Every September baseball fans all over the US and beyond get excited. As the weather gets cooler, things really heat up for some teams and fans. Finally, by the end of October, some are very happy and others… not so much.

Of course, there are some fans who seem to experience this excitement almost every year. And for others, they’ve waited generations. The Chicago Cubs, for example, waited almost 100 years between their second and third championships. In fact, the Cubbies didn’t even make an appearance in the 70 years between 1946 and 2015.

View World Series Wins and Appearances in a full screen map

Explore the map above to see the most wins, appearances, and winning percentage. Or read on to learn about the insights we’ve pulled from this map of World Series winners and losers.

Most World Series Wins

Even casual baseball observers know that the best team in the MLB, based on historical success, is the New York Yankees. The team has won 27 championships and been to the Fall Classic 40 times. The Yankees are in a class all their own here, with eight more victories than the next-closest team has appearances.

World Series Top 10

Team	Wins	Appearances
New York Yankees	27	40
St. Louis Cardinals	11	19
Boston Red Sox	7	11
New York Giants	5	14
Cincinnati Reds	5	9
Los Angeles Dodgers	5	9
Philadelphia Athletics	5	8
Pittsburgh Pirates	5	7
Detroit Tigers	4	11
Oakland Athletics	4	6

The St. Louis Cardinals consistently fielded competitive teams in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, back at a time when they needed to have the best record in all the National League to earn the right to go against the best American League team. Now, in the age of divisions and wild cards, there are 10 teams each postseason with a shot at the series.

The Red Sox are third on the list, a remarkable feat given the long drought between 1918 and 2004. The team has won three times in this century, with the other four coming between 1912 and 1918. If you count their previous name, the Boston Americans, the Red Sox can claim one more victory. The Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the very first series in 1903.

Of course, if we’re counting other names of existing teams, the Giants would tie for third place with the Red Sox. While the New York Giants baseball team had five championships, the San Francisco version of the team has added three more in recent years.

Highest Winning Percentage

When you’ve been to the World Series 40 times (or even 19, 14, or 11 times), it’s easier to rack up the wins. There are a handful of teams who have won every single time they went to the Fall Classic.

Team	Wins	Appearances
Toronto Blue Jays	2	2
Miami Marlins	2	2
Boston Americans	1	1
Arizona Diamondbacks	1	1
Anaheim Angels	1	1

While none of these teams has won more than two World Series, they’ve each won every time they’ve appeared. In fact, the Blue Jays did it in back to back seasons, 1992 and 1993.

The more appearances a team has, the harder it is to maintain a high winning percentage. There are nine teams with at least five appearances that have maintained better than a 50/50 record: Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

American League vs National League

These days, the league that wins the All Star Game gets to be the home team in the World Series. Otherwise, outside of the designated hitter rule, there’s really little difference between the two. Yet, the American League has been far more successful than the National. The AL has 64 victories to the NL’s 48.

As you might guess, much of that difference is made up by the Yankee’s many championships. In fact, if you remove the top two from each league (Yankees and Cardinals), the two each have 37 victories as of 2016.

MLB Teams Without a World Series Win

With all this talk of winning, it’s easy to forget that some teams have never won a World Series.

• Texas Rangers (appeared in 2010 and 2011)
• San Diego Padres (1984 and 1998)
• Tampa Bay Rays (2008)
• Colorado Rockies (2007)
• Milwaukee Brewers (1982)
• Houston Astros (2005)
• Washington Nationals (never appeared)
• Seattle Mariners (never appeared)

So, if you’re not a baseball fan, or your team doesn’t have a shot this year… consider rooting for one of these underdogs.

And if you’re more of a basketball fan, check out these NBA Finals Winners and Losers on a Map.

In the days of world exploration, ships were the way to we discovered new land, new routes, and anything new. Then ships became the primary method of long distance transportation, and remained that way for centuries. These days, cruises take those who can afford the luxury on purposefully slow-paced journeys. Yet, another type of ship continues to rule the sea. In fact, an entire industry is named after it: shipping.

