A follow-up of sorts to my thread What makes for a great rivalry? (sports, mostly)
So what teams do you care about, either rooting for them or against them?
Also, why? Answers to either what first drew your attention to a particular team, or why you continue to pay attention to them, or any other related thoughts are welcome but not required.
Well, I grew up outside of Boston, and my whole family still lives there but me. So of course we love the Red Sox and hate the Yankees.
The Red Sox are the only team in any sport that I give a rat’s ass about. Massachusetts is definitely baseball country, it’s funny how the Patriots are overshadowed by the Sox even when they are the defending SuperBowl champs.
I live and breathe for the New York Islanders .
The Rangers suck.
No big reason why I started with the Islanders though. I started to enjoy watching hockey around 1982 or so, and the Islanders had the best team, hands down. They’ve had more than their share of downs in recent years, but I just can’t let go.
There only one true Faith and one true Religion, and it’s doctrine is this—
Next year, the Cubs take the Pennant!!!
I’m a dyed-in-the-wool St. Louis sports fan. No mystery there.
The reason I love St. Louis sports is because of a quote from local sportswriter Bernie Miklasz. No quote box, since I’m paraphrasing from my (admittedly holey) memory:
“St. Louis is a special town. They love their heroes over their sport. The average St. Louis fan would rather have a team of nice guys that took second place than a team of jerks that won it all.”
There’s no city in the world that will give a ballplayer a warmer welcome to town. Mark McGwire has gone on record as saying it was due to the fan reaction that he finished his career with the Cardinals. I’ve heard similar sentiments from Scott Rolen as well.
Heck, they just traded for Larry Walker, and you’d have thought the Pope was coming to play right field. He went 1-3, and was noticeably emotional during the post-game wrap-up press conference, due to the fan reaction.
I love St. Louis fans. And I love the sports there, too.
In the name of Sosa, Alou, and Wood, amen.
Teams I really like: USC Trojans, Peugeot and Ferrari.
Teams I kinda like: Oregon, Tennessee, Subaru, Williams and McLaren
Teams I don’t like: Penn St., Michigan, Ohio St, most other teams “back there”
Teams I hate: Cal, UCLA, all Florida teams
Teams whos buses I wish would crash into a ditch and burst into flame: Notre Dame and any team Lou Holtz coachs 
The only team I’m passionate about is the New York Mets. Been a fan since 1965, and am forever thankful to my wife for forcing me to watch game 6 of the '86 series when I was saying, “Well, if any team is to beat the Mets, I’m glad it’s the Red Sox.” I’m a marginal Red Sox fan after spending a summer in Boston in 1968 and living not far from Carl Yastrzemski’s home town.
I do follow the Jets in football; memories of Super Bowl III go a long way. I watched just about every game that season.
Favor the Rangers in hockey, but not enough to do anything more than generally keep up with them. I do wear a New York Islanders cap, but that’s just to piss off Islander fans: it’s got the infamous fish sticks logo.
I’m a Philadelphia sports fan, always have been. I like the Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, and Sixers. Let me tell you, its HARD being a philly sports fan because of the infamous Philly choke. Watch any flyers playoff game to see what I mean…
I am a lifelong Yankees fan. If you put a silhouette of any current player (and many past players) up at the plate, I could tell you who it was just by their stance. That’s my level of fanatacism.
I see I have at least 2 friends in this thread 
To keep me on an even sports keel, I am also a Jets fan.
Well, i root for the Orioles and the Ravens, although the fact that i only moved the the US a few years ago means that i can’t really claim to have the same fervour as the locals.
Like any good fan of an AL-East team that isn’t the Yankees, i learned quickly to dislike the New York team. And like a good Ravens fans, i have the Steelers on my hit list.
I also really don’t like the LA Lakers very much, and in college football it’s Notre Dame that is the focus of my ire. In the NFL, i sort of hate the St. Louis Rams, but that’s more due to Kurt Warner than the team as a whole.
Hockey is my favorite sport here in North America, and i follow the Vancouver Cancuks. If the Canucks aren’t playing, my general position is to support any Canadian team over any American team. And i developed a strong dislike for the Tampa Bay Lightning during the last playoff season–there’s just something wrong about the Stanley Cup residing in Florida.
I grew up in the DC area, so of course my football team is the Redskins. I’m always a fan of theirs, no matter where I live.
My husband is a Dukie, so now I’m a fan of their basketball teams, especially the women. (Though I do have rather an inappropriate crush on J.J. Redick, so that helps my watching of the men’s team considerably.)
Because of following the Duke women, I became a fan of Alana Beard, and of her new team, the Washington Mystics. It helps a lot that that’s my hometown WNBA team, too.
I root against the UConn women, just because they’re such a powerhouse and the Duke team is still up-and-coming. Well, and I can’t stand their coach either.
I’m still a Quebec Nordiques fan at heart. I absolutely abhor the Colorado Avalanche. The people of Colorado may have deserved an NHL team, but not my team. I can’t wait to see how the fans there react the first time the Avalanche miss the playoffs. And I couldn’t understand all the supposed Nordiques fans who cheered when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup their first year in Colorado. I was happy for the players, but I couldn’t cheer the team.
A great influence on my being a fan of the Nordiques were their fans. Even when they were last place in the league, they still got great crowds, and unless a game was an 8-0 blowout, they kept cheering. (And were never as hard on their players as the fans of other teams - Montreal is notorious in this respect.) Even in the 8-0 blowouts, most Nords fans would still stay until the end of the game.
