The Straight Dope

Go Back   Straight Dope Message Board > Main > The BBQ Pit

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 10-09-1999, 09:18 AM
ChiefScott ChiefScott is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: The Jersey Shore (USA)
Posts: 5,476
You know these assholes. The ones that showed up Monday morning following the Super Bowl wearing Broncos ballcaps and jerseys.
These fuckers don't have the time nor the inclination to follow a team, but once one makes the playoffs they become Joe Yankee/Met/Red Sox/Indian!

I proudly wear Philly Eagles paraphenalia. I have done it since I was a kid. Likewise I support the Phils and Flyers.

And these fuckers have the nerve to tell me my team sucks!

I know the Eagles blow! But they're still my fuckin' team! Since I support them during their bad seasons, I believe, I've earned the right to rejoice when they make the post season.

If anyone deserves a swift kick in the 'nads, it these assholes.
Reply With Quote
Advertisements  
  #2  
Old 10-09-1999, 04:16 PM
Revtim Revtim is online now
Guest
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
If a team is losing, then what are you a fan of? Their proximity to where you live? Obviously not of their playing ability.

If you were to start sucking at your job, do you expect your boss to give you raises, promotions, etc? Just because your cubicle is in the same city he lives in?

This is why I'm not a sports fan, bandwagon-type or otherwise. But the bandwagon-type fans at least are rewarding good performance.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 10-09-1999, 06:59 PM
Mullinator Mullinator is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
Amen ChiefScott. As a lifelong Cubs fan I have no love for people who are now Cheeseheads, Spurs fans, Cowboy backers, etc. It takes a real fan to stick with a loser (that may be the worst rallying cry of all time.)

------------------
I got a lot of energy ready to be wasted on somebody - Mookie Wilson
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 10-09-1999, 08:13 PM
The_Peyote_Coyote The_Peyote_Coyote is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
I agree with every word you said, ChiefScott. I've been a fan of the Colts and the 49ers since the days Johnny Unitas and John Brodie were their respective quarterbacks.
Revtime, loyalty is a virtue to a certain extent. I've stayed a fan of the Colts because I'm still grateful for the thrill of watching them win Super Bowl IV. Also, I live only 1 1/2 hours drive from Indianapolis, so geographic proximity does play some minor factor.
I think I liked the 49ers because of their cool uniforms. Also, in the 1980s, as they were starting to make it big, my best friend and I became real rooters because we liked Joe Montana. After he and Dwight Clark hooked up for The Catch that beat fuckin' Dallas, I was a fan for life -- no hope of shaking that loyalty.
To some degree it is easier to root for a winner, but backing a loser gives you a special thrill, especially when your team knocks off a good team. I can still remember my best friend and I dancing around when a 4-12 Colts team upset Washington, and I remember being a drunken madman -- yelling at the top of my lungs and pounding the floor -- when a young Indiana University team upset high-and-might, No. 1-ranked, coached by Dean Smith North Carolina in the 1984 NCAA college basketball tournament. So many people in Indiana was so giddy after that win, it was like the state was stoned.
I don't mind rooting for a loser, I guess; I even cheer for IU in football. The Hoosiers beat Northwestern 34-17 today as Levron Williams ran for a career-high 241 yards, and I was in Bloomington watching it.
Go Hoosiers!
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 10-09-1999, 10:41 PM
timmar68 timmar68 is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Say, Mullinator, you'll find that "cheeseheads" aren't ones who are fans only when the team does well. They have stuck with the Packers through thick and thin, through all those years when they didn't do so well. They are among the most loyal fans in the league. Oh, yeah, and they laugh a lot when they beat the Vikings.

------------------
MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 10-10-1999, 12:13 AM
Falcon Falcon is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: May 1999
Amen, Chief. I'm a Redskins fan. I was a fan when they went 14-2 and won the Super Bowl, and I was a fan last year when they lost their first 7 games.... (Hell, if they could have found a way to lose the bye week, they would have.)

And man, I remember when the NFC east was the toughest conference in football... *sigh*

Being a fan is not only being there when the team is winnning. Wish I could make more people in DC realize that....
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 10-10-1999, 12:17 AM
Drain Bead Drain Bead is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Bills fan here. Have been all my life. The only bandwagoning I've ever done is because I followed Randy Moss from Marshall (practically my entire family went to school there) to the Vikings, so now I like the Vikings, too. But I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been raised a Herd fan.

