Boston Red Sox and the 10 Most Loyal Fanbases in MLB

Sorting out the most loyal fanbases in Major League Baseball isn't easy, because there is no way to truly quantify it—it's extremely subjective.

Every team in baseball follows the same pattern. As they win, more fans show up. If they lose, attendance drops.

That makes it hard to judge fanbases. Are New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies fans loyal? Or is just easy for them to constantly watch a winning a team?

What if those teams went on historically bad streaks like the Pittsburgh Pirates? Attendance surely wouldn't stay at current levels.

I had to find a way to distinguish teams, and this site, which charts teams' wins against attendance, helped.

Essentially, I tried to pull out the 10 teams that had the most constant attendance numbers, regardless of wins or losses.

Simple, right? Here it is. 

10. Los Angeles Dodgers

It's hard for a franchise as storied as the Los Angeles Dodgers to not have a faithful following, but they certainly haven't made things easy for the fans as of late. 

You can go back to 2005 to exemplify how loyal Dodgers fans are. They were coming off a 93-win season, but were hugely disappointing, finishing fourth in the NL West with 71 wins. 

Still, they finished ninth in attendance numbers.

Even this year, when management has gone through so much turmoil, and the team has failed to win consistently, they are still in the middle of the pack in drawing fans. 

9. San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants have been among the league leaders in attendance for the past 10 years.

However, they don't jump higher on this list because their attendance numbers were mediocre before AT&T Park was built in 2000. 

Still though, many other teams have gotten new ball parks since then, and after seeing an attendance spike, they saw numbers fall back to earth.

That hasn't happened for the Giants, however. It appears they just needed a change, and Giants fans have turned into some of the most loyal of the past 10 seasons, win or lose. 

8. Houston Astros

At first, you probably wouldn't think of Houston Astros fans as loyal, but they have stayed remarkably consistent throughout the years.

Sure, the addition of Minute Maid Park in 2000 certainly helped, but even since then, they have seen some terrible seasons without much drop in attendance.

In 2007, the Astros only won 73 games, but still finished eighth in attendance. In 2009, they won 74 games and finished 12th in attendance. 

Now, this year, as the novelty of the new stadium has surely worn off, and the Astros are having a historically bad season, they are still 17th in attendance.

That is impressive. There surely has to be tons of loyal fans in Houston. 

7. Texas Rangers

Now, the best way to make a list like this would to be to develop a perfect formula comparing number of wins to fan attendance, while taking out other variables such as new stadiums.

Doing something like this is a bit over my head, but Forbes Magazine attempted a similar study. While I tried to stay away from basing my list off this one (because understanding the methodology was beyond my brain skills), the Texas Rangers deserve mention for being named No. 1 on the list.

While I might not rank them No. 1, I can see Rangers fans as loyal. They have had quite a few losing seasons in the past 20 years, but attendance has stayed fairly consistent.    

6. Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds have been one of the more inconsistent teams of the past 20 years. They saw a World Series title in 1990 and two playoff appearances in 1995 and 2010 but, other than that, they haven't made the playoffs.

Attendance, however, hasn't been as inconsistent. 

In fact, besides 2000 when Cinergy Field was built, some of Cincy's best attendance numbers have come during losing seasons. 

In 1993, 1991 and 2003, they won less than 75 games and saw attendance numbers right around 2.4 million. In 1990, when they won the World Series, attendance was, of course, still around 2.4 million.

That tells you that there aren't a whole lot of bandwagon fans in Cincinnati. 

5. Atlanta Braves

It's hard for fans to not be loyal during 15-straight winning seasons, but the couple rough years for the Atlanta Braves in the late 2000s suggest fans are indeed loyal.

Just compare the 2002 and 2008 seasons.

Turner Field was built in 1997, so the effect of a new field had worn off. In 2002, the Braves won 101 games and finished with a total attendance of 2.6 million.

In 2008, they won 72 games and finished fourth in the division. The total attendance? 2.53 million.

4. Pittsburgh Pirates

Perhaps no team in the last 20 years has been worse than the Pittsburgh Pirates. They had three straight NLCS appearances from 1990 to 1992, but haven't seen a winning season since then.

Still though, they haven't really lost any fans during that span. No matter what the team does, annual attendance numbers are always somewhere around 1.75 million.

While that may be considerably less than lots of other franchises, it is much more consistent. 

The total number of fans is smaller, but the loyalty of those fans is higher. 

3. St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals moved into New Busch Stadium in 2006, and that certainly helped ticket sales, but fans were still attending games at a high clip before that.

Even when they struggled in the late '90s, St. Louis continually broke three million for annual attendance, putting them near the top of the league. 

Go back to their last non-playoff season in their old ballpark in 2003, and they still ranked eighth in the majors.

Disappointing season. Old ballpark. They still drew crowds. It's not the new ballpark or World Series titles that made this team popular. 

2. Boston Red Sox

Despite having the most expensive average ticket, the Boston Red Sox continually sell out, and constantly finish in the top three of ticket sales. 

They have consistently won games, however, so it's not hard to be loyal. Also, their wins versus annual attendance is slightly correlated, which speaks to a little bit of "bandwagon-ing" going on.

Still though, they went almost a hundred years without a World Series and, although Fenway Park remains out-dated compared to other new stadiums, fans have stayed loyal, and Boston remains among the league leaders in attendance.

1. Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908 and, since then, they have endured more heartbreak than any other franchise.

Six World Series losses, three NLCS losses and one Bartman fiasco hasn't helped, either.

Still though, Cubs fans make it out to the ballpark at a higher rate than most teams' fans do, regularly finishing in the top five or 10 in attendance. 

It's hard to imagine staying loyal through such times, but Cubs fans seem to do it with ease.