- Sal Fasno: Pictured because he's awesome.
Yeah, about the whole "Indians most-hated team in MLB" thing —
Um, turns out the Journal didn't quite interpret the numbers provided by Nielsen correctly. Jim Caple explains:
But it turns out Cleveland and the Astros are not hated (at least not outside of their own cities). The Journal simply misinterpreted the analysis. A Nielsen rep told the New York Daily News that its rankings were based merely on positive-and-negative feelings generated by teams from their performances the first three weeks of the season. They were not meant to show whether at team was most-hated or most-liked overall. Which explains why teams off to bad or disappointing starts ranked poorly, as well as the Yankees whose lofty standards require that anything short of a ticker-tape parade by May is considered disappointing by their fans.So relax. Cleveland is not baseball's Bin Laden. And Nielsen ratings haven't been rendered so suspect that Jay Leno's move to prime time may actually have been the most-watched TV show in America.
(Although, I do totally believe Boston clocking in as the No. 2 most hated team.)
So, the Tribe, still pretty hated in Cleveland. Not so much everywhere else.
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