To clarify something, I'm a Mariners fan. They're these guys:
(And not these guys.)
Still, a lot of people wonder how that is. Or why that is. Or why I'm not a fan of the Phillies, even though they won the World Series last year, aren't I excited about the "WORLD PH&&&IN' CHAMPS!"? Come on, I'd have to be heartless not to, right?
Well, I guess I am heartless. I love the Mariners. I always have. They've been pretty much my only baseball love, even though I don't live in Seattle, and I've never even BEEN to Seattle. A conversation with a co-worker yesterday turned into a debate about my fanhood (which can very easily be taken as a debate about manhood) and he very firmly opposed my viewpoint. There's a simple reason why I love them, and then a little bit more complicated reason. But taking both into account, I actually think how I align myself with sports teams is completely appropriate, even though I doubt anyone else would agree.
On one hand, I can see the value of "I live here, I root here". When you're a kid, you're growing up with one team (or two or three or four, or if you live in New York, seven) that plays on TV every night. One stadium to go to with your family. One set of headlines in the newspapers in the morning. Being a fan of where you're from is the accepted practice. Everyone can understand it, nobody would judge it. But personally I don't feel that's the "best" way to do it. I live in Philadelphia, where the most stubborn, passionate fans in the country live, but I want to be honest about something here--also some of the worst. Thousands of people on the street decked in Phils 2008 gear will tell you they lived and died by the team every year. But there are statistics that show that they didn't. And on top of it, there's experience that shows that they didn't.
I want to rewind to April 2009, and while I'm not going to dig very hard to find a good link, here's what I'm talking about. Pat Burrell is one of two local athletes who most turn me off to the idea of being a "home teamer". When he returned to the city after his release last off season, you would have thought it was William Penn himself coming home to roost. He was showered with applause, tears, loving tributes, cries of "It won't be the same!" and "We'll always love you!" But I'm a pretty observant sports fan. And "always love you" is the FURTHEST thing from the truth when it comes to Pat Burrell's career in Philadelphia. Here's a guy who was heckled by the home fans out in his perch in left field. Here's a guy whose name preceded the word "sucks" more than anyone I can remember (as long as you don't consider "Dallas" a name). Here's a guy for whom people would jokingly pencil in a K on the scoresheet before he saw a pitch. The Phillies talked about trading him, and I'd be willing to bet that only about 1 in 10 fans would have opposed it. He drew walks, but nobody was impressed with his homers, his RBI, his batting average, his fielding, his speed. The guy was simply not well liked. He was never the golden boy that Rollins is. Never the face of the franchise. Never a Subway spokesman like Howard. Never ever guy's AND girl's dream like Chase. And yet, the team puts together a solid run (completely forgetting the TORRID backlash from the loss to the Rockies the year earlier) and walks home last year with the World Series Championship after defeating the talented but less experienced Rays. All the sudden, Pat the Bat is a national hero. An icon. He deserves his own statue. A graceful champion, the embodiment of the team. Nobody ever claimed Philadelphia fans weren't fickle.
If anything, I'd like to tip my cap to Burrell for putting up with the fans for that long. Winning heals all wounds, but I'm sick of Phillies fans out there talking about how much you loved Pat Burrell. Look, I can't point the finger at each and everyone one of you and claim you were guilty. But I was here, for all of it, for the three years that everyone was excited about this up and coming first overall pick, and for the six years that everyone was waiting for him to become a league-leading slugger and griped about his .250 average and 120+ strikeouts. Don't kid yourselves. You may have a new fondness for him now, especially that he played on the Series winner, and that he left, and that he's nearing retirement. He did more than most people gave him credit for, but he was not well-liked, and he did always carry a bit of an underachiever tag (being the #1 pick and all). The same can be said for Charlie Manuel. Lots of people were disgusted with him. Lots of people questioned why the team was keeping around a man who could barely walk the dugout steps or form a complete sentence. It took Brad Lidge about two months to go from hero to assassination target. A few weeks ago I heard talk from some people who were claiming Cole Hamels was "done". People are very peculiar with their fanhood.