View Busiest Container Ports in the World in a full screen map

On the map above, you can find the 50 busiest ports in the world across 30 countries. What does busy mean? It’s measured by thousands of “TEUs,” twenty-foot equivalent units. A TEU is the equivalent of a single shipping container, the metal structures stacked on large ships and shuttled across the oceans.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, six of the top 10 ports are in China. Shanghai is number one, by over 5 million containers. China’s largest city has been top since 2010, when it surpassed Singapore (now number two). China’s other cities in the top 10 are Shenzhen (3), Ningbo-Zhoushan (4), Qingdao (7), Guangzhou (8), and Tianjin (10). The other non-Chinese ports in the top 10 are Hong Kong (5); Busan, South Korea (6), and Dubai, United Arab Emirates (9).

Officially, Hong Kong is an administrative region of China, after being transferred from British rule in 1997, though Hong Kong operates with a high degree of autonomy. As recently as 2004, Hong Kong was the busiest container port in the world. While others in the top 10 have seen tremendous growth, Hong Kong actually has seen less traffic in its port over the recent years.

In the last 10 years, Shanghai container ship traffic has more than doubled, a considerable feat for a city already high on the list. By comparison, Singapore and Shenzhen have seen 33% and 49% growth respectively. Ningbo-Zhoushan, another China powerhouse, was #15 on the list a decade ago. It has moved up the list by seeing its volume nearly quadruple during that short time. Other ports that have at least doubled in the last 10 years are Balboa, Panama (364%); Guangzhou (265%); Dalian, China (260%); Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (209%); Tianjin (189%); Xiamen, China (176%); Qingdao (175%); Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates (129%); Port Klang, Malaysia (114%); Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia (111%); and Dubai (105%).

Indeed, China is seeing a lot of growth despite already being a stronghold of busy ports. In fact, the country tally amongst these top 50 ports puts China at nearly five times the container volume of the next-most, Singapore. Rounding out the top five are the United States, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

The overall Chinese growth rate over the last five years is only 34%, so on the short term there are smaller players that have gained ground faster. Greece, whose port city of Piraeus only saw 665,000 containers in 2010 was nearing 3.4 million in 2015, the latest data available. That puts Greece at over 400% growth, quintupling container volume in five years. Other fast-growing countries didn’t even double. Rounding out the top five are Vietnam (60%), Morocco (44%), Saudi Arabia (41%), and Brazil (39%).

A few of these countries with ports in the top 50 have seen negative growth in the last five years: Egypt (-17%), Hong Kong (-15%), and Japan (-3%). In the case of Japan’s four top port cities, only Nagoya has seen growth.

Wait, What’s a Shipping Container?

With all this talk about containers and the twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), it can be tough to picture exactly how much fits in a container. And for that matter, how many of these TEUs fit on a single ship?

Despite the official-sounding name, TEU, there actually isn’t a standard size for a shipping container. Most are 20 feet long, which is where that name comes from, but the height varies. Most are eight and a half feet tall, though others are nine and a half feet. Rarely there are some half-height containers that are four feet three inches tall. Confusingly, these all count as one TEU.

It gets more confusing. Remember when I said most are 20 feet long? Well, some are 40 feet long, so these are counted as two TEUs. Others are 45 feet long, and they are still counted as only two TEUs rather than 2.25 TEUs.

These factors complicate how much can fit in a single container, as well as how many containers fit on a ship. However, if we go with the most popular 20 feet by 8.5 feet, we end up with 1,360 cubic feet (strangely, for all the other variations, most shipping containers are eight feet wide).

How many containers can fit on a ship depends, obviously, on the size of the ship. A common class of container ship, the Panamax, is so-named because it’s the largest ship that can fit through the original Panama Canal. These ships hold 3,000-5,000 TEUs. A larger ship class, the Post-Panamax, can fit through the Panama Canal expansion, and holds 10,000-15,500 TEUs.

