Play Ball!

Sports fans across the nation are eagerly awaiting the first pitch of the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) season. From Tampa Bay to Toronto, all 30 teams will play ball on opening day.

Did you know that all team names end with the letter “s” except for two? Can you name them?

The national pastime comes to us courtesy of 29 teams from 25 metropolitan areas across the United States and one team from Canada. The American League and the National League each have five teams in three divisions: East, Central and West as shown on the map below.

Fun Facts About Major League Baseball Teams

A metropolitan statistical area is a geographic entity delineated by the Office of Management and Budget for use by federal statistical agencies. Metro areas consist of the county (counties) associated with at least one urban area with a population of at least 50,000 plus adjacent counties with a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured through commuting ties.

Use the links below to explore the cities and states of your favorite teams through U.S. Census Bureau profiles that provide population counts as well as social, demographic and economic data.

• The 2023 Population Estimates of the 25 metro areas with MLB teams found the largest is New York (home of the Mets and the Yankees) with 19,498,249, and the smallest is Milwaukee (home of the Brewers) with 1,560,424.
  
  
• The team name of the New York Mets is a call back to the name of an earlier team — the Metropolitans.
  
  
• Did you know that all team names end with the letter “s” except for two? Can you name them?
  
  
• California has five teams. Seven states have two teams. Can you name them without using the map?
  
  
• There is one team named for a body of water and one team named for a mountain range.
  
  
• Only six teams have a state name in their team name: Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins,  New York Yankees, New York Mets and the Texas Rangers.
  
  
• There was a seventh team with a state name — Florida Marlins — but in 2012 it became the Miami Marlins. An eighth team was the California Angels but, in 1997, it became the Anaheim Angels and, in 2005, the Los Angeles Angels.
  
  
• The teams that are farthest away from other teams are the Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves.
  
  
• There are 11 teams west of the Mississippi River located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Missouri, Texas and Washington.
  
  
• There are seven teams in East Coast cities. From north to south: Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Miami. Can you name the teams?

The ranking table below shows the top 40 metro areas in the United States. The total 2023 population estimate of the 25 metro areas with a team is 134,751,755 with 91,565,571 for the National League and 89,313,319 for the American League (not including the Toronto Blue Jays in Canada). There are four metro areas that have one team in the National League and one team in the American League.

Major League Baseball Across the Globe

As part of Major League Baseball’s 2024 season schedule, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres — two teams with a tradition of South Korean players — face off in Seoul, South Korea. In April 2024, the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies play in Mexico City, Mexico. And in June 2024, the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies play in London, United Kingdom.

Let’s not forget about our neighbor to the north, Canada. As part of regular season play, the Blue Jays will be hosting 81 home games at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

For over 60 years, the Census Bureau has performed international analytical work and assisted in the collection, processing, analysis, dissemination and use of statistics with counterpart governments in over 100 countries.

The Census Bureau’s International Programs Center advances decision-making for the global statistical community. You can explore population estimates and projections for more than 200 countries using our International Database tool.

Anthony Calabrese is chief of the Promotions Branch in the Census Bureau’s Communications Directorate.