The most hated team in baseball is... Cleveland?

What?

Apparently Nielsen came up with some formula to figure out which was the most hated team in MLB, and instead of the Yankees winning in a landslide like everyone would expect, Cleveland came out as the most hated team in the country according to them. Next were the Red Sox (understandable), the Reds (ok...), the Astros (huh?), then the Yankees, then the Washington Nationals. Huh? Who the heck takes the time to hate the Nationals? Laugh at, sure. Make fun of, sure. Pity, that works too. But hate? Seriously? Enough so where they almost beat out the Yankees on a list like this? No way.

I think their formula has some MAJOR issues with accuracy

 

Yeah, something seems wrong with this list. Is this a list of "Oldest Teams = Big-Time Hate" or something?

 

How did Nielsen come up with this list? Was it the LEAST watched teams on TV? I could understand Cleveland winning that.

 

The Braves (among others) date back 20-something years before the Indians.

Not that they were known by those names, then

 

They were the Milwaukee Braves and the Boston Braves some time ago. But the current Braves is my most hated team. HATE that %^$@ chant!!!!

And being a life-long Reds fan, I know they are the oldest professional team being that they were they very first. Are there that many Reds haters since 1869?

 

I read this yesterday and proceeded to lol all over the place. We're too bad to hate!

 

Wow, I don't get this choice at all. I'm completely apathetic towards the Indians. I don't always even remember that they exist.

 

I don't get it at all. Hated? Really?

I think McClain got the adjective right: apathetic.

I think most baseball fans feel nothing for the Indians. And, those who feel something, probably feel sorry for their fans.

What could make someone hate the Indians? That they've won a title more recently than you? I guess Cubs fans can hate them. That they spend too much money? I guess Pirates and Padres fans can hate them. That they have a proud fanbase who supports no matter what? I guess Nationals fans can hate them.

 

I agree, apathetic seems much more appropriate for the Indians.

As weird as it seems to have Cleveland on the top of this list, though, the Nationals placement confuses me even more.

I want to see how they got these rankings.

 

I get the Nationals hatred. There are like seven people like me who used to be Expos fans. We venomously hate the Nationals, as well as the Marlins.

 

lol

Yeah, but I don't think seven people's hatred can compare with all the Yankee-hate out there

 

The article better explains things and I see why Cleveland came up as number 1 on that system. Fans have been pretty much nothing but disgruntled in the past handful of years. Sure, let's trade away our Cy Young award-winning pitchers! I mean, how much talent has our system groomed simply to give away to other teams? Now, I understand that we don't exactly have tons of money to spend on players, but SOMETHING could have been done in one situation or the other.
So based on this rating system, I do see how Cleveland reaches a high-ranking. I just think the whole method behind it is ridiculous, haha.

 

Fans being disgruntled with a team is completely different from hating a team, though. Two ENTIRELY different feelings.

 

I realize this. But that's what factored in to the rankings.

 

Yeah. That's a poorly designed study.

 

It seems like it was thrown together at the last minute.

 

Yep, I agree. It was poorly thought out.

 

And the process for getting the stats: taking "positive" and "negative" words? How does that work?

 

Perhaps it has something to do with the controversial name

 

There are some PC people who don't like the name, sure... but far, far fewer than there are people who hate the Yankees

 

When an Indian fan posts "wow, we suck, how could we trade Cliff Lee for a sack of balls and an injured single-a pitcher?", that counts as a negative in this study. But, that doesn't show hatred. It shows frustration. It shows we are upset with management. But, this study has no way of differentiating. The Indians get the same score for that as the Yankees get for someone posting "I hate the Yankees, I hope A-Fraud chokes on his steroids tonight".

 

I just think that they are are lot more Yankee fans than Cleveland fans so thats how they came up with this stupid stat. If you voted for just a team that you hate more than any other team I think Yankees would come up on top.

 

This is true, but the Yanks still rule.

 

The Yankees do have a lot of fans, which counteracts some of the hate they get. So, in this crazy system, it sort of makes sense. Almost.