Forty-seven percent (47%) of baseball fans expect the New York Yankees to win their 27th World Series title this year. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of baseball fans finds that 32% believe the Philadelphia Phillies will defend their title this year while 21% are not sure.

While the Yanks are favored to win, 49% are rooting for the Phillies to win it all for the second straight year. Only 31% will be cheering for the Yankees.

Once again, Yankees fans are the cockiest, with 79% who think their team will take the series. Only 55% of Phillies fans think their team will defend their title.

Among avid baseball fans, those who watch baseball at least once a week during the season, 48% expect the Yankees and 41% pick the Phillies.

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The World Series is set to begin tonight at Yankees Stadium in the Bronx. While the Yankees ended their regular season with the best overall record in baseball, the Phillies won two out of three games they played against the Bombers this year.

Among fans rooting for Philadelphia, 47% say they’re primarily rooting against the Yankees. Fifty percent (50%) say they truly want to see a Philadelphia win.

Meanwhile, only 16% of fans looking for a Yankees win are doing so because they want the Phillies to lose. Seventy-nine percent (79%) are rooting for New York because they want the Yankees to win.

Only 11% of all baseball fans say they would be somewhat or very depressed if their favorite team does not win the World Series. Most fans (88%) say they will not be depressed if that happens, including 54% who will not be at all depressed.

While 16% of Yankees fans say they will be depressed if their team loses, only 9% of Phillies fans say the same.

Polling conducted over the first weekend of the MLB Championship Series found that 41% of baseball fans expected the New York Yankees to win the World Series, while only 17% picked the Phillies

This national telephone survey of baseball fans was conducted on October 26, 2009. Baseball fans are characterized as those who report watching the sport at least once a week during the season, as well as those who said they are likely to watch the World Series this year.

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