Mitchell and Ness, the popular Philadelphia sports apparel company headquartered on Chestnut Street, released a map of which throwback jerseys are the most popular in each state. Here's how it described the process on the company's site:
We thought it would be interesting to learn more about which historical
players each state was fond of or what sport each state enjoyed the
most. Using our 2014 sales data, we compiled a list of our top selling
player in each state then and aggregated that data into the map seen
here.
It was a cool idea that produced a sharp map. Here are five Philly-centric takeaways from their findings:
- Randall Cunningham taking top honors in Pennsylvania is a major victory for Philadelphia over Franco Harris, Mario Lemieux, Kordell Stewart (my personal favorite), and the rest of Pittsburgh. If we're being honest, though, I can't imagine Mitchell and Ness would've let their home state be covered with anything other than Eagles green.
- Judging from a quick Wikipedia search, Steve Carlton has no connection to the state of Nebraska, and yet there he is as that state's most popular throwback jersey.
- Just as out of left field, Phillies skipper Ryne Sandberg's 1984 Chicago Cubs throwback is tops in Alabama of all places. This also makes literally no sense, as Ryno hails from Washington and played his whole career for the Phillies and Cubs. Roll Tide, I guess.
- Kobe Bryant isn't done playing just yet, but his rookie jersey looks to be a major seller nationwide. The 1996-97 Lakers throwback is the best seller in seven states, including Delaware. I'm not crazy about throwback jerseys in general, but the Lower Merion ones are nice.
- South Jersey apparently couldn't pull its weight, because Joe Namath is the Garden State's top throwback. To be fair, at least it wasn't a Giant.