Bandwagon fans blow. The worst ones are the Cowboys and Raiders fans, most of whom wear the gear because it looks cool and not because they like the team all that well. I hope, anyway.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 10-10-1999, 12:39 AM
ChiefScott ChiefScott is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: The Jersey Shore (USA)
Posts: 5,476
Falcon -- The Eagles suck so badly they actually found a way to lose in the bye week. IIRC, they were shut out, averaged .3 yards a carry, had two interceptions returned for touchdowns, and their offensive line got the shit beat out of them by the Moonies in the airport. What's sad is Jeffrey Lurie still thinks a new stadium will bring the fans back.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 10-10-1999, 12:48 AM
Narile Narile is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
For the most part I don't follow sports, but I have a tendancy to root for Ohio teams. So yes, I am rooting for th Indians, and I hope they go all the way. I also root for the Browns, never mind they have trouble finding the playing field, much less the football. And now that Schott is no longer Reds owner, I'll start rooting for them...and I do call the Bungles that out of a sense of affection.

------------------
>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry....unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<

---The dragon observes
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 10-10-1999, 08:05 AM
pldennison pldennison is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Ever since I was in junior high and high school (roughly 82-87), I have been an Indians fan. My mother and I would go to the Stadium 20 minutes before game time on weeknights and get lower box seats by third base, in a facility with seating for 70,000 people. I sat through stinker season after stinker season, loyally wearing my Indians cap.

Now, Jacobs Field is full of people who were nowhere to be seen during those seasons. It's impossible to get tickets, and if you do, you pay through the nose. I hate those people. Eventually, the honeymoon will be over, and I'm sure those folks will all disappear. They don't know from being a fan.
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 10-10-1999, 10:55 AM
Guest
 
Not a sports fan, but:
GO VOLS, win or lose.

P.S. How 'bout them Lady Vols?
Now that's a team to be proud of!
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 10-10-1999, 03:21 PM
chief chief is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Chicago Bulls anyone?
now look what happened...

------------------
Chief's Domain - http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 10-10-1999, 06:26 PM
Satan Satan is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 5,768
My motto on this subject:

"If you do not stick with your team in the bad times, you have no reason to celebrate the good times."

After many years of bad Giants teams, we won the Superbowl in 1986. I was lucky to miss out on the years of putrid teams due to my age, but my dad was not.

At the end of the game, they showed a shot in the stands. A Giants fan had a sign, "Dad, out dreams have come true."

It got me all teary-eyed and it did my Dad as well. Heck, I'm misting up right now thinking about it...

Or maybe it's because we are so LOUSY now!

Oh well... There's still the Yankees...

------------------
Yer pal,
Satan
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 10-10-1999, 06:29 PM
Satan Satan is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 5,768
One more thought:

Anyone who is wearing a Cowboys jersey, a Bulls hat and a Yankees wrist-bands should be hung by their bandwagoneering testicles!
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 10-10-1999, 06:44 PM
ChiefScott ChiefScott is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: The Jersey Shore (USA)
Posts: 5,476
I kinda thought Satan'd be a New Jersey Devils and Duke fan...

What next... season tickets to the Anaheim Angels?
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Old 10-10-1999, 08:12 PM
Mullinator Mullinator is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
You are right MaryAnnQ. My mistake for lumping cheeseheads in there. That's a case of typing without fully thinking. How about we substitute Bulls "fans" for cheeseheads. That seems a little more along the bandwagon lines.

------------------
I got a lot of energy ready to be wasted on somebody - Mookie Wilson
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 10-10-1999, 10:49 PM
timmar68 timmar68 is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
It's a deal!

------------------
MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 10-11-1999, 02:14 AM
Satan Satan is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 5,768
pldennison:

Sure there are bandwagon Indians fans, but the main reason is the new stadium. Baltimore and Seattle are not winning a ton of games lately, but the new buildings attract marginal fans as much (if not more) than simple winning does.
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 10-11-1999, 08:22 AM
UncleBeer UncleBeer is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: May 1999
New Orleans Saints, 'nuf said.

