The more you know about a sport in general and about a team and its players in particular, the more interesting and fun it is to watch them play. If you know something about their strengths and weaknesses, their style, and how they compare to other players and teams, each game becomes more than just a bunch of anonymous guys throwing a ball around.
Sports are way more fun to watch (and play) if you pretend like it matters who wins and who loses. In the ultimate scheme of things, of course, it doesn’t matter, but you willingly suspend the realization that it doesn’t matter, much like you do when you watch a movie and hope the good guys win.
You know that saying, “familiarity breeds contempt”?
Sometimes it breeds affection instead.
I don’t know if the drivers who work for the local city bus company are from around here, but I still call them the local bus company… and I’m more attached to them than, say, Dallas’ city bus company.
The team is here. It plays here (half the time). I can go and watch them play in person, which I can’t do with the team from Seattle (although I’ve made two trips to England in the last three years specifically to see the rugby team play, with the bonus of getting to visit my nieces.)
If I lived in Manhattan and the Guggenheim was my favorite museum, would you ask why?
But it’s not a “(business) team.” It’s a city or a state team. The Indians may play in Progressive Field and the Cavs might play in the Quicken Loans Arena, but “Indians” and “Cavs” and “Browns” are always always always interchangeable with “Cleveland.”
For lots of people, team loyalty starts with location loyalty. I love the city of Cleveland (and I’m not even from Cleveland! I’m from the Greater Cleveland Area). The boys that are hired to play for our teams are paid to represent the city of Cleveland. They’re much more interesting and successful than the people we elect to represent us.
And even tho the rosters change every season, or every week, there’s still a history as a team. We’ll always “have” Jim Brown and Bob Feller and LeBron James long after they’re gone. Jim Thome is still “our” guy that we can choose to love or hate when he comes through wearing Chicago black.
When the Browns left Cleveland, the city fought to keep the history of the Browns even though “The Browns” (players, contracts, coaches, etc) were going to Baltimore to become The Ravens. The history of the team was that important.
Don’t think we always love our teams, either. We hate them, a lot. But we love to hate them. Just like our friends and relatives.
It’s a camaraderie thing. A civic pride thing. And for some, it eventually rolls into an obsession thing. It’s fantastic!
Since you chose the Braves as an example, I’ll point out that the Braves actually do make an effort to include native talent on the team. Jeff Francouer, Tim Hudson, Blaine Boyer and Brian McCann are all local boys, and Mark Texiera played his college ball at Georgia Tech.
But in general I know what you mean. I prefer college sports in part because the athletes have some real association with the college they represent. The pros are just mercenaries.
“Hey, our geographically random mercenaries are better than your geographically random mercenaries!”
That does not work for my area. All the best athletes in football and basketball from NYC & NJ seem to go out of state. If NYC could get all its best kids to stay local for college, NYC would be a powerhouse in the NCAA.
NJ has always lost many of best to others, especially Penn State in football.
And there is the special case Greey Bay Packers. Yes they are a business, but one owned by by the fans and not just one or a few rich guys. And one that will not move and is one of the oldest NFL teams out there.
People also cheer for coolege teams if they have some conncetion. I cheer for Wisconsin basketball because a) many friends / relatives went there and b) Bo Ryan (the coach) was at UW-Platteville the same time I was.
