I would like to know from NFL fans from New York which teams do you cheer for? Giants or Jets? They play in the same stadium and represent the same area of the country.
Which ticket is more expensive, a Giants or a Jet ticket? The Giants have been historically the much better team, while the Jets are just Ok, nothing special. They get close some years and make it to the AFC divisional or championship game, but always lose in the end. I would be more of a Giants fan since their team is better. Is this fair weather? Why? I am paying to see a product (a professional NFL game) so why shouldn’t I choose the better product?
Concerning the Lakers and the Clippers, Clippers games are the ones for people who cannot afford Lakers tickets. Both teams play in the same arena. Seems to be a lame setup. The Lakers are the marquee team. Clippers…suck. Why share the same arena? The owner of the Clippers does not want to move, because he is making his money there and has a sweetheart agreement and making his bank. I just can’t see anyone really giving that much of a shit about the Clippers to make the venture worthwhile, but there it is.
Cubs and White Sox. What’s the difference there? Which is the cheaper ticket? Are these games always sold out? My impression is that Chi Sox fans are more redneck, working class and troublesome, while Cubs fans are rich preps. But I don’t know. I would think that Cubs are the premier team in Chicago, with the ChiSox, much like the Clippers, something of a second fiddle team.
Yankees and Mets. Much rather go to a Yanks game. Who and why do people like the Mets? Why do Mets fans hate the Yankees? Because of Stienbrenner? Because of jealously that the Yanks are historically the best team, while the Mets tend to be like the ChiSox and the Clippers? Is it hatred of George Stienbrenner (why do some people hate that man? He loved New York, put out an excellent product, and the NY symbol is synonmous and iconic with New York as any famous landmark.
Jets fans tend to be Long Islanders, at least when I was going to school at UB.
People often attend Clippers games to see the other team, not necessarily the Clippers. There’s some Clippers fans in Buffalo (they used to be the Buffalo Braves, a pretty decent team in its day). The Clippers supposedly have the most loyal fan base in the NBA, and I saw a story on television once about how they’re big in Japan, similar to the way the Dallas Cowboys are popular in Mexico (no cite).
Cubs: north side of Chicago and northern suburbs. Sox: south side of Chicago and southern suburbs.
As a resident of San Jose, CA, the sports world somehow chalks me down as living in both San Francisco and Oakland (both smaller cities than San Jose) due to the Bay Area being considered a single market*.
I chose the 49ers as my team when still a child living outside Portland, OR, and I’d be a 49er fan no matter where I live. It’s a happy coincidence that I’m living here now.
I’m not a big baseball guy, but I’ll root for the Giants. As a kid I really liked Will Clark, so I guess that carried over a bit. It helps that the Giants recently are pretty good, and the players are fun characters.
That being said, I don’t root against the Raiders or A’s. I have Raider-fan in-laws, and they’re happier when they win.
*: The ridiculous baseball partition notwithstanding.
White Sox tickets are cheaper (not cheap, but cheaper) and more available. The Cubs have a huge season ticket base and weekend games and games against popular opponents (Brewers, Cardinals) will usually sell out before the season starts.
That’s the historical stereotype, and it was true at one time in the past, but not so much today. Nowadays tickets are so expensive that the traditional blue collar fan base has been priced out of the market.
The historical stereotype is an artifact of geography–the Cubs were the North Side team, and the North Side (and northern suburbs) was traditionally the wealthier, preppier, WASPier part of the metro area. But again, not so much today as formerly.
No question, the Cubs are more popular–not better, but more popular. The White Sox have won only one World Series in the past 93 years, but that’s one more than the Cubs. The Cubs benefited from playing on the more prosperous side of town, and they rode radio, broadcast TV, and cable TV earlier and harder than the Sox. The Cubs have fans throughout the Midwest and even the entire country, whereas the Sox are pretty much restricted to the southern part of the metro area.
White Sox fans always hate the Cubs. Cub fans historically maintained a lofty indifference toward the Sox, but since interleague play they’ve started to return some of the hate.
Lifelong Dodgers fans here. I’d rather watch soccer than an Angels game. The 2002 World Series was never played. We refuse to ever acknowledge the “of Los Angeles” part of the Angels name, because they aren’t. Not in any way. Frakking buncha Orange County wanna-bes.
Just to note that, up until the mid-1950s, MLB had two teams in a number of cities (and three in New York).
New YorK: Yankees, Giants, Dodgers
Boston: Red Sox, Braves
Philadelphia: Phillies, A’s
Chicago: Cubs, White Sox
St. Louis: Cardinals, Browns (would move to Baltimore and become the Orioles)
Of course, due to team relocation (mostly moving westward – until the Giants and Dodgers moved, the westernmost MLB city was St. Louis), only Chicago still has both of its teams from that era.
Nitpick: I’m sure you know this, but just for clarity’s sake they’re the “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.”
