How did you come to like the sports teams that you like? (long)

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’ve lived all over the country.

NFL: I don’t tend to really have a favorite team. My local bar gets the direct tv satellite package and I tend to have them put on some of the West Coast teams. I’d say the Arizona Cardinals and SF 49ers are my two favorites.

MLB: The Oakland A’s in the AL and the LA Dodgers in the NL. I’ve been to a few Dodger games and really loved their stadium. I loved the A’s in the 1970s.

NCAA: I went to Florida State, so that’s my favorite. I’ll watch and cheer for Ohio State as I live here.

NBA: Don’t watch, don’t care.

NHL: Columbus Blue Jackets although I think they should be contracted. I doubt I’ll miss the season this year if they don’t settle.

MLS: Columbus Crew.

Australian Football: The Kangaroos and Hawthorne. I love watching Aussie football. One of the few good things Murdoch has done with his Fox empire.

Premier Football: Manchester United. Probably just because they’re the team that is shown most frequently in the US.

22

MLB: Angels. Grew up just a few minutes from the stadium, so my dad used to take me to games all the time. My earliest memory is sitting in the upper decks of the stadium chanting “Wall-y! Wall-y!” with the rest of the crowd back in '86. It should be noted that my dad is not an Angels fan - he’s a Phillies fan, having grown up in Philadelphia.

NBA: Lakers. Again, my dad took me to Lakers games growing up, plus they were everywhere so you had to cheer for them if you grew up in southern California at the time.

NFL: Used to be the Rams. When they moved to St. Louis, I stopped caring a lot about the NFL, although I do have a soft spot for the Eagles. Now I watch the games and mostly just cheer for my fantasy guys.

NHL: Kings, Ducks, Flyers. Why so many? Well, I’m not really a hockey fan at all. But growing up, my dad would take me to a few Kings games so I cheered for them, but I didn’t follow the team at all. Then the Ducks came to town and I used to go to their games because a girl I was dating and bunch of my friends were big hockey fans so I got dragged in. Still didn’t follow the team at all, except an occasional check on the standings. The Flyers were my dad’s team and he cheered for them more than any of the other Philadelphia teams so it rubbed off. Still don’t follow them, but I cheer for them when they’re on TV.

23

I was born and raised in the East Bay near San Francisco so mine are all hometown teams.

MLB - Oakland A’s

NFL - SF 49’ers

NBA - Sacramento Kings

I’m not sure why it the A’s, Niners, and Kings as opposed to the Giants, Raiders, and Warriors. My teams were all pretty miserable in the late '70s when my sports conciousness came of age. Each of them has had success since then but they have each managed to break my heart upon occasion (Game 1 of the '88 World Series, Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, this year in the NFL).

As far as college goes, I follow the Fresno State football team. I did my undergrad there and I really like what Coach Hill has done with the team, both on and off the field. However, their basketball team can blow me. In the Tournament, I go for any underdog and whoever plays Duke.

24

Well, I was born and raised in St. Louis. As a result, my first few answers are fairly predictable:

**MLB: ** Definitely the Cardinals. I’ve posted several pro-Cards rants in the BBQ Pit here, and while I’m afraid to hold my breath (especially considering the dismal play against the ASTROS, for Og’s sake) I feel like this could be the year.

NHL: St. Lou Blues. They’ve never failed to disappoint me in some way, and the last season was no exception. Oh, and every night before I go to bed, I say a little prayer hoping something awful will happen to Mike Keenan. I think most good Americans do, though. :dubious:

NBA: Strangely enough, the Phoenix Suns, and not because I now live here. St. Louis hasn’t had an NBA franchise in quite some time. I became a big Suns fan because of Charles Barkley, who I’ve always respected, and who was kind enough to send me a Christmas card a few years back. Nice fella.

