April 07--The Cubs have their work cut out for them for more than just their bid to climb up the National League Central division standings.
The Cardinals are encroaching on their home state turf, according to the recent Facebook data.
The Cardinals visited Wrigley Field on opening night Sunday, but the defending Central champs already have taken the lead in fan loyalty in nearly two-thirds of Illinois counties, the data shows. The Cardinals are most Facebook users' favorite Major League Baseball team in 64 counties, based on the number of likes of the team's official Facebook page.
The Cubs rank first in 35 Illinois counties; the White Sox, just three. But both Chicago team's territories far outclass the Cardinals' domain in population. While Facebook's figures doesn't reveal actual numbers of fans in each county, just percentages, the Sox rank first in Cook County, which is the state's most populous with nearly 5.2 million people, according to 2010 census data from the National Association of Counties.
"Sox counties," along with Will and Kankakee, total 6 million people. About 4.6 million people live in Cubs counties; for the Cardinals, nearly 2.3 million.
The Cubs' most "loyal" county, with about 55 percent of Facebook likes, is Carroll, a northwest county of about 15,000 people that borders Iowa on the other side of the Mississippi River. Monroe, a suburb of St. Louis, is 85 percent Cardinals fans.
Last year, White Sox fans accounted for 40 percent of baseball fans in Cook County, edging Cubs fans by 2 percent, according ot Facebook data. About 2 percent were Cardinals fans.
Nationally, the Altanta Braves claim the most counties this season with 384, followed by the Yankees (350) and Cardinals (273). The Cubs rank sixth with 147, and the Sox are fourth from the bottom with four. The San Diego Padres are No. 1 in only San Diego County.
plthompson@chicagotribune.com
