The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: Carlos del Vaca on April 04, 2010, 02:05:19 pm
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So, this dude I know from years back is exulting on Facebook that Duke is on the verge of a national title. Not that he went to Duke, mind you. He also likes the Dallas Cowboys, and Alabama football. He's from PENNSYLVANIA.
Am I alone in finding this obnoxious as fuck? I've suggested he also root for the New York Yankees, and UConn women's hoops.
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I've always only ever rooted for the home town team so I know the meaning of suffering. When my beloved/hated Oilers left town it broke my heart and now I root for no one. It's been very freeing, not being chained to a team like that.
Even at the high school level when I go to see my niece or nephew play in the marching band. I'll cheer for the opponents too. It's not my high school, I don't give a shit if they win or lose. I've gotten some dirty looks for this. What? It was a beautiful play. Actually though, I think that's more about sportsmanship than rooting for a team. You know, "It's not whether you win or lose it's how you play the game" that old adage that seems to have absolutely no meaning at all anymore having been replaced by "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."
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I just had this conversation last night after the Duke game. I can't decide whether I hate Yankee fans or Red Sox fans more. Probably Red Sox fans, even though I don't really hate the Sox like I hate the Yankees, because I'm tired of people lying to me about how they were fans way before 2004. Also I never want to hear the term "Red Sox Nation" again. FUCK!
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Fever Pitch was a really cute movie.
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It was better when it was a book about soccer. Just kidding, I haven't seen it.
I don't have a problem with my friends from Boston liking the Red Sox, but I do get sick about hearing about them from people who couldn't give two fucks about the team in 2003.
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Growing up a Mets fan, the idea of there being a shared level of magnitude with the Yankees and Red Sox is kind of unthinkable.
The Red Sox are a semi-friend you're kind of outta touch with. He was a schlub as a teenager and always complained about how the girls didn't go for him but he got lucky with his finances and now he's annoying in the opposite way, he can't help but keep talking about how he's getting laid all the time now.
And that's annoying, sure.
The Yankees, in contrast, murdered your parents in an alleyway over a necklace while you were getting out of screening of Zorro at the age of eight.
The Red Sox, eh, they're grating after a while but if they're feeling generous that night, they might buy all the rounds.
The Yankees fill my throat with a bileous rage wherein I'd throw up if I didn't think the acid would burn holes in my cheeks.
This is the Metfan perspective, of course.
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I attended a White Sox-Yankees game in Chicago and sat near a Yankees fan who cheered highlights of the Red Wings on the jumbotron. Annoying? Agreed.
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Red Sox fans were sort of cute before 2004. Now they have an obnoxious sense of entitlement. Yankees fans are generally a little self-aware that their team has major built-in advantages; they just don't give a shit.
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Go Butler!
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Growing up a Mets fan, the idea of there being a shared level of magnitude with the Yankees and Red Sox is kind of unthinkable.
The Red Sox are a semi-friend you're kind of outta touch with. He was a schlub as a teenager and always complained about how the girls didn't go for him but he got lucky with his finances and now he's annoying in the opposite way, he can't help but keep talking about how he's getting laid all the time now.
And that's annoying, sure.
The Yankees, in contrast, murdered your parents in an alleyway over a necklace while you were getting out of screening of Zorro at the age of eight.
The Red Sox, eh, they're grating after a while but if they're feeling generous that night, they might buy all the rounds.
The Yankees fill my throat with a bileous rage wherein I'd throw up if I didn't think the acid would burn holes in my cheeks.
This is the Metfan perspective, of course.
Yeah, it's really nice to not give a shit.
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FUCK BOBBY COX
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The Yankees, in contrast, murdered your parents in an alleyway over a necklace while you were getting out of screening of Zorro at the age of eight.
Sure it wasn't The Ring Cycle?
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I was an Alabama fan until 1992, the year of their last championship before this one. I quit because the fans got more obnoxious/insufferable than normal.
