Sports bigamy and bandwagoners (was: Pics of your UT Room!!!)

#26
#26
Vercingetorix said:
Obviously you can root for whomever you want, but it sure seems to me like you're cheating yourself a little bit if you live so close to the Indians and Reds and don't support either one. There's a lot to be said for rooting for the local team; you can go to the stadium, pick the games up on the TV and radio, etc. It gives you something in common to talk about with people you sit next to in the bars. No question I'd be either a Reds or Indians fan if I had grown up where you live.
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honestly though, i can't really blame the guy for not wanting to be an Indians fan.
 
#27
#27
droski said:
Personally i think it is a general requirement that you have lived within a 3 hour drive of the said successful pro (or even college team) to be considered anything, but a bandwaggoner. I'm not sure moving there as an adult counts either. I can't tell you how many friends i have that went to harvard or mit who now claim to be redsox fans (previously unknown to me of course). "it's not because they are good now, i was rooting for them when they stunk and i was a student." riiighhhttt.

It's like the guys who are yankees fans and have never been to new york. they always have excuses like "i always liked jeter, so that became my team." Yeah i'm sure it had nothing to do with the 5 championships in your formative years.
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Absolutely, which is why I said above that the better the team you arbitrarily pick, the more you suck. Anyone who jumps on the Yankees or the Sox obviously sucks a lot.

The moving there as an adult thing is interesting. I have a friend who is the rarest of breeds -- someone who actually grew up here in Atlanta. Could not care at all about the Falcons the whole time she lived there. She's been in DC for a year now, and she's already jumped on the Redskins bandwagon big-time -- wears a jersey on gameday, etc. Something about that sucks too.
 
#28
#28
doozer said:
honestly though, i can't really blame the guy for not wanting to be an Indians fan.
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I probably would be if the fans cared about them like they do Ohio State or the Browns. The Indians and Reds have their fans but they aren't really talked about much.

I guess the Diamondbacks are making me look more like a bandwagon fan than they did a few years ago.
 
#29
#29
Vercingetorix said:
Absolutely, which is why I said above that the better the team you arbitrarily pick, the more you suck. Anyone who jumps on the Yankees or the Sox obviously sucks a lot.

The moving there as an adult thing is interesting. I have a friend who is the rarest of breeds -- someone who actually grew up here in Atlanta. Could not care at all about the Falcons the whole time she lived there. She's been in DC for a year now, and she's already jumped on the Redskins bandwagon big-time -- wears a jersey on gameday, etc. Something about that sucks too.
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She obviously has excellent taste. :)

I have been on the Redskins "bandwaggon" since I was 10 years old. I think continuing to pull for them through the '90s and present day gets me off the hook of people who suck for pulling for successful teams.

BTW, I live in Dallas now and there is NO way I am becoming a Cowboys fan.
 
#30
#30
For what it's worth, I cheered for UNC football and Wake Forest football for a few years. During that time, guys from my high school were on the team. I think that's a perfectly acceptable reason for taking on another team. I now also cheer for those guys in the NFL on the Jaguars and Redskins.
 
#32
#32
I'm with Lex. In the professional ranks, I tend more to root for players and coaches than I do teams.

I grew up in TN and root for UT in everything. I root for my undergrad and graduate schools, but I suspect they'll never compete with UT for anything. If they do, I'll be torn, but will probably root for my undergrad alma mater.

What's that make me?
 
#33
#33
BigPapaVol said:
I'm with Lex. In the professional ranks, I tend more to root for players and coaches than I do teams.

I grew up in TN and root for UT in everything. I root for my undergrad and graduate schools, but I suspect they'll never compete with UT for anything. If they do, I'll be torn, but will probably root for my undergrad alma mater.

What's that make me?
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The way a sports fan ought to be about it? Undergrad alma mater trumps all, IMO.
 
#36
#36
I think that if I'd gone to school somewhere else, I'd have ended up rooting for my own school over the school I'd grown up rooting for. I think. But I ended up going to UT anyway, so it was a moot point.
 
#38
#38
remember, that the Arizona DBacks aren't much younger than tvolsfan, so it's not like he picked up rooting for a brand new team because they were necessarily brand new. I see no problem with him not rooting for the Reds.

I mean I root for the A's because I loved their colors as a kid, thought Dennis Eckersley was the coolest man on the planet, and I thought Rickey Henderson might actually steal two bases with one pitch (and no errors). The Bash Brothers were cool, but far from my favorite aspect about the A's. I also grew up a Braves fan, but as mentioned before, couldn't stand john schuerholz's idea of letting my favorite players always go. Ironically, it's the norm for the A's nowadays.

Never expected my question to turn into this, but quite a good theory you have Vercin.
 