------------------
"The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind." - Humphrey Bogart
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 10-11-1999, 08:31 AM
PatrickM PatrickM is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
Satan: IMHO, Jacobs Field is 5 years old now so the newness and novelty has worn off. The Indians success (excepting the last two nights' playoff losses to Boston) has been the main reason for the continued big crowds. As soon as the Tribe starts losing the sellout crowds will stop coming just like the Toronto fans stopped selling out Skydome after the Blue Jays stopped winning.
Reply With Quote
  #21  
Old 10-11-1999, 11:07 AM
Guest
 
I strongly disagree--"The Bandwagon" is a delightful film! Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan; and that great "Triplets" number! Who could take offense at that?
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 10-11-1999, 03:18 PM
Enright3 Enright3 is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 5,093
Satan sez...
Quote:
Anyone who is wearing a Cowboys jersey, a Bulls hat and a Yankees wrist-bands should be hung by their bandwagoneering testicles!
Ahh yes, being a life long Cowboys fan is not always easy. Please don't make the assumption that all of the Cowboys jersey wearin' mo-fo's out there are bandwagoneering fools. I grew up in Oklahoma and TX and have always been a fan of the Cowboys, Rangers, Stars (but not the Mavericks - they suck, then again, I don't like basketball)

Oh, and Satan, one more thing... put some underwear on! You're going to catch cold!

Enright3
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 10-11-1999, 03:32 PM
Missy2U Missy2U is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
An idiot friend of my SO was over this weekend, on Sunday. He wanted to watch Green Bay on ESPN last night because he's "a huge fan".

This MORON had NO IDEA who Holmgren was, but he's a BIG FAN?

Yes, I made him leave. Grrrrrr.....
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 10-11-1999, 04:47 PM
Drain Bead Drain Bead is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
*chuckle*

Green Bay fans generally hate me, probably because I always make fun of Brett Favre and his Vicodin addiction. Terrible, I know. But Favre is just such a mo-ron...what was up with that weepy press conference after their first game this season? "Waaaaah, we won."

And Satan? Need I remind you that your precious Giants have won another Super Bowl since 1986? At least you've HAD that pleasure...
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 10-11-1999, 04:56 PM
Mojo Mojo is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: May 1999
>>>I grew up in Oklahoma and TX and have always been a fan of the Cowboys, Rangers, Stars

You predicted their move from Minnesota?
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 10-11-1999, 05:31 PM
Satan Satan is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 5,768
Missy2U:

You are aware Holmgren is in Seattle now, right?
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 10-11-1999, 05:35 PM
Satan Satan is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 5,768
Enright3:

I have no problem with you. For you are not supporting the other two teams I mentioned there. Please note the conjunction "and" that was used in that statement...

I hope your team doesn't kill us too bad in front of a national television audience yet again next week! *sob*
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 10-11-1999, 05:37 PM
Satan Satan is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 5,768
Oh, but we KICKED YOUR RANGERS ASS!

Sorry... Needed to retain a shade of my dignity here...
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 10-11-1999, 06:48 PM
Rysdad Rysdad is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
Being a lifelong Vikings fan, I well understand heartbreak.

This year, though, I joined a fantasy football league. Ambivalence is seeing your defense sack Randall Cunningham three times.
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 10-11-1999, 08:54 PM
LongHrn99 LongHrn99 is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Jul 1999
Lifelong Astros fan. Was an Oilers fan until that rat-bastard Adams had to move the team to Tennesee (granted it IS the most beautiful area in America). Always loved both, even when they lost (or should I say, even when the WON?). I hated all those people who were all over the Oilers until they blew the infamous lead. Who was wearing his Oilers shirt shortly thereafter? Me. Not anyone else I knew. Mock me all you want, but there was just something about both teams. Never pulled for the popular college teams when I was a kid, either. I knew people wearing Miami, FSU, Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame, etc hats all the time, but I could never get myself on the bandwagon.

------------------
"There are many sweeping generalizations that are always true" -Space Ghost
Reply With Quote
  #31  
Old 10-12-1999, 12:10 AM
Mr Thin Skin Mr Thin Skin is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
You people got it all wrong.

