New Jersey baseball fans, with no Major League Baseball team to call their own, cheer for the New York Yankees over the Philadelphia Phillies 51 to 21 percent in the Quinnipiac University poll’s fourth annual New Jersey Baseball Playoff released today.
This compares to the 48 to 22 percent Yankees lead in a June 23, 2011, survey by the independent Quinnipiac University.
In today’s results, the Mets score 15 percent, followed by the Boston Red Sox at three percent, with no other team above one percent.
Looking at a possible New Jersey Turnpike World Series, Garden State fans would cheer for the Yankees over the Phillies 56 to 26 percent, virtually unchanged from last year.
A total of 54 percent of all New Jersey adults are “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in Major League Baseball. Of that group, the Bronx Bombers are on top 52 to 20 percent among men and 50 to 21 percent among women.
The Phillies dominate 79 to 11 percent in the South Jersey Philadelphia suburbs, but the Yankees rule in every other part of the state.
“Tip O'Neill was right: all politics is local. Well, so is sports. North Jersey baseball fans like the Yankees. South Jersey fans like the Phillies. Suppose they wound up in a World Series? There are more people in North Jersey and the Yankees get the nod,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
From May 9 to 14, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,758 New Jersey adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
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