Congratulations, the paid-under-the-table 'roid freaks that pretend to attend class at a university you couldn't get in to managed to have enough games handed to them by the officials and got voted to be number 1 despite playing only two of the best teams of paid-under-the-table 'roid freaks! You certainly should enjoy that, because nearly $5 of the $180 you paid for that replica jersey you refuse to take off went to the general education fund for that school! Go you!
I may appear bitter in that last paragraph. I guess what I mean is: Fuck you, college bandwagon jumpers. Right in the #####.
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I get supporting national-level teams that are not from your home-area (I mean, it is not like the Carolina Panthers are made up of people from the Carolinas) but I don't get rooting for college teams unless you went to college there.
like, in Charlotte, everyone is all about whether you are a Duke fan or a UNC fan. I do not go to either of those places, my parents did not go to either of those places, why would I have a preference?
(UNC.)
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Cause Duke is WASP City?
I am from Oklahoma and graduated from OU. I grew up an OSU fan because OSU fans are not dicks, and mainly went to school there. All of the people too dumb to get into college in Oklahoma root hard for OU, and that kinda takes the fun out of it. Now that I went to school there I am a vocal fan of neither, want both to do well generally, and will root for OSU without hesitation when they are playing each other. I actually went to OSU my freshman year despite it being in the middle of nowhere and looking like a mall. Even though based on test scores and high school grades I was qualified to go somewhere way better, I didn't even think of going anywhere but there. I learned quickly that just because some people that come around 6 or 7 times a year (there are like 80,000 of them though) root for someone, I can still go to school there if it is way better.
I grew up a Red Sox and Redskins fan. The reasons for that are many. My dad was born in Boston and spent a lot of time in D.C. as a child (and Germany, Tennessee and Hawaii-air force) so he rooted for them. Also, there aren't really teams in Oklahoma, though most people root for Dallas or St. Louis based teams. I also hated the Yankees and Cowboys instictually, so that helped. St. Louis teams are boring and the other Dallas teams had no souls at that point, especially the Rangers. So yeah, just went with rivals of the teams I dislike that my dad also happened to root for honestly. I hate the Yankees more than I like the Red Sox, Cowboys Redskins is a tie. I never really followed the NBA. Now that I live in Denver, and after the 2007 Red Sox douchebagon parade, I kind of have the same thing going on with the Rockies and Red Sox as I do with OU and OSU. No reason not to like the Rockies, and I get to see their games and live in their city, but if it comes down to it I have no hesitation to root for the Red Sox. It is just, childhood wins, once you pick those teams you can't start rooting for someone else or it all feels fake, even if you went to school at their rivals or don't really want to be associated with them and have a much stronger association with another team.
The weirdest thing with me? I really like the OKC Thunder and want to see them do well, even though they came after I left, have an awful name, and I didn't even start watching the NBA until I came to Denver.
So yeah, am I doing any bandwagon jumping? Maybe to the Rockies?
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So are fans of the winning team by definition douchebags or are there some humble winners in that group? My guess is no. I got disillusioned with the whole we are the winner thing after the Houston Rockets won the championship. it was only then that I realized that it doesn't matter. At all. It didn't change my life one bit. I think it's amazing that a person can claim some kind of superiority for an accomplishment they had absolutely nothing to do with.
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http://www.theonion.com/articles/you-will-suffer-humiliation-when-the-sports-team-f,10804/
I get where you're coming from, Paul, but at the same time, it's something fun, so, you know, no big thing.
On another message board, a curmudgeon invaded the sports board and repeatedly posted that anyone who referred to the home team as "we" was an idiot, unless they actually played for that team, were directly employed by it, or owned it. Finally I replied, "Fine. I'm an idiot. You happy? I talk about the Nats in the first-person plural sometimes, even though I know I have no rational reason for doing so. You win. Now leave us alone."
(N.B. Not comparing Paul to that jackass.)
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I don't find fault to referring to your team as we if it's your home team. They are supposed to be representing the city of which you are a citizen. I'm less inclined to go along with this if the team plays in a city you've never even visited.