And it’s certainly not unprecedented for a team to be named for a metropolitan area without actually being located in the city proper. The New York Giants and Jets, and the Detroit Pistons are examples.
Having said that, I agree with you. When I think of “Los Angeles” and “baseball,” I think of the Dodgers. “Angels” sounds more natural to me with “California” in front of it. The new name sounds clunky and stupid.
Incidentally, one of my favorite trivia questions: What was the Angels’ first home ballpark?Wrigley Field.
It’s pointless trying to explain the appeal of pro sports teams to someone who is baffled by people cheering for the less successful. Just buy tickets for the yankees / lakers / whoever’s doing well this year and be happy. Win or lose, you can be content that you’ve chosen the best product to consume.
Watching sports in this way is weak gruel. Temporary emotional involvement in the successful clubs of the day hardly justifies the entrance fee. It’s an accident of circumstance, though - if you never forged bonds with a particular sports club during your formative years, then you’ll always be on the peripherary of understanding what they can mean to people.
The most knowledgeable football guy I know has a season ticket for a marquee club. He tends not to use it most weeks (although he watches football non stop on TV / internet), and prefers to go and watch lower league games and even amateur games on the weekend. Imagine that - watching semi-pro football on a Sunday. Why would anyone watch a team that ‘sucked’ I wonder?
Mets fan here. I’ve been following them since the mid-60s; you don’t give up on a team just because they don’t win all the time.
The dislike of Yankee fans has to do with the fact there are two teams and thus you need to justify your choice. That, and the fact that most Yankee fans tend to be very arrogant. There’s also a geographical factor – the Mets fan base is based on Long Island, while the Yankees are based in the city and Westchester.
I root for the Jets because I watched AFL football far more than NFL in the early 60s (before cable, when the AFL was on ABC). The Jets were the first to win a Super Bowl, too.
I favor the Rangers over the Islanders (or Devils) because I started watching when the Rangers were the only team in town. I suspect, though, if the Americans hadn’t folded, I’d be rooting for them.
Most people pick a team and stick with it. That gives some continuity and you get to know the players better.
I’m a Yankees fan. My family, from the Bronx, traditionally were Giants fans. When the Giants left, new choices had to be made. When the Mets came along, as National League fans, my grandfather and father followed them. When they grew up, three of my brothers became Mets fans; one became a Yankees fan.
I was never much of a baseball fan growing up. However, I began to follow the Yankees when they got good in the mid-1970s. I was going to school in Colorado at the time and I enjoyed something that connected me with New York again. I’ve continued to follow them since, even when they were bad in the early 90s. I usually try to see one or two games a year.
However, I’m also at least marginally a Mets fan. I’ve never understood the concept that because you’re primarily a fan of one home town team, you’re obliged to hate the other one. I root for the Mets whenever they aren’t playing the Yankees. I like it when the Mets do well. I’d love to see the Mets make the Series again (so the Yankees can beat them again ;)). However, I don’t follow them nearly as closely as I do the Yankees.
Although I don’t follow football as much as I do baseball, I’m a Giants fan. However, that wouldn’t prevent me for rooting for the Jets if they do well.
I’m in the home market for NYC, specifically a suburb in Connecticut about 50 miles northeast of the city. I’m primarily a Giants fan and a secondary Jets fan. When the two play each other the Jets are the enemy; I’m Big Blue through and through. But when they’re not playing against each other in the preseason or once every four years, I am very much a fan of the Jets.
I watch every Giants and Jets game every week, and watch all Giants coverage during the week and maybe half the Jets coverage. In my opinion Giants or Jets fans who think if you like both that you’re not a real fan are petulant children.
For the first decade I was a football fan (Giants) I didn’t give the Jets a second thought one way or another, but became a fan when Bill Parcells took over and have been a fan ever since. Not to the level of my devotion to the Giants, of course, but pretty strong.
Also:
Dallas Cowboys play in Irving, TX, not Dallas
Buffalo Bills play in Orchard Park, NY, not Buffalo
Washington Redskins play in Landover, MD, not D.C.
Come spring in my youth, our TV was locked on WPIX/11 to listen to Frank Messer, Bill White, and Phil Rizzuto call Yankee games. WOR/9 did not exist from April through September. My old man was a Yankee fan and schooled me on all things Yankee, including cross-town rivalries (having lost the Giants and Dodgers, the minor league Mets had to fill the vacancy). I probably would have ended up in a foster home or worse had I shown any interest in the Mets (despite growing up in the shadow of Shea).
Yankee fan, because I am from the Bronx and I ought to get some benefit from that.
Football-wise, I preferred the Jets as a kid because they seemed cooler, what with Joe Namath and all, though Super Bowl III is before my sports memory begins. When they decided to become the Meadowlands B team, though, I saw no more reason to root for them.
