It was just four years ago that the San Francisco Giants were America’s cinderella team. Going up against the Texas Rangers back in the 2010 World Series, not many expected the Giants to pull out the first championship in their west coast history. But dominating their way through a five-game series win over the Rangers, Bruce Bochy’s squad started a run that has turned into three World Series appearances in five years.
Now going up against a Kansas City Royals team that is in the midst of its first trip to the playoffs since 1985, it appears that fans in the United States are lending their support to this amazing story.
This ESPN poll shows that not a single state supports the Giants to win the World Series.
Not even California, who is rooting for the Royals at a 60 percent clip, is supporting its home-state team.
This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering we always root for the good story. As it relates to California, support of the Giants obviously doesn’t extend outside of the San Francisco city lines. Even here locally in the Bay Area, there is a certain contingent of baseball fans (Oakland A’s supporters) who are not rooting for the Giants. And I don’t even need to mention who Southern California is rooting for.
Not surprisingly, the state of Missouri is rooting for the Royals at a 91 percent clip. It’s safe to assume that there are some bitter St. Louis Cardinals fans there representing that nine percent.
The series kicks off Tuesday night in Kanasas City with Madison Bumgarner taking the bump for the Giants against James Shields of the Royals.
Photo: Chicago Tribune