NFL: When I was old enough to really appreciate football, the Cardinals were long since migrated to Arizona. So, I never had a favorite football team. I followed the Falcons for awhile (cool uniforms, somewhat hapless) and then finally adopted the Rams when they moved to St. Louis. I guess I’m a by-proxy Rams fan, but I don’t have the lifelong love for them like I do the baseball Cardinals. They’re more like a kid I adopted when he was 15. :slight_smile:

I’d rather eat ground glass than back the Arizona Cardinals, and Bill Bidwell can kiss my ass. I love watching them lose, and now I’m close enough to their stadium to actually watch it live. :wally

25

**MLB: ** Born and raised in Southern California, so the Dodgers are bred into the bone. I acquired the Red Sox when I got married to a native Bostonian. The Cubs were a perverse acquisition about 20 years ago, just because. I think Steve Goodman’s “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request” might have had something to do with it. :smiley:

**NHL: ** I hate hockey with the white-hot heat of a thousand suns, so…pass.

NBA: Lakers all the way. See notes for MLB.

NFL: I was a Rams fan when they were in L.A. Since they moved, I haven’t been sussed to watch a single pro football game…not even the SuperBowl.

26

Baseball – NY Mets. I grew up in the NYC area in the wrong time; when I was becoming old enough to be aware of baseball, there was only one game in town (if they hadn’t moved to LA, I’d probably be a Dodger fan). So I rooted for the Yankees (the deep dark secret of my life). I do remember hearing the founding of the Mets on the radio, but I got it garbled, and reported, “The Yankees are going to move to the National League and change their name to the Gnats.” I didn’t pay much attention to the Mets until 1965. After the '64 World Series, I decided that, if I was going to watch a team that lost world series, I’d root for one that wasn’t going to get in one (also my brother and their friends were Mets fans). I switched in 1965, and became passionate about them. After '69, there was no way I’d ever switch. Though I do like the Red Sox as a secondary team because I spent the summer of '68 in the Boston area (and rooted from them in '67 – Carl Yastrzemski was born a short distance as the crow flies from my home town).

Football – The AFL in general to begin with, but I wasn’t a big fan until about '67, where I stuck with the Jets since the played in the same stadium as the Mets. Saw every game of the '68 season. :slight_smile: But it’s been pretty unexciting since then. :frowning:

Hockey – Rangers. I got used to watching them in the mid-60s. They weren’t all that good (but improving), but they were on Channel 9 every Saturday night and I liked the action. I’m a very casual fan, though.

Basketball – No strong team; I don’t like the sport. I liked the Nets with Julius Erving and Billy Pautz in the ABA, but once the league folded and the team ended up in New Jersey, I didn’t care. I’ll put myself down as a Knicks fan, but I never watch them or pay any real attention to the NBA.

NCAA – nothing. I’ll follow Siena in basketball because I work there, but otherwise March Madness does nothing for me. It’s basketball, after all, and I find the entire sport dull and uninteresting.

NASCAR – You’re kidding me. Even duller than basketball.

27

Blasphemer! You do realize that the Jets are winning it all this year, don’t you? The Patriots can’t stop the run, the Jets owned this same Colts team in the playoffs two years ago, and nobody else stands a chance in the AFC.

As the dopers in the He Hate Me Keeper League can attest, I am a hardcore New York Sports fanboy. I only marginally care about sports other than the NFL.

NHL A good buddy of mine is a harcore hockey fan, and it’s easy to try to get into it when you have someone to explain and discuss stuff with. I have been valiantly trying to be a Rangers fan for about 6 years now, but it’s like pulling teeth.

NBA I truly hated basketball until we started playing NBA Live last year, and now I have a basic grasp of the game. By definition, I root for the hapless Knicks.

MLB Fuck the Yankees, although I’m softening on them now that they changed their official nickname to “Pedro’s Daddy”. That’s priceless. But I’m a Mets fan in those rare minutes when I give a crap about baseball. Back in 2000, one of the waitstaff at the bar where I was a regular was a hardcore Mets fan, and we had countless baseball conversations, so I’ve identified as a Mets fan since then. The World Series appearance didn’t hurt.

Who here is starting to notice a pattern? How many shitty teams can one friggin’ town have, anyway? Oh well, no matter, on to the One True Sport.

NFL Ah, the most perfect sport ever conceived of by man.

Every single member of my family is and has always been into football, so growing up outside of Chicago, they were of course Bears fans. What’s not to love about Sweetness? I was a bandwagon contrarian, identifying as a Steelers fan. But the family moved to New York in the early 80s, and I lost interest in all sports for a long time. (Missed a Giants Superbowl and Mets world series. Doh!)

