve had a pretty tortured existence as a sports fan in this town. We have no major college football teams and only one major college basketball team in St. John’s. Clevelanders have suffered with their pro teams but at least they have the Buckeyes.

1