A philosophy of fandom

This is food for thought, especially in a season like this one.

I’ve already admitted that I’m one of those fickle fans who follows the home team wherever he lives. My credentials are somewhat tarnished, but I am a fan of baseball no matter who’s on the radio. And, I hate to admit it, the Diamondbacks have grown on me. I’ve lived near Phoenix for a dozen years and it’s getting difficult to imagine cheering for another team.

This has been a tough season to follow the D-Backs. They’re an odd mix of talent and terrible play. It’s easy to see why fans are disappointed and I can’t fault people who’ve lost their interest. Personally, I’ve gone from a fan who attends half a dozen games every year and avidly follows the rest on radio and TV to one who doesn’t attend games at all and puts the game on in the background while I work at something else. I’m still rooting for the team, and I still check the game every couple minutes (especially when Dan Haren is pitching or Justin Upton’s up to bat). I’m not sure if that makes me a fair-weather fan or one with a working defense mechanism against lousy baseball. I’m voting for the latter.

I boo’d lustily when they allowed a steal home yesterday. It was bad play piled on bad play piled on bad play. If it makes me a bad fan, then so what.

I love sports, but sometimes the interactions with other fans is the worst part of it all. I can deal with the losing (though the terrible play frustrates me more and more), I can deal with not being in contention for stretches of time because I can logically accept that. I just like the game.

Um, I lost my train of thought.

I have to say being among the fans at Dbacks games can be rather odd. In that I’d say only about 1/3 of those in attendance are diehards, or at least loud, while the rest consists of either fans of the opposing team or just very casual fans their with family. It’s the kind of environment where your cheers seem almost alone. BOB is indeed a far cry from the frenzied atmosphere of Wrigley Field or Fenway Park where fandom is at its most impassioned.

I guess that’s just what I’d like to see more of at Dbacks games or in any sporting venue in Phoenix. I remember going to Game 5 of the Spurs v Suns series in 2007, I remember the unbridled hate every person in that building had toward the Spurs. There was a bomb squad and extra cops patrolling the stands for a reason. Every time a Spur touched the ball the whole of America West Arena would erupt in boos and every time a Sun scored the very ground would shake from the cheers. And when we finally lost it was as if the world died and you could hear a pin drop among those tens of thousands.

It was much the same I’m sure in the 2001 World Series. The whole city came out to support our team and showed up in large numbers. Yet when the way of success subsides so do much of the fans here.

Of course I’d be foolish to ever think that kind of passion could ever be maintained in any sporting event for a long period of time, but we can get better.

With that in mind I really cant put a finger on why the fan base here seems to come and go with the fortunes of the team. You cant just say the people of Phoenix are “bad fans” that would ignore the why. I’ve come to believe that the reason lies with most of our population originating from elsewhere. In that because their ties to Phoenix arent strong they may follow a team here and wish them well, but wont invest in them and actively gun for them until they actually do well. So maybe that general feeling holds down many others who want to be fans but feel intimidated when they dont see the support. In the end who knows for sure.

I know I’ve rambled on far too long, but I just wanted to put in my two cents.

to denigrate my approach to fandom, so to hell with all this ;-)

I’m primarily a geographic fan. I root for teams where I live, but it’s not an instantaneous or conscious decision. It naturally evolves, as I learn more about, and identify with, local teams and their players. I dont immediately assign or seek out any artificial allegiance to particular ownership groups or “organizations”. I root for the team (ie ballplayers) representing my current city in the vast world out there, as a point of pride. I guess I feel like they represent me in some indirect way, and that’s where my loyalty typically lies.

this is where it [fandom] becomes almost closer to a religion, because we have to take it almost entirely on faith that those who are running things have ‘our’ best interests at heart.

This is where we part ways, I think. One need not pledge fealty to some owner’s vision or five year plan in order to be a fan of the team representing one’s city. I grew up a MFY fan in the early seventies, when Steinbrenner took over, and before he turned things around. He was in trouble with the law and moved the venerable Yanks to Shea for goodness sake. He was neither well liked nor respected – but we were Yankee fans because we lived in (or near) New York and that’s what you did. I just never saw a contradiction between rooting for your home team while reserving the right to critcize – even loathe – “those who are running things”.

That seems perfectly natural to me, like supporting my country while being a discerning critic of its leaders.

One more thing: Boooooooooooooooooooo!

Im homegrown phoenix boy since 1980, my parents have been here since the mid ’70s and Ive experienced the fair-weather nature of our fans for years – and i have to say my father was the one who got me into every sport in the Valley, but while he never rooted for another team he was sure quick to disregard them or after a loss not care.

Colangelo and Co have run phx area sports almost exclusively for better or worse since the expansion Suns in the 60s until just recently. I have many personal problems with business dealings and shady taxpayer approval measures to fund our diamondback ballpark; however, he was a master marketer and a he new how to field a team that would endear fans and have a chance to win. If a Colangelo team didnt win, the fans knew it was bc of injury/bad luck/etc, no one ever thought it was because of incompetent management.

the cardinals have been the thorn in the city for years, a poster child for how to badly run a franchise and how to piss every fan off over a 15 year period. The contrast between how the colangelo’s ran a franchise and how the bidwell’s ran a franchise was night and day – one was perceived to be building a team in the interest of fans while the other was perceived to be building a team in the interest of his bottom line. I knew many family/friends who would fly to phx to see cardinal games – because its was one of the few stadiums in the country that wasnt sold out every week. i know we hear about green bays 30 year wait on season tickets, but in fact more than half the league has a year or two waiting list to get good tickets (this may have changed since the economy).

that being said, to me no matter how bad our teams play or look i will support them if the perception to me is that the franchise is trying!!!! This is what cost the cardinals so many of the football fans in the valley and why they hold there allegiance to other cities and other franchises. for years, they made bonehead moves over and over again and the only analysis league wide is that they are being cheap, and dont care.

my comp to the cardinals is because being a diehard fan can only work if the team is perceived to be trying to get better every year. the red sox and cubs fans who have languished for years in mediocrity, can also take note that during those stretches they’ve had MVPs and CY Youngs won on there respective teams and they did make the playoffs many times – on top of that both ball parks offer a unique fan experience. sun devil stadium offered nothing and bust player after bust player and 1 playoff appearance and letting every decent player walk is not going to make fans.

to bring it back to the dbacks, the management has changed hands now twice since the colangelo group left and just recently before spring training, one of our owners skipped ship to a division rival in san diego, big questions on that one. so, the identity of our franchise is up in the air – will they make a team in the interest of winning or the interest of the bottom line, etc, etc. i believe this is whats cause all the uproar about the dbacks, because we dont have a track record with these owners to know what they will do. the brandon webb situation will go a long way to determining what kind of product this team wants to put on the field.

i have a life long alliegance to the dbacks as i do to such a thing as Miller Lite, however, if either one showed over and over again that they had no interest in making a good product for the fans/consumers then WHY support them till they get there act together.