As for how much fits in a single container, that also depends on what you’re transporting, and how well you store it. There are currently two answers to a Quora question about coconuts, with one estimate two times as big as another. Yet, according to iContainers, a 20 foot container can hold 48,000 bananas, 400 flat screen TVs, or 200 full size mattresses.

Make Your Own Map With Wikipedia Data

This post is based on data in a Wikipedia article. Often this data is best shown as a map!

Check out our Open Data Map Tutorial and build one like this yourself!

In a single image, maps can communicate a lot about the world around us. Whether it’s directions from point A to point B, or a glimpse at all of your customers in a region, a map tells a story. Like the picture that’s worth 1,000 words, a map can be the same. And while we obviously love interactive maps, there are situations where a static map image does as good or better.

For example, say you want to embed a map on Facebook or Twitter or even email. An interactive map won’t work there, for technical reasons. Instead you need an image version of the map. There are several services that can generate maps, complete with marker icons, into static images. In this post, we’ll share several of these options and discuss the pros and cons of each.

Differences in Static Map Generators

We’ll go into detail about each of the map generators in the next sections, but first it’s good to get an idea of the common themes. There are three main areas to consider when comparing static map generators:

• How data is sent: In many cases you need to know the map coordinates, the latitude/longitude pairs that describe a location on a map. However, others allow you to send the human-readable names or addresses, and do the geocoding conversion to coordinates for you.
• Style of the maps: Usually the ways the maps and markers look are already decided for you by the mapping provider. However, in a couple circumstances you can customize the look. The tradeoff, of course, is in complexity and the time it takes to set up.
• Requirements: While every provider mentioned here offers free versions, some have advanced features available for a cost. And, in many cases, even the free versions require you to register for an account and/or an “API Key,” that identifies your static map requests as yours.

With these issues covered, we’ll get into what’s possible with each of these static map generators.

BatchGeo

Every interactive map made with BatchGeo also has a corresponding static map badge, an image you can use with or without the larger map. There are no API Keys or URL patterns required, though you do need to use the BatchGeo editor to make updates to your image map.

To create a map, follow these steps:

1. Paste your spreadsheet data into the map builder and make sure to enter your email address when saving.
2. You should receive an email shortly after saving your map with details on how to edit it.
3. Click to the edit link, and scroll down to the “map badge” code section.
4. Copy/paste the code onto your web page, you are done!

The image itself does have a few optional tweaks you can make to the URL, which looks like this:
https://static.batchgeo.com/map/png/?i=national-parks&width=284&height=142

To adjust the size or shape of the image, just change the width= and height= fields in the URL before saving the file.

BatchGeo also includes a number of ways to customize the style of your map. When creating your map, choose “Validate and Set Options,” then select “Advanced Options” to change the color and shape of the markers, as well as select from six underlying map styles.

Google

The de facto choice for interactive maps also has static image mapping available. While the search giant refers to this tool as the Static Maps API, it’s not an API in the usual tech sense. That’s because you can use it without writing a single line of code. Rather, all of the inputs needed to create a static map with Google come through the URL.

Consider the above image, which was generated from this URL:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=37.819722,-122.478611&zoom=12&size=400×300&markers=37.819722,-122.478611&markers=37.799,-122.4664

Each parameter can be changed and will update the map in some way. While this example uses latitude and longitude coordinates, one of the best features of Google’s static maps are the built in geocoding. For example, here is the URL for a similar map, using human-friendly values:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=Golden+Gate+Bridge+San+Francisco+CA&zoom=12&size=400×300&markers=Golden+Gate+Bridge+San+Francisco+CA&markers=Presidio+San+Francisco+CA

The result is a bit longer, but much easier to update. While this example uses two landmarks, you can also use city names, postal codes, and full addresses, right in the image URL.

In addition, Google supports a bunch of advanced features, like marker colors, marker labels, and entire map style changes. Everything can be set from the URL, though for these more advanced uses, you’ll definitely need an API Key to identify yourself. You can find out more about all of this in Google’s documentation.

