{"id":659882,"date":"2026-04-03T00:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659882\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T00:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:48:40","slug":"umbc-poll-asked-about-favorite-mlb-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659882\/","title":{"rendered":"UMBC Poll asked about favorite MLB teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Results are in from the UMBC Poll, and while Maryland state colors are red, white, black, and gold, it appears a plurality of Marylanders bleed orange.<\/p>\n

Part 3 of the UMBC Poll<\/a> did ask questions about politics but also polled more than 800 residents about their Major League Baseball fandom. The question posed before Opening Day: \u201cDo you consider yourself more of a Baltimore Orioles fan, a Washington Nationals fan, a fan of some other team, or not really a baseball fan?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dem Os came out on top, with 40% responding that they were Baltimore Orioles fans. Beltway rival and National League team The Washington Nationals got 16% of respondents\u2019 votes, 9% said they were fans of \u201csome other team,\u201d and 33% admitted they were \u201cnot really a baseball fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a no-doubter that the Baltimore Orioles would have a considerable Maryland fandom advantage over the Washington Nationals, their Battle of the Beltways rival,\u201d said Mileah Kromer, director of the UMBC Institute of Politics and Orioles season ticket holder, in a statement. \u201cFandom can mean anything from a casual affinity to an obsessed diehard, and every new season presents the opportunity to turn some of the former into the latter. I wish the Nats and all other MLB teams an adequate season and hope their fans have a moderate amount of fun. Let\u2019s go O\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

This diehard Mets-and-Orioles fan would never be so generous as to wish the Yankees an \u201cadequate\u201d season, nor would she hope their fans experience even a \u201cmoderate\u201d amount of fun. This author is still reeling from her sister\u2019s inexplicable decision to marry a Yankees fan and her inevitable transformation into the very thing we were raised from birth to revile. (Therapy helps.)<\/p>\n

\"PeteBaltimore Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso is seen here at a game between the Minnesota Twins and Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, March 29, 2026. Photo credit: Todd Olszewski\/Baltimore Orioles via Baltimore Orioles Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Your reporter is not bitter. The fact that six games into the season the Orioles (3-3) are two games behind the first place Yankees (5-1) is not cause for concern. Pete Alonso is settling in nicely<\/a>, batting .304 and hitting his first home run as an Oriole here at Camden Yards, which itself has gotten quite the facelift<\/a>. The food scene remains Baltimore-centric<\/a>, where in one row a fan can chow down on a classic corned-beef sandwich from iconic deli Attman\u2019s, and two rows away another can be enjoying Asian-fusion from Ekiben while their kid devours a juicy burger from Fuzzies.<\/p>\n

The stadium retains its retro charm (even with recent tech upgrades), the team is still a beloved scrappy underdog, and its fans are not shy with their opinions. Capital News Service<\/a> interviewed people who attended the Opening Day game, reporting that the stadium continues to be an important gathering place for Orioles fans. One fan said, \u201cIt\u2019s a staple of the community. It\u2019s where everybody comes together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it possible to turn fans of the Nationals (16%) or \u201csome other team\u201d (9%) into Orioles fans? Is it worth attempting inroads with the 33% who are not \u201creally a baseball fan\u201d? There are 156 games left in the season to find out.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Results are in from the UMBC Poll, and while Maryland state colors are red, white, black, and gold,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,84168,47,2538,5,84169,1404,84170,4,22301,4377,125,84171,84172,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-659882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-belway","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-beltway-rivals","14":"tag-camden-yards","15":"tag-favorite-mlb-team","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-opinion-poll","18":"tag-oriole-park-at-camden-yards","19":"tag-orioles","20":"tag-umbc-poll","21":"tag-umbc-poll-part-3","22":"tag-washington-nationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116338026573776947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}