Anyway, I started truly getting into football during the playoffs at the end of the '89 season, and started actively following the G-Men the next year. Oh what a year to become a Giants fan! Big Blue started 10-0 and was on a direct collision course with San Fran, who beat us in the regular season. Then Simms went down, and we had to rally around Hos. And rally the Giants did. After Leonard Marshall broke Joe Montana (“I hurt all over!”), Lawrence Taylor and the rest of the Jints played the greatest Superbowl ever played against Buffalo.

That season marked the beginning of my fanatical devotion to all things Parcells. I was a fan of Parcells’ Patriots (I am currently wearing a Patriots hat I got when Parcells took over the team) and loved that he made it to the show.

I always hated the Jets, but then Parcells took over, and I’ve been a huge Jets fan since the day that was announced. I even returned to being a Patriots fan when Bellichick (sp?) took over, being the Parcells guy he was.

Sadly, I’ve actually been rooting pretty hard for the Cowboys the last two seasons, even more so now with Testeverde at the helm and Keyshaun back in the fold. Not to forget Ritchie Anderson, of course.

So, in order of my allegiance, I’d rate my favorite NFL teams as The New York Football Giants first and forever, Gang Green number two, (and no, you ignorant Sheagles fans, you are not Gang Green), The Pitiful Pats as number three, and a special nod to Dallas until Parcells leaves them at the end of this season. (My guess on when he’s leaving.)

28

Oops, apparently I misspelled Connecticut. :smack:

29

Baseball
I grew up in Boston, so I started off as a die-hard Red Sox fan. The strike of '94 left me pretty disillusioned, though, and my love of MLB faded. The next year I left for Japan, which made it easy to forget about the Sox. At first, I was a fan of the Chuunichi Dragons of Nagoya because hey, how can you not like a team called the Dragons? Well, I found out how: their coach (Senichi Hoshino) was a dick. Anyone remember Mike DiMuro, the first American umpire to work in Japan? He left in disgust after one game where he was assaulted by a coach and three assistants, after which the league did nothing. That was Hoshino throwing the punches. He behaves the same way with the Japanese umps, having hospitalized a couple of them for daring to make calls against him (the most he’s ever been punished is a 3-game suspension). Anyway, I didn’t like the Giants (a bunch of prima donnas, and coach Nagashima’s an incompetent egomaniac) or the Tigers, so I settled in with the Yokohama Baystars. They were neutral, reputation-wise, and I had a connection with them in that the brand consulting company I’d started working with had created the team’s name (they were originally the Taiyo Whales, the first team Tom Selleck faces in Mr. Baseball). Since then, they’ve been mediocre at best, and hard to get passionate about, but I’m ok with them.

Football, Hockey
Never really got into it.

Basketball
Boston Celtics. Never as passionate about basketball as I was about baseball, but I enjoyed watching the Celtics. Still do.

Soccer (J-League)
Jubilo Iwata, the team from my adopted hometown of Hamamatsu. No question.

30

I’m from Toronto.

Baseball: Toronto Blue Jays. Originally, I was a Philadelphia Phillies fan, because I loved Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose during their glory years. During the mid-80s the Phillies went to pot and the Blue Jays became a model organization, so geography won out.

Hockey: Ottawa Senators. I despise the Maple Leafs for the same reason I (and all decent people) despise the Red Sox; because they’re a bizarre and disturbing combination of arrogance and incompetence. So naturally I must cheer for their hated rivals.

I hate football.

31

MLB:
When I was growing up in Erie, you were either a Pirates fan or you were an Indians fan. When I was 6 the Pirates won the World Series, and that clinched it for me.

As for other sports - I’m nominally a Steelers fan in football (because I’m from Western PA), Penguins in hockey (ditto), D.C. United in MLS (because they’re the only pro team I’ve ever seen), and Paris St. Germain in world soccer (because of a friend who’s a fan), but I don’t particularly follow any of those sports.

32

NHL- Red Wings! I grew up in Michigan, and even though they were awful at first hockey was huge in that part of the state.
NFL- Vikings. The U.P. is full of Packer fans, and I wanted no part of that. The Lions, were, well the Lions (and still are). And actually, Minnesota is the 2nd closest NFL team to where I grew up.
MLB- Meh. Twins, I guess.
NBA- See above. Pistons, I guess.
NCAA Hockey- Minnesota-Duluth. I went to school there. Gophers Suck!
NCAA everything else- Michigan. My dad went to school there.