MapBox

MapBox is a lesser-known mapping provider that also appeared on our list of 3 ways to style maps. While its speciality is extremely customized control of how the map looks, including the ability to bring your own underlying data, it also has a static map service for its stock data.

The above image, similar to the Google example, was generated with this URL:
https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/mapbox/streets-v10/static/pin-m(-122.478611,37.819722),pin-m(-122.4664,37.799)/-122.478611,37.819722,11/400×300?access_token=TOKEN

All aspects of the map are generated from the data passed in the URL. If you look closely, you’ll find the center of the map, the points for the two markers, the zoom level, and the size of the image. Unlike Google’s states maps, MapBox does not use URL fields, but rather its own format of describing points, paths, and other “overlays” (mapping speak for any objects that can be added atop the base map). MapBox also supports an advanced overlay format in GeoJSON, a standard popular in web cartography circles.

Something to note about MapBox that is different from all the other providers: the coordinates to designate a place must be passed in “longitude,latitude” order. If you get that wrong, you could find yourself in the wrong quadrant of the world (or with an error about latitude out of range).

Looking at that URL, you may have also noticed the access_token field. MapBox requires an API key. With a free MapBox account, you can retrieve a public token here.

Of course, as you would expect with the customizability of MapBox, you can load any styles stored in your account. You can find all the options and details in the full documentation.

MapQuest

Are you surprised that this map granddaddy has a static map offering? Yes, the original web map has a robust developer platform, including interactive maps. While the underlying map cannot be changed, there are still many options available that make MapQuest a contender.

To generate the map above, use this simple URL:
https://www.mapquestapi.com/staticmap/v4/getmap?size=400,300&pois=default,37.819722,-122.478611|default,37.799,-122.4664&key=KEY

One thing MapQuest has going for it is smart defaults. When a map contains markers (which it calls POIs—points of interest), a center and zoom level are not needed. In fact, in our tests, the center field is ignored in favor of a centroid calculated from the markers on the map. This ensures that everything meant to be visible is part of the image. Other providers have this option, but it’s a requirement with MapQuest.

As with others, you can see that the API Key is a requirement. There are generous free limits available once you create an API Key.

Among the features most interesting in MapQuest is marker labels. You can replace “default” in the URL above to get any number of letter you want in the marker. Other customization options and examples are available in the documentation.

Bing Maps

Don’t count Microsoft out of this mapping fun. Through its search brand, Bing, there is an API for Bing Maps. Among the options in the Bing Maps suite is static maps.

That map looking familiar yet? Here’s how you can create it with Bing Maps:
http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Imagery/Map/Road/37.819722,-122.478611/12?mapSize=400,300&pushpin=37.819722,-122.478611&pushpin=37.799,-122.4664&key=KEY

While not called out as fields, the map type, center location, and zoom level are all included before the question mark in the URL. Like Google, you set multiple markers by duplicating the field (in this case, called “pushpin”). There are additional marker options to change the style and add labels.

Again, with Bing you’ll need an API Key. You can register and create one for free using the Bing Maps Portal. For all the various options available, see Bing’s static maps documentation.

Comparison Table

Feature	BatchGeo	Google	MapBox	MapQuest	Bing
Human-readable names	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Coordinates style	Two columns	Lat,Lng	Lng,Lat	Lat,Lng	Lat,Lng
Change map style	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
API Key required	Never	Sometimes	Always	Always	Always
Spreadsheet upload	Yes	No	No	No	No

Beautiful, High Resolution, Printable Maps

Static maps are a great choice for websites where you don’t need interactivity, but you want to communicate the locations. You can also reuse them in social media, emails, and other places where interactive maps are not possible. Yet, sometimes what you need is something in higher resolution. For example, you may want to print a map or share a high quality PDF.

Every BatchGeo Pro account comes with unlimited high resolution maps for you and your entire team. Plus, you get lightning-fast map creation with support for interactive and static maps with up to 20,000 locations. Try it now!