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LIFESTYLE

Phillies Are Favorite To Win World Series, Most Fans Rooting Against Yankees

With less than a week to go before the end of the 2011 regular season, the Philadelphia Phillies are the odds-on favorite to win this year’s World Series.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of adults who watch professional baseball at least once a week shows that 32% believe the Phillies, who were the first team to win their division’s title, will go on to win the 2011 World Series. Twelve percent (12%) believe the New York Yankees will win their 28th championship, while 10% pick the Boston Red Sox.

Just eight percent (8%) of baseball fans think the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers will win it all this year, while both the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers are tied at seven percent (7%). No other team reaches five percent (5%) support on this question. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

The Phillies were also favored to win heading in to the 2011 season, with Boston coming in second at that time.

But when it comes to who fans want to see win, the Red Sox come out slightly on top. Fifteen percent (15%) are pulling for Boston, while the Phillies, Yankees and Brewers each draw support from 11%. Ten percent (10%) want to see the Rangers win their first-ever championship after a tough series loss last year.

Fans of the Phillies, who have held the best record in baseball for months, are the most confident in their team. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of those who want the Phillies to win the championship think they will do so. Tigers fans are the second most confident, with 80% who say their team will win it all this year.

Most fans (59%) say they generally root against the past century’s most successful franchise, the Yankees. Just 19% say they usually root for them and another 23% aren’t sure.

A plurality (45%) says they generally root against the Phillies, while 21% usually root for them and 33% more are undecided.

While 28% usually pull for the Red Sox, 46% usually hope they lose. Another 26% aren’t sure.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.  

The survey of 328 Baseball Fans was conducted on September 17-20, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 6 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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