Would I be considered a "die-hard" Eagles fan if I was one of the brilliant gentleman at the 1999 NFL Draft who booed the team's decision to pass on Ricky Williams, the record-breaking running back from Texas? Or if I booed the team's decision to sign McNabb to a long term deal, to give him the reigns after his injury led to Jeff Garcia's resurgence with the team? I love Donovan McNabb. Other than his mom, I might be the only one left. What else does the guy have to do to prove he's one of the six best quarterbacks in the league. His record as a starter in the NFL is 84-45 (65%, and 9-6 in the playoffs). By comparison, Peyton Manning is 122-59 (67.4%, and 7-8 in the playoffs). What is everyone missing? Really, everyone who's been calling for a regime change the past five years, who do you want? Peyton Manning? Tom Brady? The list of NFL quarterbacks who have been more successful than McNabb is incredibly short. And the list of AVAILABLE NFL quarterbacks who have been more successful than McNabb... well. If McNabb does manage to bring home a Super Bowl to Philadelphia in the next couple seasons, I hope he stands up there at the championship podium, with all the fans screaming out, "We love you Donovan! We believed in you the whole time! We knew you'd do it!"--well, I honestly hope he smiles that million-dollar smile of his, holds his middle finger up to the crowd and says, "No you f-ing didn't."
All of this has just kind of disgusted me. Some of my closest friends and family members are Phillies fans, and they like to rib me about, "How many games did your team win last year?" "Oh when's the last time the Mariners won a World Series?" But since I've been old enough to pay attention, Philadelphia fans have done far more bad mouthing their teams than they have praising. The same can easily be said for Yankees fans, though I don't really want to go there, because I have far too many biases against the Yankees to control myself. But year in and year out they call for A-Rod's head, even though before his steroid allegations, he might have been a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer (Rickey Henderson was not unanimous). And I can understand the concept of appreciating what you have, because if you do remember, Alex Rodriguez was actually ON the Mariners. Regardless of "my" team's performance, I base my fanhood on something that some people might find hard to comprehend--I actually LIKE the teams that I like.
The simple explanation for my love of the M's is this--I was 8, 9 years old. There wasn't an 8 year old in the country during 1993 that didn't love Ken Griffey Junior. He was everywhere, just about the coolest guy you could even imagine, and he was one hell of a baseball player. (Actually I believe kids at the time were split between Griffey and Bonds, damn am I glad I landed on Junior.) Then in 1995, the M's managed one of baseball's greatest late-season comebacks by tying the Angels for the AL West division crown and sending the teams to a one-game playoff for the right to face the Yankees. (Note: Randy Johnson's 18-2 record is no typo.) The Divisional Round series versus the Yanks was one of the greatest of the 90s, if not one of the greatest of all time. Five games. Two that went into extra innings. (Special kudos to Jim Leyritz for catching 15 innings in the rain and ending it with a walk-off homer in Game 2.) Griffey belted five homers in the five game series. The M's fell down 2-0 before winning the final three at the Kingdome to take it. And two of the greatest Mariners of all time, Griffey and Edgar Martinez, combined to seal the series victory with my single favorite play in baseball history: The Double. Just reading all this probably doesn't do any justice to the events, since I know how much emotion is welling up in me just thinking about it.
*EDIT: Video of "The Double", courtesty of MLB.com. You know you want to watch.
The Mariners lost the next round to the Indians and haven't really sniffed the same level of playoff success since. That doesn't mean I don't still love them. I wear my navy and teal proudly, even when they finish with the worst record in the AL, and even though when I tell people I'm not from Seattle, they just look at me confused. I don't think being a fan is all about success. Successful teams are interesting. I root every year for LeBron and the Cavs, and they have thus far failed me, but instead of being considered a bandwagon, I'd rather just be considered an admirer. I'm disappointed when they lose, but I don't really live or die by them. I see LeBron as an underdog in his quest for "Greatest Ever", and ultimately, as a basketball fan you have to side with either him or Kobe (and for countless reasons which I could get into at another time, I pick LeBron). I also like the Suns, as their style and Steve Nash's worldliness are catchy. And of course there's the low-lying, slow-burning love for the Thunder that's developing, because they've assembled quite the talented cast (and because at 6'5" 175 I share a body type and playing style with Kevin Durant--6'9" 210). But it's been quite some time since I had the same fire for an NBA team as I do for the Eagles or Mariners (or Maryland basketball!). Too many players changing teams too often, and too many enormous egos complicating things.
