Playoff season is a crazy animal no matter who’s playing. It gets infinitely more interesting when a local team partakes.
It’s interesting the bickering that goes on between fans – whether in person or under their breath (or online or to a friend at home) – because there seem to be so many rules on being a fan. And yes, I’m as guilty of this phenomena as well.
Take the term: Bandwagon Fan. What does it mean? Sure, there’s an easy explanation: some person doesn’t give a crap about a team but suddenly becomes the biggest fan when there’s something to root for. That’s where the complexities come in.
Take the Giants as an example. No doubt, the majority of the Bay Area is Niner country. Sorry Raider fans – it’s true. Then, the immediate 2nd are the Giants. No doubt. The not so immediate yet firmly at 3rd are the Warriors. Then, I suppose the Raiders would be 4th. The Sharks, fifth, but only because they’ve been a winning franchise, then the A’s, sixth, only because they’ve been relentlessly mediocre (and with horrible management) for the last four years. And, really, all the last four teams can switch given their vicinity to a winning season.
Okay, tangent. Take the Giants for example. Ever since AT&T Park opened, sellouts have been frequent at the stadium and they’re deep rooted in the community and media (KNBR and NBC11 – before that KTVU). The Giants have a large pool of people to push the turnstiles. But, when a push for the postseason comes and when they make it to the actual playoffs, there are many people who get priced out. All of a sudden, all the inherited season ticket owners/corporate seats, are filled with casual/if not completely connected “fans”. 81 games are impossible to attend everyday unless you’re wealthy, stealing tickets, funemployed, or what have, but some folks only come when there’s a spectacle. The issue? Fans that are uneducated and not synced with the rest of the everyday fans can sometimes bring bad juju to the game and team energy. Not saying this is true of these folks, but I assume that’s the vibe that, say, the bleacher bums would feel of these “bandwagon” fans. But, I can feel them – the “regulars”. I’ve been to enough games over the past seven years to say I’m one of them – “scraping” by to sit in the bad nosebleeds, sit in the unrelentingly cold seats in the bleachers, or even standing during the early/mid 00′s heyday. It’s like the Superbowl. When the prices are so high and corporations and special league invitations start filling the lower bowl, you can see the bad energy versus what it was at the two conference championship games two weeks earlier.
To be fair: the crowds at AT&T have been popping off since one of the LA series in August. Yes, including the lower level.
So, that’s one example of a bandwagon fan.
Another is the casual fan – got a life, got work, got family, got other sports. Whatever the case, they don’t ride the wave like everyday fans do. They come around when there’s something at stake.
Importantly, causal fans have to be distinguished from “fair-weather” fans. We’ll get to them in a bit but this brings us to a section of categories that might really receive the rile from the regulars.
Let’s call this next type the… fake diehards. Let’s say most of these folks are casual fans. Nothing wrong with casual fans. If there weren’t casual fans, then there would be no economy for sports teams. What is annoying, as it seems, to most authentic (paid the dues, paid the time, riding the emotions all year) diehards are the folks that come out of the woodwork during these postseason good times and start mouthing off like they’ve been there the whole time. Of particular ire are these fans that start bitching about certain players on the team. Look, all fans have the right to bitch about whatever. I do it. I know it makes me look terrible, but whatever. But, regulars – especially baseball fans because the journey is really a grind for the players AND fans – are also protective. It’s like tough love – tough, verbally abusive, hella inappropriate mostofthetime, take for granted kinda love. But we still love our players like our homeboys. So, I feel like regulars have a gut reaction to lash out at the “fake diehards” when they complain about a player or the team or a loss with, “you don’t have a right to get mad with you’re 2 week old hat and 5 day old beard.” (As a footnote – I don’t ever claim to be a Giants diehard. But I sure as hell know more about this team than most “fakies” and most “regulars”. But, whatever.)
These are also the folks that I assume get reamed on twitter, on facebook, with side comments, and with eye rolling when they don’t even know the players’ names. It’s Pat Burrell. Not Burroughs. Or, they don’t know the game. It’s a RUN, not a POINT. Semantics, but I can feel them for their frustration. You either buy the tickets and hence buy the parking, gas, and/or public transportation tickets throughout the season, take time to go, you listen on the radio, you watch on tv – you feel like you’ve earned a higher place in the fan hierarchy – because you’ve actually invested in the team rather than some folks that wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if today was April 5th and the 2nd game of the season. I mean, there are fans that spend more energy and emotion on one at-bat than some of these folks do a whole game.
I guess these folks could be classified as fair-weather fans. If so, let’s call them Class B – less guilty of fanhood’s great unspoken rules of behavior.
Let’s get to Class A fair-weathering. (I’m going to channel Mike Singletary and tell you that I am going to make a statement and that is in my opinion..) My opinion is this.. the fair-weather fans pretend they’re diehard fans throughout the season, but find ways to violate those aforementioned unspoken rules of fanhood. (See how I just did that? Made a statement first that I was going to make a statement before making an actual statement? Listen to a press conference or a radio interview once. Then you’ll know.)