You're not supposed to root for a team, you're supposed to root against a team. It's way better that way. For me, if the Dolphins win, they got lucky. If they lose, the truth is out! I actually root against all Florida teams. I lived there long enough to dislike them all. Just think, the annual Florida/Florida State game is pure pleasure for me.

-----------------------------------------
"Yes, she was wrong once, but, you sir, are always wrong"


-My Mother-in-Law
Reply With Quote
  #32  
Old 10-12-1999, 08:52 AM
Missy2U Missy2U is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
Yes, Satan, I am.
Reply With Quote
  #33  
Old 10-12-1999, 10:36 AM
Polycarp Polycarp is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: A better place to be
Posts: 26,690
I'd post that I agree with Chief, but I'm afraid he might think that I was jumping on the....
Reply With Quote
  #34  
Old 10-12-1999, 10:37 AM
Enright3 Enright3 is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 5,093
Mojo sez...
Quote:
You predicted their move from Minnesota?
Uh... no, I didn't. Then again I don't think I ever said I was a NORTH STARS fan. The North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993. So, YES, I've ALWAYS been a STARS fan.

Hey! Guess What? I DIDN'T predict the Texas Rangers' move here from Washington (Senators) in 1972 either! I guess according to you, I'm a bandwagoner because I didn't pledge allegiance at the teams inception. Puh-leeze.

Enright3
Reply With Quote
  #35  
Old 10-12-1999, 10:39 AM
Enright3 Enright3 is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 5,093
Oh, and by the way, I'm sure everybody knows that losing to the Yankees in 3 was part of our master plan.

Wait 'til next year damnit!!!

go sooners

Enright3
Reply With Quote
  #36  
Old 10-12-1999, 10:53 AM
manhattan manhattan is offline
Charter Member
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Posts: 9,127
Don’t worry about it. New Yorkers are used to seeing the Rangers lose.

Waiting for 2048...


------------------
Livin' on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
Reply With Quote
  #37  
Old 10-12-1999, 03:33 PM
SoxFan59 SoxFan59 is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Amen ChiefScott. As a lifelong Cubs fan I have no love for people who are now Cheeseheads, Spurs fans, Cowboy backers, etc. It takes a real fan to stick with a loser (that may be the worst rallying cry of all time.)>>>> Mullinator

But what if you care about whether your team wins? I mean, as a "lifelong Cubs fan," son't you wish and hope that they put it together and the team wins the pennant, and the World Series?

Then is there some twisted logic in being a "real fan" and "sticking with a loser?" I mean, Phil points out the Indians are packing them in, game after game after game, but -- they are WINNING! The Cubs pack the fans in game after game after game, and have finished above .500 3 times since 1973, and a grand total of 12 times altogether in the last 60 years. What impetus do the owners of the Cubs have in putting a winning team on the field, when their "loyal" fans continue to pack the ballpark, and every 6 year old kid in the Chicago area has a Cubs cap on? "Loyalty?" If the businesses I work with supplied me with that kind of service, do I continue to frequent them?

As long as Cubs fans stay as "loyal" as they apparently are, there will never be a pennant on the north side of Chicago, because the bean counters at the Tribune are saying "If it ain't broke, why fix it?" At least in Cleveland, the ownership got sick of it and made the necessary changes. If only we could make such changes on the south side of Chicago.

------------------
SoxFan59
"Its fiction, but all the facts are true!"
Reply With Quote
  #38  
Old 10-12-1999, 04:58 PM
Frankie Frankie is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
I'd like to thank the Peytote Cowboy for proving why I HATE the niners. You have really stuck with them through the tough years. There was that one year that they almost missed the playoffs in there!

Rat Shit Bastard...you are the reason I can never see anybody but the fucking niners or the shit ass broncos! Fuck off and die all of you. I want to watch my Lions baby!
Reply With Quote
  #39  
Old 10-12-1999, 05:04 PM
Sake Samurai Sake Samurai is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
Why should I be a loyal fan when the players aren't? Or the coachs? Or the sponsers?

