Most Popular Baseball Team .. On Social Media?

Can you guess what team is the most popular on social media? If you guessed the Yankees, you're right! The most popular baseball team on social media is.. the Yankees! According to prdaily.com, "Among all Major League Baseball teams, the Bronx Bombers have the most Facebook fans with more than 5.3 million people “liking” the team’s page. On Twitter, it has roughly 550,000 followers." (Sebastian, 2012)

According to Banyan Branch, who collected this data, the American league is slightly more popular on social media than the National league. The Yankees have a staggering 5.3 million likes on Facebook, and 550,000 followers on Twitter, followed by the Red Sox with 3.5 Facebook likes and 220,000 Twitter followers. Nick Swisher of the Yankees has the most Twitter followers out of any MLB player, with over 1 million, followed by Brian Wilson of the SF Giants with about 489,000 followers. (Banyan Branch)


The stats for the most active teams on Twitter are pretty surprising. One would think the teams with the most followers and likes, hence being the most popular on social media, would also be the most active team on Twitter. Well, that's not the case here. The Giants are tweeting the most, followed by the Mariners, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, and the Tigers. (Banyan Branch)


What does it take for a sports figure to have close 1.5 million followers? Nick Swisher is very active on Twitter. He stays in touch with his fans on there, by sharing how he's feeling, relating to his most recent injury, how spring training went, as well as engaging his fans and followers, asking them for their input and comments as well. People enjoy taking part in conversations and sharing their day-to-day lives and opinions as well and the more they are engaged, the more likely they will react.  Brian Wilson is also pretty active on Twitter. In addition to staying active on there and engaging one's followers, they also have a large fan base to begin with.


What does this all mean? Social Media continues to have such a great effect and impact on small businesses, large corporations, individuals, and even sports teams. If a social media strategy is put into place the right way, just like the Yankees have, any company or team can have the followers, likes, and fan base as they do. Congratulations, Yankees!

Happy Opening Week!

Opening week is underway! Even though it's early, teams and players are giving everyone a preview of whats to come. On Thursday, Justin Verlander, the 2011 CY young award winner and AL MVP is off to a great start with his first win this season over the Red Sox. The Mets won 1-0 over the Braves, Phillies over the Pirates, 1-0, Washington Nationals over the Chicago Cubs, 2-1, the Blue Jays over Cleveland, 7-4, and the Dodgers over the Giants, 5-3.

Verlander started the season off just as he ended last season, as most would consider the best pitcher in baseball. He held the Red Sox to two hits, a double by David Ortiz and a single by Ryan Sweeney. Jose Valverdi almost cost the Tigers their first game over the Red Sox when he couldn't come up with the save which tied the game in the bottom of the ninth. Austin Jackson hit a sharp single down the left field line to give Detroit the 3-2 win.

On Friday, in a nail biting game, the Rays won, 7-6 over the Yankees, the Orioles over the Twins, 4-2, St. Louis over Milwaukee, 11-5, Texas over Chicago WS, 3-2, Arizona over the Giants 5-4, Colorado over Houston 5-3, Angels over Kansas, 5-0, Seattle over Oakland, 7-3, the Dodgers over the SD Padres, 6-0. Colby Lewis of the Chicago WS struck out nine, having a great opening day. Ian Kinsler of the Rangers had a leadoff double in the first inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Josh Hamilton. Then, Kinsler hit a solo homer in the third inning, contributing to the Ranger's 3-2 win.

The Yankee-Rays game was very intense, down to the bottom of the ninth inning when the Rays tied it, 6-6. The Rays were leading the Yankees early on when Sabathia loaded the bases for Pena, who had his first home run and grand slam of the season, scoring Jennings, Longoria, and Rodriguez. The score was 4-0 Rays. In the top of the second, the bases were loaded for the Yankees that started with A-Rods double, and Teixeira being hit by a pitch. Rodriguez scored, followed by Teixeira scoring on a wild pitch by Shields, which got the Yankees on the board. The Yankees were threatening as it was 4-2 at the top of the second. Raul Ibanez had a great opening day, hitting his first home run as a Yankee in the regular season, scoring Rodriguez and Swisher to make it 6-4 Yankees. Longoria hit a home run in the bottom of the third inning to make it a 6-5 game. David Robertson got himself into a little bit of a jam in the bottom of the eighth but managed to pull through and strike out Vogt, Molina, and Joyce. The score remained 6-5 until the bottom of the ninth inning when Mariano Rivera was brought in to save the game. Jennings singled to center, ultimately scoring to tie the game, 6-6. Zobrist tripled, and Longoria and Scott were intentionally walked to load the bases. Pena singled to center and Zobrist scored. The Rays rallied and came back to win 7-6.

Alex Rodriguezs' season is off to a great start, hitting a double and a single in his first two times up at bat. Ibanez also made his mark in his first regular season game as a Yankee, homering to right. Derek Jeter seems to be picking up right where he left off last season, getting the Yanks first hit of the season. Although Yankee hitting was right on target on opening day, CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera gave away one too many hits and the team's hitting just wasn't enough to get the job done against the Ray's. Let's see what will happen tonight when Hiroki Kuroda makes his first debut as a Yankee against David Price.