What’s a fan?
I know… I think and write a lot about what it means to be a sports fan. Why be a Royals fan? Why keep rooting for any team? Why not just watch a sport and enjoy it all? I could do this all day.
Anyway, I didn’t wake up this morning with the intention of writing about any of that. But then I read an anonymous comment on the brilliant blog of Rany Jazayerli, and I’m just…dumbstruck. I’ll ignore all the grammar for now, and just give you this nugget in all its glory:
OMG — too much obsessed about the Royals Doc. Root for the Rays, who are well past the Royals in terms of even worse stadium and small market baseball but who are much, more exciting that writing pages about mediocre players. I would love to have a fan of your obsessiveness talking Raysball.
It’s a uniform doc. It’s a uniform. ROOT for a concept. If KC was doing well I would root for them because they represent a need of winning that makes baseball a truly nation-wide league in place of a lots of big market, cable-network associated teams usually winning.
AHHHHHH, DUMB OVERLOAD! Let’s break this down, bit by bit (Fire Joe Morgan style). Anonymous’ stuff is in bold, my insanity is not.
OMG — too much obsessed about the Royals Doc.
Bah. If it’s OK for Fan A to be obsessed with one team, it should be OK for Fan B to be obsessed with another. That’s why we have different teams and not one, big, intrasquad scrimmage every day, right? Whatever.
Root for the Rays,
Don’t tell Rany what to do! He’s a grown man who can make his own rooting choices, thankyouverymuch.
who are well past the Royals in terms of even worse stadium and small market baseball but who are much, more exciting that writing pages about mediocre players.
True, the Rays are exciting this year. But Rany is a Royals fan; says so right in his blog’s profile. Yes, the Rays play in a stupid dome. Yes, they are a small market. Yes, Rany writes a LOT about mediocre players (the Royals). But why did “anonymous” even bother with the post in the first place? Rany’s writing is awesome, but it’s pretty numbers-heavy (he’s among the founding fathers of Baseball Prospectus, so…yeah. Numbers.) so it might scare away people who don’t care THAT much about the Royals. Not our brave little Anonymous. He soldiered right on through all those pages.
I would love to have a fan of your obsessiveness talking Raysball.
It’s hardly Rany’s fault that, inexplicably, nobody cares about the Rays, who are an exciting team about to play October baseball for the first time. If people don’t care yet, they might never care.
It’s a uniform doc. It’s a uniform.
I don’t like the condescending use of “doc” at all. Yes, Jazayerli is a doctor. But to repeatedly sling “doc” at him like that is just kind of jerk-esque. That’s beside the point completely though. It is NOT just a uniform. It’s a city, a tradition, old greats and new prospects. It’s developing irrational fan-love for little-known players and following them in good times and in bad. It’s being able to say “I suffered through those awful seasons” while you brush confetti out of your hair after you finally get to attend your team’s World Series parade.
ROOT for a concept. If KC was doing well I would root for them because they represent a need of winning that makes baseball a truly nation-wide league in place of a lots of big market, cable-network associated teams usually winning.
Go ahead and call it a concept if it makes you feel smarter, anonymous friend, but what you’ve described just now is called a BANDWAGON. And Royals fans, or any kind of respectable fans, only ever go near bandwagons to slash the tires.
You go ahead and root for your beloved concept; I (and Rany, and like 16 other people) will continue to root for, and write about, our TEAM.