Twenty-three percent (23%) of Major League Baseball Fans expect the Boston Red Sox to win the 2007 edition of the World Series. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 18% expect the New York Yankees to win it all while 13% believe the Cleveland Indians will wind up on top. The Chicago Cubs are the only National League team to enter double digits as 13% expect this Cubs team to eliminate the teams decades-old reputation for futility.

Eight percent (8%) think the Los Angeles Angels will win, 6% pick the Philadelphia Phillies and 3% name the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies as the likely winner this year. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure who will win. These results are similar to survey results from mid-September but prospects for the Indians and Cubs have improved significantly.

Twenty percent (20%) of baseball fans are rooting for the Red Sox to win their second title in four years while 19% are pulling for the Cubs to win their first in nearly a century. Eighteen percent (18%) are Yankee fans and 14% would like to see the Indians walk off the field as champions.

Red Sox fans are the cockiest this year—81% think their team will win it all. Rasmussen polls have measured this fan confidence in most years since the mid-90s and this is the first time the Yankee fans did not top the confidence meter. Still, those who follow the Bronx Bombers are number two in cockiness, 72% think their team will pull it off this year. No other teams are even close to this level of confidence. In fact, other than Red Sox and Yankee fans, fewer than half expect their team to win the World Series.

Thirty-two percent (32%) of fans expect the Red Sox to win the American League pennant. Twenty-one percent (21%) pick the Yankees, 20% the Indians, and 16% pick the Angels.

In the National League, 28% pick the Cubs and 27% the Phillies. Twelve percent (12%) pick the Rockies who barely snuck into the playoffs with a dramatic come from behind 13-inning win on Monday. Ten percent (10%) pick the Diamondbacks.