Genesis of East Coast / West Coast Sports Bias

by 74.62.56.251

As an east coast transplanter living here in Los Angeles and San Diego for 15 years, and born/raised in Boston for 34 years I have a unique perspective that many like me probably have living in CA. This argument of coastal biases is true. It's not only in sports but also higher educational institutes, food, work ethics and culture. But since this is a sports site, I'll keep the focus to sports.

And speaking of transplants, consider these teams that litter the entire west that were not "born/raised" here but are actually from some other place (mainly from the east coast cities) before moving to their respected west cities: Dodgers, Giants, Oakland A's, Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Cardinals (football), Clippers, Jazz, Phoenix Coyotes (Hockey). Then you have "expansion" teams like the Ducks, Angels, Sharks, Sonics, Suns, Trailblazers, Seahawks, Kings (basketball), Chargers and Diamondbacks with the majority of these being born mainly in the past 35 years or so. The only "original" west coast team from any pro sports are the SF 49'ers. This fact alone will help explain the bias that exists. A lot of this starts really with history.

East Coast Centric: The Yankees have 26 titles, Celtics have 16 titles and Detroit Red Wings with 22, and the Steelers with 5 titles all representing the most titles for each sport (yes Dallas and 49'ers also with 5) and all in the east. But the point here is the basis for bias stems first from history going back 50, 70 and even 100 years--a fact that can't be changed. You have generation, after generation of families growing up with these teams in places where the country populated first. As you pan west across the country to the Pacific, you do not have such steep history, so many championships, so many hall of famers and traditions and generations to stand on. And even with the success of the Lakers, a good amountof that occurred just over the past 25 years, which in sports history is nothing. Nothing against West Coasters, but as this country grew from east to west, so did sports. And so does this bias that can't be helped--like it or not.

There is very little original "homegrown" teams in the west other than the the 49'ers. Expansion teams--especially recent ones in the past 10 years that struggle each year to make a buck to stay alive don't have the "panache" of history (I'm not necessarily talking about winning/ success here--just the history) the Rangers, Tigers, Red Sox, Yankees, Knicks, Orioles, Steelers, 76ers, Braves, Celtics. Funny, you never meet or see the plethora of west coast fans sitting and cheering in east coast venues for their visiting teams like you do the other way around.

Yes, there is an elitiest tinge to east coast sports but that comes from its history between deeply rooted rilvalries in all sports that don't exist in the west (the Giants/Dodgers, maybe, but that started in NY before they both hauled it to CA). A lot of this pre-dates most of us reading this. This is all something you are born with --it's in your DNA. My grandparents and greatgrand parents were huge Red Sox fans. You don't have that kind of history in CA no matter what sport or team it is you like. It's not the same.

The first original Red Sox team (then the Boston Pilgrims) came only 25 years after the the real 49'ers went panning for gold. Some 50-60 years later the first ORIGINAL west coast pro team in any sport was in San Fran: the 49'ers. By then, Baseball, hockey and the football was already well established by 20, 30 and 40 years. So you will have an innate, deeply planted mindset by such a population that goes back at least 100 years since the first puck was dropped in the NHL or the first homerun hit in MLB.

Coastal Bias? Yes it exists. It has too. Fair? Probably because you can't extinguish 50-100 years of sports history, sports teams and leagues and generations because of fear of being slighted by overwhelming steep traditions. That's just the way the country was built: east to west. That's why this bias exists.

Steven, Encino, CA

(Go Pats! Go Celts)

CheezerAll-Star

772 days ago

Score 3

Nice read, but I have a little fact nitpicking. Football started before the Super Bowl. The Packers have 12 NFL titles. Also, the Steelers and Cowboys both have 5 Super Bowls wins don't they?

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CRS-ONEVarsity Captain

772 days ago

Score 0

I kind of have the opposite of the East Coast bias. I have always preferred smaller market teams on the other side of the country.

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Hit By a PitchVarsity

772 days ago

Score 1

"Funny, you never meet or see the plethora of west coast fans sitting and cheering in east coast venues for their visiting teams like you do the other way around."

Well, if you're in the west, why would you want to travel east? (Just kidding!)

I moved from east to west, although it was from Chicago to Denver, so no coasts are involved. The thing about the west is that most of us are transplants, many from the east. So in addition to having very little team history like you mention, the west is full of relocated fans of other, more established teams. Hell, Coors Field is always crawling with Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs fans. To me, this says that Denver is way more appealing than New York, Boston, or Chicago, but I'm biased.

In terms of national recognition and media coverage, I gave up caring about it a long time ago. ESPN would rather talk about Tom Brady's latest conquest than bother to learn who Matt Holliday is before the Home Run Derby, so I rely on local coverage.