The fans of in Tennessee are a major reason I’m a fan of the Nashville Predators now. Despite the fact that many of the fans were new to the game, they have been great. I listen to most of the games over the internet (I’m lucky to get more than a couple of games on TV here), and the fans in Nashville are noticably louder than the fans in many other NHL cities.
Being a Preds fan, I have to boo the Detroit Red Wings. Which isn’t too hard in the first place, considering I like to root for the underdog, and Detroit has been a powerhouse for some time now. Time’s running out for them though. And Nashville has played very well in most every against Detroit so far. Their playoff series (the Preds’ first) was a lot closer than it looked.
The Montreal Canadiens were the main rival of Quebec, and the games between them were excellent as well, even when Quebec was in the league basement. I now root for all the Canadian teams, after Nashville of course. And I also root for teams who try to be financially responsible and are well-managed. I have little respect for teams like the New York Rangers and the Chicago Blackhawks.
On the subject of the Tampa Bay Lightning winning the Stanley Cup, they were actually my non-partisan pick to win the Cup before the playoffs started. Of course, during the playoffs I was rooting for Nashville and all the Canadian teams, and rooting against Colorado and Detroit.
And while I would have preferred to see Calgary beat Tampa in the finals, I didn’t mind seeing the Lightning win for three reasons. 1) They were my non-partisan pick to win. 2) They were a well-managed, underdog team. 3) Dave Andreychuk finally won the Cup after 20 great years in the league.
Anyhoo…
“Next year in The Holy Land.”
Who knew Cubs fans were Jewish? ;j
Count me among the Orthodox.
Other than that, I tend to bleed Dodger Blue (see location tag). I dislike professional football, and since I went to both USC and UCLA, that rivalry is dead as far as college football goes. Hockey isn’t a sport, so that let’s that out.
Cubs
Dodgers
Red Sox (wife is from Boston, so in the intersts of domestic harmony…even if it is the lesser league! )
And like any decent human being I loathe the Yankees.
I am a Yankee fan. Its genetic. My mother grew up going to see Joey D and the boys. I am that rarest of fans. I am also a big Mets fan. I was miserable when they both were in the World Series. This may be because I am genetically only half a Yankee fan with the other half coming from a Brooklyn Dodger fan. I also like both the NJ Giants and the NJ Jets although I will always root for the Giants first. Only one hockey team, the Devils.
I don’t watch any sport other than the Olympics every four years and the occasional wrestling show (yes, I know it’s fake) but being from Tennessee, I always root for their teams: The Tennessee Volunteers, Lady Vols, Nashville Predators, Tennessee Titans, and Memphis Grizzlies.
Aside from them, I don’t care at all.
Go Big Orange.
Amen. When Will Clark hit .345 in his two months in St Louis, you would have thought he had walked on water. I remember the Sports Illustrated article that called the Busch Stadium security the least needed in the majors.
I don’t know of another team that’s been so successfully able to trade for players at the end of their contracts and re-sign them because of the love from the fans.
Walker, Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, Renteria. Now there’s a World Series winner. Get through that!! I did the math, and spots 2-6 are batting .311 as a whole. Oh yeahhhhhh…
Oh, I lived in St. Louis until I was 8, and my dad is a huge fan of the Cardinals too, so that’s where it all comes from.
bolding mine
Shut up, shut up, shut up, Walker is a Rocky, Walker is a Rocky, Nananananana I can’t hear you.
Yeah, but it’s the Cardinals’ pitching as much as their hitting that might get them through to the World Series.
Sure, the hitters are good, and those five players are all excellent. But positions 2-6 on the Orioles are hitting .312 as a whole. Yet the Birds (despite an 8-game win streak) still languish below .500.
The difference? St. Louis pitchers have a team ERA of 3.78, third-best in the majors, while the O’s are down around 4.90.
Cards are third-best in pitching, and fifth-best in hitting, That’s the best combined postions of any team in the Majors, and that’s why they have the best record. If they meet the Yankees in the World Series and beat them, the Cards will be my new second-favorite team.
When it come to the Olympics, I only follow one event. If anyone has read my other sports posts, they know I’m a big hockey fan. However, I don’t usually follow men’s Olympic hockey. Women’s Olympic hockey, however, is another story. I love watching the women play!
I see the men play all the time in the NHL. During the Olympics, it sometimes seems like they’re just playing their same old “game”. The women, however, are full of fire. It’s truly their time to show the world. The NHLers play at least 82 game a year, make millions of dollars, and compete for one of the most recognized trophies in sports history. The Olympics don’t seem too important to a lot of NHLers. Unless they’re from Austria or Latvia. I can’t wait for all the usual contenders to falter one year. Go Japan!
And while the pool of true contenders for Olympic gold in men’s hockey is much deeper than in women’s hockey, the “other” women’s teams are getting better. For years, it was just Canada vs. the U.S.A. But Finland and Sweden can’t be ignored anymore. And while Japan is hardly a challenge (yet)… Wow! Can they skate and pass. Their passing is incredible! They just never shoot. The men’s team has a similar problem.
The best game I’ve ever seen here locally was an exhibition game between the Canadian and U.S. women’s national teams. (We have a CHL/QMJHL team.) Hard-fought, rough and exciting! I even have a favorite player - Jayna Hefford. She works harder at both ends of the ice than a lot of the men.
Anyhoo…