I don't consider myself a bandwagon and I honestly don't think most other people would. But I don't really subscribe to the theory that states you should root for where you're from. Too often, this familiarity has bred contempt for me. I'm not particularly a hockey fan, but I've noticed that every year, Flyers fans talk about this being "the year" for the team, they've signed all the newest over-the-hill castoffs from across the league for twice their market value, and this will be the year they finally get it done. I wish they wouldn't get themselves so excited. It doesn't take a genius to see that this is the way all Flyers fans get every year, why would they expect this year to be any different? (See: Chicago Cubs.) And I like the Phillies as a team--well, certain players, like Chase Utley--but some of the aforementioned qualms with the fan base has been what's really driven me from rooting for them for the past 15 years. I stick by the Eagles, not really because they're from Philadelphia, but because as a team I truly find them enjoyable to watch. The rest of the fanbase continues to test my patience weekly, but I choose to ignore their jeers and applaud all of the great moments they provide.
Sports to me is about identity and excitement. When you feel a kinship for a certain team or player, their successes and their failures can directly influence you. And while I don't have a particular set of rules that decrees which teams I root for, the one thing that unites all of them is that they've provided enough excitement and enough positives to outweigh any of the negatives, or else I just wouldn't see the point in caring about them. As a fan, I want teams that I already LIKE to succeed, as opposed to wanting to like teams that I know are succeeding. I may have only really experienced one championship in all of my sports fan career (the 2002 NCAA title for the Terps), but it was an incredible treat for that reason.
Yo Evan,
ReplyDeleteI pop in every now and then to read your stuff and I find most of your posts to be interesting, witty, and on the whole, very fun to read. However, I think you're kind of off base on a few things in this one and just thought I'd chime in since you want more followers :).
I've been a Philadelphia sports fan my entire life, despite living in Colorado for a decade (94-04). I started loving the Phillies from the time I could understand who they were, knew the starting lineup at the age of 2 (or so I'm told) and got my Dad interested in the Flyers. Basketball was always my favorite sport so the Sixers were in and the Eagles are just a given.
I've been a fan through the good times and the bad (and unfortunately, there's been a lot more of the latter). I will never forget watching Joe Carter's homerun in the 1993 World Series and feeling like my world was falling apart (I was 7!); I remember the Rich Kotite and Ray Rhodes years when the Eagles were a laughingstock but always seemed to give the Cowboys good games; the Sixers' amazing run in 2001 as probably the most decorated team (league MVP, defensive MVP, coach of the year, 6th man) in NBA history to not win it all; the Flyers firing Terry Murray in 1997 after getting swept by Detroit because just getting to the Stanley Cup finals wasn't good enough... you get the picture.
Let me start with something we agree on: I don't think anyone owes sports fanhood to their place of birth or residence. If you've lived your entire life in Philly and want to root for the Mariners, that's fine with me. The people I take issue with are those who pick a team to root for because they are good and then desert them when times get tough. That's a bandwagoner. I believe that most Philly fans have still followed and cared about the teams during bad times. They may not have gone out to the ballpark as often or bought as much memorabilia but that's just refusing to pay for a bad product. It doesn't mean they stopped caring.
As for Burrell, I never really liked him as a ballplayer, though he seemed like a decent guy, and he HAS been a bust (or at least underachieved) for a 1st overall pick. But the reason I would cheer him if I saw him again is because, during the Phillies run, whenever a big play happened, you would see Burrell going crazy in the dugout or running onto the field to congratulate his teammates. He made it clear to me that he cared about the Phillies, just like I do. As for those fans who may have said "We always loved you, it won't be the same" or the like, you are correct that they are lying. But I don't think that's how most people feel. Burrell is liked (I think loved is too strong here) now because he was part of something very special for Philadelphia. I think it's classy (yes, classy!) that Philly fans recognize that despite the years of a near-200 average and an overinflated salary, he deserves praise for bringing them that much happiness for that moment in time.