We've totally lost the Greek ideal of sports competition. Maybe that's just as well, I sure as hell wouldn't watch a single NFL game if they played the greek way.
Reply With Quote
  #40  
Old 10-13-1999, 05:47 AM
ChiefScott ChiefScott is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: The Jersey Shore (USA)
Posts: 5,476
Sake Sam --
We aren't asking you to be a loyal fan. Do as you wish. We are just supporting our assertion that if you show up to work the day after the World Series ends wearing the winning team's ball cap, bragging about how great that team is you should be prepared to have your coffee spit in, car scratched, ridicule heaped upon you and to suffer a ritualistic stoning in the parking lot on your smoke break.
Reply With Quote
  #41  
Old 10-13-1999, 08:43 AM
manhattan manhattan is offline
Charter Member
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Posts: 9,127
Quote:
a ritualistic stoning in the parking lot on your smoke break
OT, I know, but remember when this was redundant? Ah, high school.

------------------
Livin' on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
Reply With Quote
  #42  
Old 10-13-1999, 10:55 AM
dramatoig dramatoig is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
I know this is a little late, but I take serious offense to Satan's comment regarding Bulls hats. I was a Bulls fan back B.M.J. (i.e. I remember when Jawann Oldham was my favorite Bull--yeesh), and I was able to reap the reward during the M.J. years. Not to mention that, considering the current Bulls team, wearing my Bulls hat is not exactly jumping on the bandwagon of a popular team...

SoxFan--while I share your enthusiasm (why do I always think of DeNiro playing another famous Sox fan when I say that word... )for the Sox, I think that the company analogy is a bad one for most fans, particularly avid ones. I think that more would regard their favorite team almost as a member of the family. Now, while I might regard my (fictional) Uncle Fred as a supreme idiot, I don't kick him out of the family after a few bad years...or even 80 or so. (And I might unfortunately point out that the Cubs have seen more postseason play than our favorite team in the last fifteen years...sigh...)

------------------
"You must not mind me madam; I say strange things, but I mean no harm."
--Samuel Johnson
Reply With Quote
  #43  
Old 10-13-1999, 11:13 AM
Sake Samurai Sake Samurai is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
I gotcha, Chief! I can relate - it's the same thing with music and bands. I was a huge Metallica fan in the early and mid 80's when only hardcore metal-heads were into them (like Slayer fans).

You used to be shunned for sporting a "Metal Up Your Ass" shirt, but then they won "best HM band" and "best HM album of the year" and suddenly I saw black Metallica T's adorning 8 year olds, bankers, and even grandma jumped on the bandwagon with a classic "Harvester of Sorrow" black tee.

I wanted to stone her then and there, let me tell you.
Reply With Quote
  #44  
Old 10-13-1999, 11:34 AM
Mullinator Mullinator is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
Soxfan59, there is a point to owner's accepting failure as long as they are packing fans in at Wrigley. But there is something more fun about rooting for a team in spite of recent history. It makes the winning seasons seem all the better. Sure, I want them to win every year, but I also want to root for a team that doesn't buy a title one year, dismantle the next, sit idle for a while, build a new stadium for revenue, threaten to relocate, etc. The Cubs provide year to year continuity (usually sub .500, but it continuity) but they also bring in lifelong fans because a person can identify players, have favorites and know they will stay around for a while, and it is the best dang ballpark in the world. The Red Sox may win a series first, but at least we had the good sense to get rid of Buckner when we did.

------------------
I got a lot of energy ready to be wasted on somebody - Mookie Wilson
Reply With Quote
  #45  
Old 10-13-1999, 01:15 PM
ChiefScott ChiefScott is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: The Jersey Shore (USA)
Posts: 5,476
Sez manhatten quoting me:

"'a ritualistic stoning in the parking lot on your smoke break.'

OT, I know, but remember when this was redundant? Ah, high school."

Don'tja just hate it when you're pithy, clever and funny and don't realize it until someone points it out?
A doff of the cover to manhatten.
Reply With Quote
  #46  
Old 10-13-1999, 01:20 PM
tracer tracer is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: May 1999
Location: Silicon Valley, Cal., USA
Posts: 15,239
Heck, people like a winner. Everyone tends to side with the winners. That little instinct is one of the reasons our species has become so prosperous -- if the group we're "with" becomes a bunch of total losers, we can jump on a new bandwagon. There is NO rational reason to stay on board a sinking ship.