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Anonymous Fanatic #1

772 days ago

Score 0

That's true about so many transplants. Go to any Dodger, Angel, Laker, Clipper, Chargers, Giants game here and you see thousands of east coast fans flooding these venues to see their team. Go to an Angels/Red Sox or Angels/Yankee, Laker/Knicks, game and the stadium is flooded with east coasters by the many thousands, almost drowning out the home teams. It's almost shocking. But this drives the point home of history, geography, migration of people to the west (warmer/tempered climates in many cases??). "National recognition and media coverage" is a whole other matter. My main focus on WHY it exists firstly. The national media probably is not immune to this regardless of how subtle it might seem because the majority of them (at least announcers) are from the east. Many, many ESPN announcers and writers are from NY as one example. They can't help it. You are a product of your upbringing no matter how much you try to hide it. I can't say I might not come across that way if I was a sports announcer. If you are a national sportscaster who grew up, let's say in a sportsless town like Albuquerque, New Mexico for example, you likely don't have the same innate/ingrained sports experiences that a New Yorker, Philedelphian, Chicagoan or Bostonian had. You may love a certain team but you have no unique upbringing experience that say an Al Michaels, Mike Greenberg (ESPN) or Marv Albert or Bob Costas from St. Louis had. So you are likely to be a lot less bias than any of these guys. You also didn't have the same local sports coverage that propells and incites such passion and bias simply because there are no pro sports teams in such a market. So your exposure to sports growing up is a lot less and different than Joe Sportsfan in Queens, NY. Again, you are what you are, and how/where you you were raised. Nothing wrong with that. It all helps explain WHY and HOW the bias evolves. I am sure you could apply this to many other industries, other than sports.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

772 days ago

Score 0

Detroit and Pittsburgh aren't on the "East Coast".

And the Boston Pigrims did not become the Red Sox. The Red Sox began in 1901 with the rest of the American league 52 years after the real '49ers.

It's as simple as this - Numbers - there are more media outlets in these places, thus the percieved "bias".

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CheezerAll-Star

772 days ago

Score 0

I seem to recall reading somewhere that half the country's population lives in the eastern time zone. Hell, I do and I'm in Indiana.

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Steel TownDraft Pick

772 days ago

Score 1

I hate that when people call Pittsburgh east coast. Just something about being associated with egocentric New Yorkers and Bostonians.

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ASwaffAll-American

772 days ago

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I agree, but I've heard of the east coast bias being applied to teams as far east as Nebraska. Honestly, people are pretty dumb about the whole thing. There is a bias to an extent, but I've seen a lot of people on the west coast seem to think that there is a discrimination if any team east of the Rocky Mountains seems favored. They ignore that that takes in about two-thirds of the country's land mass and a heck of a lot of teams in every sport on every level. I think teaching basic geography is the first step to dispelling the myth. Lesson #1 - when talking about "East Coast Bias," schools in Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio, Louisiana and Nebraska do not constitute East Coast teams.

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ASwaffAll-American

771 days ago

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Sorry, I meant as far WEST as Nebraska.

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Anonymous Fanatic #1

772 days ago

Score -1

If you want to get litteral and techical about geography even further, Detroit and Pittsburgh are in the eastern time zone--like it or not. Up until recent exapansion in baseball 10+ years ago or so, the Pirates, Indians and Tigers were always east coast teams. There are equal as many local TV and radio stations in Seattle, Memphis, New Orleans as their are in LA or NY, and everyone who has cable/sat. gets FoxSports and ESPN nationally. Thus the argument "- Numbers - there are more media outlets in these places, thus the percieved "bias". " is meaningless. Again, it's cities that have deepest rooted and longest history that creates any "bias" FIRST. That's where it comes from and the just "media" latches on to this history. Every city has the same number of local CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and cable and satellite offerings, at least 1 major newspaper and radio many radio stations.

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ASwaffAll-American

771 days ago

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Yes, and the Braves were in the West and the Arizona Cardinals were in the East. So much for geographic division in sports. That's not worth much.

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ASwaffAll-American

771 days ago

Score 1

I think you miss the argument about media outlets. First of all, it's not about who gets them, it's about where they're based. ESPN is in the East. One of the human polls that's used to calculate the BCS is the USA Today poll, and that outlet is in the East. Regular people might not read the newspaper like they used to, but studies show that news still emanates from the newspaper just like it always has. And the east has most of the biggest outlets in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald-Tribune, and on and on. These are not all "east coast" spots, but they're right out there and the idea still applies.

Now, none of this is to say that I agree with the East Coast Bias argument. I think it's a lame cop-out for any team that might not be getting the credit their fans THINK they deserve just because they're located east of the Allegheny. But, if you're going to argue, you at least need to know what you're talking about.

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