#39
#39
volfanbill said:
remember, that the Arizona DBacks aren't much younger than tvolsfan, so it's not like he picked up rooting for a brand new team because they were necessarily brand new. I see no problem with him not rooting for the Reds.
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I didn't mean to imply he was a bandwaggoner for rooting for the D'Backs, and I certainly don't have a problem with it; I just think he's missing out by passing up on two separate teams within a couple of hours of his house in order to root for a team all the way across the country. The net makes it obviously much easier to follow a team long-distance, but still -- if I have to go run errands or something while a game is on, it's on the radio. I can go down to the ballpark on a whim just because the weather is nice or the pitching matchup is intriguing. (This would be more difficult for tvolsfan, obviously, but still doable.) Etc. etc. I just think 17 (or whatever he is) is really young to stick your stake in the ground and commit to a team way out there when you've got two right there in your back yard.

I mean I root for the A's because I loved their colors as a kid, thought Dennis Eckersley was the coolest man on the planet, and I thought Rickey Henderson might actually steal two bases with one pitch (and no errors). The Bash Brothers were cool, but far from my favorite aspect about the A's. I also grew up a Braves fan, but as mentioned before, couldn't stand john schuerholz's idea of letting my favorite players always go. Ironically, it's the norm for the A's nowadays.

Never expected my question to turn into this, but quite a good theory you have Vercin.
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I wouldn't call it a theory, and I think I overanswered your question by coming up with a numbered list of items. I've had the same argument on here repeatedly with people whom I've deemed to be frontrunners and/or bigamists several times, so I thought that instead of just snarking at people I'd set out a statement of basic principles. It ended up being a little more exhaustive than it needed to be, I guess.

And we are totally agreed on Rickey Henderson. Probably my favorite baseball player ever.
 
#40
#40
i thoroughly enjoyed your thoughts and agree with most of them. I guess I'm just in a different situation where I've always been at least 3 hours from a pro team so it's impossible to root for the local team.

And that 3 hour trip was for the Hornets, who are now in New Orleans. I was a Hornets fan, but my interest in the NBA was dwindled significantly since my childhood, but I'd still call the Hornets my team. And I will add, that them now being a pretty good team hasn't really sparked anymore interest in the NBA. I still only watch some of the playoffs and an occasional big game if no good college bball is on.

By the time the Panthers came to Charlotte, I had already become a Redskins fan and I wasn't going to change just because they were close by. Same goes with the Titans.

Had I grown up in Columbus, OH with the Reds, Indians, Bengals and Browns so close I might be able to better understand that perspective.

So basically the only thing I would add to your list is that if you've already settled on your team and a team moves close by, you are not obligated to cheer for them.
 
#41
#41
Vercingetorix said:
And we are totally agreed on Rickey Henderson. Probably my favorite baseball player ever.
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I liked Henderson until after his monster World Series MVP. After that, it was too much I am the greatest and referring to himself as Rickey. His late, late career antics were comic book stuff with his hanging around forever to break certain records.
 
#42
#42
The best Rickey story ever is when he received his signing bonus and months later the check wasn't cashed so the team contacted Henderson and found out that instead of depositing the $1 million check, he framed it and hung it on his wall. :wacko:
 
#43
#43
Vercingetorix said:
I think that if I'd gone to school somewhere else, I'd have ended up rooting for my own school over the school I'd grown up rooting for. I think. But I ended up going to UT anyway, so it was a moot point.
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there was a guy in my dorm who grew up a stanford fan and would openly root against cal when we were watching games in the common area. he wasn't my favorite person.
 
#44
#44
droski said:
there was a guy in my dorm who grew up a stanford fan and would openly root against cal when we were watching games in the common area. he wasn't my favorite person.
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droski when are you going to post picks of your UT room?:)
 
#46
#46
BigPapaVol said:
I liked Henderson until after his monster World Series MVP. After that, it was too much I am the greatest and referring to himself as Rickey. His late, late career antics were comic book stuff with his hanging around forever to break certain records.
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No question that late-career Henderson was insufferable -- and really, it wasn't just in his late career. He was an ass. But I just loved his game. 100 walks a year, 15-20 homers out of the leadoff spot. A quick H+BB/G says that he was on base 1.7 times per game over the course of his career. Throw in his 500 doubles and his 1400 stolen bases, and that's a whole lot of times he's standing in scoring position for the heart of the order. A leadoff hitter like that changes everything for your whole lineup.

The way that umpires seem to be calling the game this year, I bet he could come down out of the stands in street clothes and draw enough walks to put up a .375-.380 OBP. He could probably still help somebody.
 
#47
#47
GAVol said:
The best Rickey story ever is when he received his signing bonus and months later the check wasn't cashed so the team contacted Henderson and found out that instead of depositing the $1 million check, he framed it and hung it on his wall. :wacko:
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:birgits_giggle:
 
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