Also, no matter how many championships Charlie Manuel wins, I will always think he's an idiot. The man can hardly form a sentence and I don't think he's even that good at his job. Some of the decisions he has made in games make absolutely no sense, the most recent of which was taking out Pedro Martinez after 7 innings and only 90 pitches in game 2 against the Dodgers. The bullpen predictably blew the lead immediately and we lost (I know, I know, Chase Utley had a chance to make a play that would have made it 2 outs with only a man on 3rd. But the point is, Pedro had given up 2 hits all game and the way he was pitching, we would never have been in that situation.). There are many other times Manuel has made a ridiculous move and it's cost us; a few stick out to me but they're pretty obscure so I won't bother. But, the Phillies have enough talent that his mistakes are soon forgotten (or never even pointed out), so all is well. Plus, I will always value the 2008 championship run and for that, he deserves some gratitude.
As for Lidge, Hamels, Rollins when he was in his monumental slump, and anyone else, when you don't perform in Philadelphia, you hear about it. I like that. These are grown men that are supposed to be professionals. They can take it and I believe that athletes who have sufficient mental toughness to succeed in a league where your livelihood can be cut out from under you at any point will perform at their best playing in front of fans like those in Philadelphia.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to Donovan, I like him. ALWAYS have and always will. But, he lacks something that all the truly great quarterbacks have: the ability to put together a final 2-minute drive to win the game. I can't remember the last time he put together a drive like that (maybe it was the miraculous 4th and 26th play to Freddie Mitchell) and I'm not talking about just the playoffs -- in any game. With all the great teams in the league, the Eagles will have to win like this at some point to go all the way and, understandably, many people doubt he can make it happen. But, if he ever does bring the Superbowl home to Philly, you and I both know all previous "transgressions" will be forgiven and frankly, that's how it should be. I believe that he is man enough to understand that if and when Eagles fans fall in love with him for good, he should embrace it, no matter how unfairly he thinks he was treated in the past. He's a great quarterback but what matters are championships and he doesn't have any. Peyton took all kinds of criticism until he won it all, too. That's just how it is.
But I have to say, I think you're just wrong if you believe that people who claim to be die-hard Eagles fans will really convince themselves they always believed it would happen. I didn't believe the Phillies could do it last year until Matt Stairs' two-run homer off of Jonathan Broxton in game 4 of the NLCS. That's a big part of what made it so amazing. There was doubt all the way to the end. I don't think many fans will forget that.
The bottom line, in my opinion, is that I know I care because of how happy I get when Philly teams succeed and how sad and angry I get when they do not. If you don't have anything to (constructively) criticize about your team, they better have won it all. Otherwise, you are satisfied with less than the best. When you live in a big market like Philly (not New York but also certainly not Seattle... no offense) and your team spends the kind of money it does and you spend the kind of money we do to support these teams, you should demand the best. Obviously, teams can make all the right moves and still lose but if they do this long enough, they'll eventually take home a championship (even the Eagles).
Philly fans are often obnoxious and belligerent but I believe they care about their teams and they know sports, which is more than can be said for most of the country.
Ok, that ended up being much longer than I anticipated but there we are. Keep writing and I'll keep stopping by periodically.
Truskin
I appreciate the thoughts. I realize how scathing I was regarding Philly fans, but I think that's part sensationalism in trying to explain my viewpoint, and part frustration regarding people who don't understand that I don't particularly like the Phils despite being from the area. I don't really mean to take it out on people who are legit fans, you know, the people who actually WERE there a few years back, when they were nothing but a .500 team. It's more the people who WEREN'T there, but who show up September 2008 and claim to be there the whole time. That kind of thing always rubs me the wrong way, and living in Philly and being surrounded by it 24/7 the last 13 months, it's the clearest example I have.
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