Which "Nation" is Larger: New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox?

So, a company named "Compete" took a look at tracking metrics and consumer behavior at both the Yankees and Red Sox websites.

It would seem that throughout most of the year, the Yankees garnered more of the attention than the Red Sox - even though the Red Sox had the best record in baseball most of the season, the only time they edged out the Yankees' traffic was in October leading up to and after the World Series through December.

I hate to argue with guys who get paid to do this stuff, particularly when my team would seem to benefit from their analysis, but they seem to miss a couple of things:

1) The Red Sox had the best record in baseball throughout most of the year and the Yankees swooned through most of the first half, yet the Yankees data suggests visitors were flocking to the Yankees site. There's no analysis of what people were looking at, perhaps it was the train wreck on the side of the road everyone wants to see, but clearly the Yankees were the more popular using Compete's metrics.

2) While they note that the post season had a direct impact on site traffic and Sox traffic steadily increased from August on, what they fail to mention is that between July and August, traffic dipped, and the numbers from September look an awful lot like July, June and May.

3) I would have liked to have seen a third line representative of "the Average" team measured against the Sox and Yankees.

They note that the Red Sox have won two World Series championships of the last four series and the Yankees haven't won a championship in eight years, commenting that "we are in the golden age of Red Sox baseball" and conclude that "at least during the post-season, Red Sox nation is BIGGER than Yankee nation."

Right...but it's taken two series wins to even COMPETE with the Yankees as far as these numbers go AND the Sox don't match up well there. If it takes a "golden age" of Red Sox baseball to be competitive on the basis of unique web site visits with the Yankees, then I have to say that the conclusion is just wrong. Hate to say it, but I'm not sure I want these guys giving me analysis.

Check out Compete's analysis HERE