Say I have a jersey or a jacket or sticker on my car or other fave-team oriented swag. Say I rarely ever go to a game or watch them on tv or read up on their scores. You know – claim a team for the sake of claiming the team? Or, say they do watch games, but spend the whole time complaining or waiting for them to lose or starting picket lines to fire the coach, the GM, the hitting coach – and yes, I mean the WHOLE time. You know, we all get frustrated with our teams and wish for better everything. We throw our players under the bus once we reach our tipping point. We make snarky remarks about how bad they are in.. maybe.. bad attempts to find some humor in the bad play – but we still hope for the best – for the win – for the enjoyment. Okay. Everyone has a different style of being a regular fan, but some are just haters – entitled fans that feel the team OWES it to THEM to win. It’s waaaay different from being an annoying “tough love” kind of fan. Yes, you might disagree, so just reread my statement about making a statement. *Find “Mike Singletary statement”
I keep getting sidetracked.
So, these folks fake it day in and day out or wait for the sky to fall day in and day out. Then, when the success train rolls in, they jump on board and all of a sudden become rabid with their intensity and their puffed out chests. They avoid the the ballpark if their team’s losing. They avoid the claiming of them except for territorial and/or fashion’s and/or habitual reasons. But here they come, pretending that they’ve been the flag toting diehards the whole time. Class A fair-weather. IMHO.
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As a feverishly exciting run makes it way through the community, it’s just natural for folks, fans or not, get sucked in. What are people supposed to do? Non-sports fans are watching. Regulars are watching. But, there are the unspoken rules of cheering for a team that we can understand as regulars but might be a bit unfair for the casuals. (I think Class A Fair-Weathers deserve our eye-rolling and shit-talking tweets, though.) That’s why communities, cities, nations pay a lot of money for teams – because they mean and represent a lot more than the X’s and O’s or double switches or pageantry. That’s why televisions networks and corporations put money into broadcasts and sponsorships. Sports teams – especially when in high profile exciting situations like the playoffs are – are a culturally defining and culturally expansive experience ultimately meant for the masses. No, I’m not trying to say pro sports are more important than other things – but these teams carry the banners of constituents like any other piece of the fabric of the community. Townships and villages in any culture have had representatives: community leaders, religious leaders, politicians, entertainers, flag bearers, dancers, and/or warriors. Sports teams, no matter how ridiculously corporate they are now, still rally communities together. And I’m pretty sure that experience shouldn’t remain exclusive to us who have been part of the ride for the whole year, decade, or our lives.
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And where does that place me in your eyes? I know who I am as a sports fan and I know my loyalties and my best buds in and out of sports fandom know. I am enjoying this Giants run and I care for the team, the players, and the everyday fans I know and love because they deserve such a successful and exciting journey. They also know that my number one team is the A’s – and that I don’t believe in a steadfast rule of “sports monogomy”. That doesn’t mean I’ll run around and say my favorite team is “X team” that’s currently the best in the world. (BTW, I think my favorite X-team would consist of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Psylocke, Rogue, Gambit, Storm, and… Molly from Runaways.) That means I think it’s lame the attitude that because there’s a quasi-”rivalry” between two geographically close teams that I can’t have sincere sentiments for both teams. If the A’s were heading to the World Series against the Giants, I know what hat I’d wear. I know where my emotions would flow. I know which team I would hate in the heat of battle. And I’m comfortable with that. That mediocre team (since 2007, fyi)’s got my heart and I’m not flipping my loyalties just cuz this other lovable team’s better.
I was there at the Coliseum days after they re-opened after 9/11. I remember looking in the sky at helicopters and small engine planes with a hint of fear. But the game took me in and I fell back in love. I was there when that stadium was full to the point of being there for 2 of the top 5 attended games in Coliseum history. And I’ve also spent hours in the park the past few years as it’s been embarrassingly empty. Still cheering. Still hoping. Still snapping off some frustrated and snarky comments. But still hoping for Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” to hit.
I was that guy that came out of the woodwork. 2000. The Giants were playing the Mets. The Mets were the team I first fell for being in New York from 83 to 87. I enjoyed the A’s in the late 80s and grew to hate the Giants. Not sure why, but I’m sure it’s because they beat the Mets. But, some point in 1993-99, I just stopped watching or caring for baseball. Then 2000 came and both the Mets and the Giants were playing for the NLCS. My original love in the Mets caught my attention but my partying-age love in the city of San Francisco also perked up. So, I don’t remember much details, but I knew I would’ve been happy either way. Tickets to AT&T Park were hard to come by. The coliseum, even with the glory days, weren’t so much. Cheaper too. So I went. And I already said what happened.
So, now I’m here. Disappointed that the Giants couldn’t clinch last night but infinitely confident and excited to see Jonathan Sanchez do it again and Clinchez this thing for the team and the community. I’m even more disappointed by the loser “fans” posting their doomsday obituaries for this team that they’re supposedly “fans” of. But I digress. I’m excited for tomorrow. I love this game. I love the MLB playoffs. And I’m going to be there being the best fan that I know how to be.
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This morning Brian Murphy shared an email on KNBR from a man that found a children’s baseball in his backyard. It wasn’t his kid’s. He picked it up and saw scribbles on the ball. They were the names of Giants: Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Cody Ross. They were “signed” by the kid – a treasured baseball with the “signatures” of his favorite players. Murph exulted that new memories were being formed. New generations were falling in love with the game.
That’s baseball. I love baseball.