I was referring to people who somehow claim a superiority because their team won. As if their city or they personally are better than you because the team they support has won. I think we all agree that's pretty douchy.
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'cause Duck sucks, that's why. UNC sucks slightly less, so I guess that's OK.
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but I don't get rooting for college teams unless you went to college there.
I grew up in the Seattle area so early on (like in elementary school) I was definitely a fan of Husky football. I even planned to attend that school and was accepted but decided to go to school in Utah. I have a complicated relationship with both of the schools I attended in Utah--BYU and Utah--so I can't bring myself to really care about either. I'll cheer for both on occasion, and for Utah over BYU, but I really don't give a fuck. Having been away from Seattle for so long I also really don't care about Washington any longer. So eventually I became a fan of Oregon, and really follow Oregon football more closely than any other team in any sport, professional or otherwise. This is probably due to the fact that my parents grew up in Eugene and my grandfather taught there for years. My point is that I have a friend who gets mad when people root for teams from schools they didn't attend, but it's more complicated than that.
Growing up a Mets fan, the idea of there being a shared level of magnitude with the Yankees and Red Sox is kind of unthinkable.
[snip]
The Yankees fill my throat with a bileous rage wherein I'd throw up if I didn't think the acid would burn holes in my cheeks.
I'm a Mets fan, and have been since 1986 (so maybe I'm a bandwagoneer, but I was 7, so back off), but I have only been to New York twice and one game at Shea Stadium, so I don't have the right background for that level of rage. But also being a Mariners fan (fairweather, admittedly, since I left Seattle) I really do hate the Yankees. But I mostly just hate the organization. Red Sox fans over the past few years, at least in this area, are way more obnoxious.
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yeah, I mean, I do not follow any sports, so I guess it is silly to split hairs about what makes more sense to me or less sense to me.
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I don't follow college sports, but if asked, I say Wolfpack all the way. Pedro and I both have degrees from there, though, so, of course. Before I got my MA, though, I would tell people I pulled for my alma mater, a private women's college. They had a great women's field hockey team when I was there. Can't argue with that, I suppose.
I have always pulled for the Red Wings in hockey because they were the nearest team to where I grew up and my brother watched all their games. Now I also root for the 'Canes because in spite of myself I have been impressed with the way they play -- the may not always win, but they are classy and very sportsmanlike. Nothing like a good clean game, and the fans keep it classy too.
I was moved to tears at game 4 of the playoffs back in '03 (I think it was) when they were losing their last game of the series to New Jersey. We were in the stands for that game, and the 'Canes were down by 2 with minutes to go in the third. They were still playing hard, giving us our money's worth to the bitter end. With two minutes to go, the crowd started applauding, and as the clock hit the 90 second mark the whole audience was on its feet, not yelling or cheering or booig the Devils, just offering a standing ovation to our hometown team, as if to say, "Thanks for a great season, we'll see you next year."
When they lost to Detroit at the Joe in the final round of the Cup playoffs the following year, Pedro and I went to the airport to meet them off the plane. They spent an hour signing jerseys and posters for people after a late flight home, and the fans were shaking the players' hands and telling them we were proud of how far they'd gone this year even if they didn't bring home the cup. "We'll get it next time," was the general sentiment. (And they did.)
The players, too, are real parts of the community, even if they didn't grow up here. Hell, *nobody* who lives here grew up around here, so they're just more Yankee transplants like the rest of us. But they do a lot of charity events as a team, and some of them coach kids' league teams on their own time. A few even volunteer with the hockey team for special needs kids we're thinking of putting our son into next fall. And any time there's a local charity auction or fundraiser, the 'Canes are donating signed jerseys or sticks to help raise money for Cause XYZ.
So that's why I'm a 'Canes fan. They haven't been doing too hot lately, though, so I guess that releases me from accusations of bandwagon-jumping.
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fuck you, bono. you never made a mullet look as classy.