Dictionary

Munson-Nixon Line en · PROPN

Etymology

Named after baseball players Thurman Munson (of the New York Yankees) and Trot Nixon (of the Boston Red Sox), by analogy with Mason-Dixon Line, coined in 2003 by Steve Rushin in Sports Illustrated.

Meanings

1. (informal) A hypothetical boundary line between sports fandoms in Connecticut, supporting Boston-based teams to the east and New York City-based teams to the west; the exact boundaries are undefined.
   • Numerous would-be cartographers over the years have tried to identify the exact location of what my colleague Steve Rushin in 2003 termed the Munson-Nixon line, named for former Yankees catcher Thurman Munson and Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon. [2018 September 19, Jack Dickey, “What Makes Guilford, Connecticut the Perfect Wedge Between Yankees and Red Sox Fans”, in Sports Illustrated, →ISSN, →OCLC, retrieved 04 Jul 2026:
   • You may have heard of the Mason-Dixon line separating the North from the South. In Connecticut, they have what some call the "Munson-Nixon" line - as in Thurman of the Yankees and Trot of the Red Sox. [2018 October 5, “A State Divided: Connecticut Town Sits On 'Munson-Nixon' Line Separating Yankees, Red Sox Fandom”, in CBS News, CBS, retrieved 04 Jul 2026:
   • While there are certainly Yankee fans (and assorted “Uncle Phils”) scattered throughout New England, with sizeable pockets of them in both Vermont and the Berkshires of western Massachusetts (Jim Bouton’s backyard), the border of Red Sox nation becomes most porous in southern Connecticut. While unmarked and unpatrolled (not to mention unsecured), the border does have an official name: the Munson-Nixon Line. [2016 April 14, Ted Reinstein, “The Rivalry”, in Wicked Pissed New England's Most Famous Feuds, Globe Pequot, →ISBN, page 144:
   • Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated has called the line running through Connecticut that separates Yankee fans and Red Sox fans the Munson-Nixon line. Mr. Rushin came up with the name — in honor of the late Yankee catcher Thurman Munson and the retired Red Sox right fielder Trot Nixon — in 2003, and he had to guess where the line ran: “north of New Haven but south of Hartford, running the breadth of central Connecticut.” [2014 April 24, Tom Giratikanon, Josh Katz, David Leonhardt, Kevin Quealy, “Up Close on Baseball’s Borders”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, retrieved 04 Jul 2026:

Forms

wikipedia: Sports Illustrated · wikipedia: Boston Red Sox · wikipedia: Thurman Munson · wikipedia: New York Yankees · wikipedia: Trot Nixon · wikipedia: Steve Rushin