Loyalty to a team through thick and through thin is nothing more than displaced loyalty to one's family. If you help your family out, you're helping out people with copies of your genes, which benefits your genome. Shrewd -- and devious -- leaders know how to play up that family loyalty instinct into one that protects their group, even though their group carries none of your genome.

Oh, and GO DODGERS!

------------------
Quick-N-Dirty Aviation: Trading altitude for airspeed since 1992.
Reply With Quote
  #47  
Old 10-13-1999, 03:29 PM
SoxFan59 SoxFan59 is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Soxfan59, there is a point to owner's accepting failure as long as they are packing fans in at Wrigley. But there is something more fun about rooting for a team in spite of recent history.>>>Mullinator

"Recent" history? To support an argument I put forth in another thread regarding how the Cubs and the Red Sox are somehow similar, the facts are these:

Since 1945, the last time the Cubs were in the World Series, the Cubs have finished over .500 in only 14 of 55 baseball seasons. I only did an overview of a few other teams, but its hard to imagine a greater record of futility for a single team over that time period. The laws of averages would indicate that if you don't try, you should win a little more often. For example, if you compare the Cubs against other teams since 1969, we find that both the Cubs and the Padres have both had 9 winning seasons vs 22 years in which they lost more games than they won. Yet, the Pads have been to the Series twice in that time period.

So when does being a Cubs fan get to be "fun?" (That is, with anything having to do with the game on the field, not the other distractions the Cubs hold forth as being part of "Cubs tradition.") A professor I had in law school explained that he grew up a Cubs fan, but after a while, if you keep hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, you stop, because it hurts so much. An apt analogy, I think. Wrigley Field, packed with Cubs fans, all with hammers protruding from thier brains.

------------------
SoxFan59
"Its fiction, but all the facts are true!"
Reply With Quote
  #48  
Old 10-13-1999, 04:04 PM
Mr Thin Skin Mr Thin Skin is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Why despise them?

They buy that stuff (merchandise), don't they?

The owner of you're beloved (fill in the the name of the team that you live vicariously through) is in it for the money, no?

They (the bandwagoneers) may help keep your team in town.

I know you local franchise probably make a ton of money in other ways, but when a new stadium is required, the voters may have a say in it (e.g., Houston: then and now). Don't think of them as bandwagoneers, think of them as "the lobbied."


(the above remarks don't really apply to Green Bay)
Reply With Quote
  #49  
Old 10-13-1999, 09:39 PM
The_Peyote_Coyote The_Peyote_Coyote is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Dear Frankie:
Obviousily, you cannot read the English language. I said I have liked the 49ers since the days of John Brodie (I assume a football fan like yourself knows who he is). Believe me, there were a few lean years in there, including the season they blew a 20+ point lead and lost 30-28 to Dallas. Talk about the ignominy.
But thank you for your foul-mouthed and gratuitously rude post. It proves my theroem that only ignoramuses, losers and jerks root for NFC Central teams.
GO COLTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO NINERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO INDIANA UNIVERSITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And if y’all don’t like it, you know what part of my anatomy you can kiss.
Reply With Quote
  #50  
Old 10-14-1999, 06:37 AM
ChiefScott ChiefScott is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: The Jersey Shore (USA)
Posts: 5,476
Per Peyote Coyote's last post, and back to my original post.

How can you root for two favorite NFL teams? If they played each other who'd you root for? That would be your team -- no one else.

I understand all the benefits bandwagoneers provide for teams. I just want to reassert that those that follow and root for their teams through lean years are better fans. Those who jump on and fork over the bucks can be appreciated for the cash boost they give their teams and the league as a whole, but they still deserve a swift kick in the nuts. And I hate 'em.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:19 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

Send questions for Cecil Adams to: cecil@chicagoreader.com

Send comments about this website to: webmaster@straightdope.com

Terms of Use / Privacy Policy

Advertise on the Straight Dope!
(Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.)

Publishers - interested in subscribing to the Straight Dope?
Write to: sdsubscriptions@chicagoreader.com.

Copyright © 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC.