PRINCETON , NJ -- The Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies are squaring off in the 2007 World Series. Gallup polling finds less than half of Americans identifying themselves as baseball fans, and the percentage who do so is on the low end of what Gallup has measured since 1993. Baseball trails far behind football when Americans are asked which sport is their favorite, and Americans are as likely to name basketball as their favorite sport as baseball. Before the season started, 9% of baseball fans picked the Red Sox to win the World Series, second only to the New York Yankees. Less than 1% believed the Rockies would win.

Baseball Fans

According to a May USA Today/Gallup poll, 45% of Americans identify themselves as baseball fans. That is low by recent standards, as an average of 49% of Americans have said they were fans of the sport since Gallup started tracking this measure in 1993. The high point came in 1998, when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire pursued (and ultimately surpassed) Roger Maris' single-season home run record, at which time 56% of Americans considered themselves baseball fans.

While the percentage of Americans identifying as fans is higher for baseball than for any other sport except football, since the beginning of the decade, basketball has typically edged out baseball for second place when Americans are asked to name their favorite sport to watch.

A March Gallup Panel survey asked fans to predict which team they thought would win the World Series this year. The clear favorite was the New York Yankees, chosen by 25% of fans. The Yankees made the playoffs again this year, as they have each year since 1995. But the Cleveland Indians defeated the Yankees in the American League Division Series before losing to the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. Nine percent of fans chose the Red Sox as their World Series favorite back in March. Their surprise opponent -- the Rockies -- were chosen by less than 1% of baseball fans.

The major league baseball season is getting under way. Which team do you think will win the World Series this year? [OPEN-ENDED]

BASED ON PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL FANS

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,010 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted May 4-6, 2007. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points.

Results for the Gallup Panel study are based on telephone interviews with 1,006 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted March 26-29, 2007. Gallup Panel members are recruited through random selection methods. The panel is weighted so that it is demographically representative of the U.S. adult population. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

For results based on the sample of 432 baseball fans, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±6 percentage points.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Are you a fan of professional baseball, or not?