33

In Utah, we got the Bronco games every week. For as long as I can remember, on Sunday afternoons at 2 pm, the whole day stopped and my mom sat down to watch football. Sometimes she’d let us watch, and sometimes she didn’t want to deal with us so sent us to our room or outside to play. Usually, in those cases, I’d go to my grandpa’s and watch the Broncos game with him.

There just never was a time when I didn’t watch the Broncos. It would never occur to me to cheer for another team. Though, interesting enough, my dad was a Raiders fan. However, he was never into football the way my mom was. And he was cheering and jumping up and down with the rest of us when the Broncos beat the Packers in the superbowl.

For the NBA, I’m a lifelong Jazz fan, for obvious reasons. Basketball is huge in Utah, and again, it never occurred to me to cheer for anybody other than the Jazz. But I don’t like the NBA now. I don’t find the games at all interesting…the whole thing is pretty depressing to me.

34

Ya know…I was just about to ask how you reacted to that 2002 NFL playoff debacle. Then I realized that you’re probably talking about those “other” Giants. :slight_smile:
I still haven’t forgiven the Niners for the atrocity they pulled on my beloved G-men that game.

35

I only follow two major league sports: baseball and football, and football only marginally so.

MLB: Born a Red Sox fan, and will die a Red Sox fan. Irronically enough, though, when I was real young and first learning about baseball, I only chose the Red Sox because my fav. color was red (I hadn’t heard about The Reds at that time.) Of course, once I actually started to follow baseball, I was a Sox fan because I lived in New England. I knoe a lot of people hate the Sox and Sox fans (I still don’t know why,) but with the possible exception of Cubs fans, we have the most diehard fans in MLB. Let the Yankees go a century without winning a world series and see how many fans they still have left. Our Red Sox could not win a single game from this point on, and we would still all root for them till we’re six feet under. I think it’s because once the game’s over, we’re more than willing to hate our team for losing and not make silly excuses for them, :wink: .

NFL: Since I live in New England, gotta root for the Pats. Two out of the last three superbowls? Not too shabby. :slight_smile:

36

I was born in Chicago, so take a guess as to which teams I like.

Baseball the Cubs, obviously. Taking a kid to Wrigley will pretty much seal the deal for life.

Football I like the Bears. I wasn’t old enough to grasp what was going on when they won the Super Bowl, and don’t remember what it was like. Whenever my mom tries to talk about sports she will bring up that she knows that she likes the Bears because when they won the Super Bowl it was, “Really cool.” Thanks for the great info, mom.

Hockey was the Blackhawks until “Dollar” Bill Wirtz decided he didn’t want to spend the money to have a winning team. I got to see a great core of players leave: Roenick, Belfour, Chelios, Amonte, because Wirtz is too cheap. After that I defected to becoming a Rangers fan. They were my second favorite team before I disowned the Blackhawks, so I decided to promote them. I went from a team that wouldn’t spend any money, to a team that throws its money around like it’s going out of style, but still can’t win. I guess I’ll take the latter over a team that just doesn’t care.

Basketball it is/was the Bulls. I don’t really follow basketball much anymore. It really has become a joke. If I want to watch a bunch of high school kids, then I’ll go to a local high school game. Around here at least they have to learn to shoot since not everyone can dunk. I loved that Reinsdorf and Krause decided to dismantle the greatest team ever so they could get an early start on rebuilding. Great move, guys. How’s that going for you? I would say that the team I actively cheer for now is the Dallas Mavericks. Mark Cuban comes across as a cool guy, that cares about fans, and wants to have a successful team. I’ll probably also enjoy watching Shaq carry out his vendetta on the league to make sure he wins a championship without Kobe.

Soccer is West Ham United. I’ve never watched them play a full game, but once in a while I’ll check the standings. I guess they must have been relegated, because I didn’t see them in the Premier League standings last time I checked. I know they aren’t very good, and don’t know much about their history, but they have a soft spot in my heart. I had a camp counselor from England, and he liked the Hammers. He was a nice enough guy, and I thought it was nice to see that he wasn’t a bandwagon fan, so West Ham became my team by default.