On not being a Giants fan in a world full of Giants fans
For context purposes, I live in Stockton, which is essentially extended Bay Area, minus the vistas and the prices. As I have previously mentioned, I am a die hard As fan. If you pay attention to baseball, you'll realize that those two facts do not coincide with each other very well. It's been a rough half decade, to say the least.
Disclaimer: If you know me and we've intelligently talked sports, this probably doesn't apply to you. If you think this applies to you, though, it definitely does.
Whenever I try and have this conversation with a San Francisco fan, it always goes the same. 'I know there are bandwagon fans, but that's not me. I've been watching since I was a baby with my parents/grandparents/whoever' you think lends credence to your status as a 'been there all along I deserve this' argument. The fact of the matter is, to everyone else who isn't a Giants fan or doesn't follow baseball, most of you are unbelievably irritating. Yes, I know, most you really have watched your whole life and know about dusty baker and Jason Schmidt and Moises alou, but he fact of the matter is that a true least 60 percent of people who advertise themselves as Giants fans wouldn't know a balk if it walked and bit them on the ass.
This may seem unforgiving and overly accusatory, but a few things have happened recently that really nail down my opinion of the type of fan I'm referring to. They aren't necessarily baseball related, but they're fan related and indicative of the issues I brought up.
The first of these things isn't the Golden State Warriors rise to dominance. As a fan of a perpetually unsuccessful and low budget team(the A's), I can tell you with absolute certainty that NOBODY gave a shit about the warriors. Even the first few years of Stephen currys career, when he was nothing but a small school player with weak ankles, nobody gave a shit. Even when they added Kyla Thompson and marc Jackson and were decent for the first time in forever, nobody gave a shit. BUT, once Riley curry started making press conference nfefences fun and the warriors started nailing threes and famous people started showing up at Oracle, a miracle occurred. All the seats were filled, and I found people desperately climbing their family trees to find anything that might make them a lifelong Warriors fan, personal participation not required. I also noticed that there was a lot of overlap between people who became Giants fans about the the time they started winning and the brand new Warriors fans. So the Warriors win a ring and the Giants win three and everyone lives happy ever after yeah?
Not quite.
Two things happened that made me believe that I need to see some sort of documented evidence before I believe that anyone is truly a Giants fan or a Warriors fan. The Warriors lost the finals and I saw people that weren't even watching basketball three years before cry like babies and flirt with ending friendships over the result. As someone who holds basketball in very high regard and has most of his life, this was equal parts irritating and embarrassing. These are the loyal fans of the greatest basketball team to ever live? Celebrating everything until you don't get what you want and then blaming the NBA for cheating and throwing the series? Thats not how I root. And I don't think that's responsible as a fan.
The second thing was the Giants NOT winning the World Series this year. I am a huge As fan, again, and I love Bob Melvin and all of the As coaches. I have never seen them win a World Series, but I believe they can and if they don't I will not blame Bob Melvin. I will understand that it's nearly impossible to win and every time your team does, you should count your lucky stars.
With that in mind, imagine my surprise when a large majority of Giants fans were calling for Bruce bochys head when the Giants got knocked out this year. I was suspicious about whether they had the proper respect for the game and the process the entire time, but this solidified it.
Your reputation as a sports fan is not created during successful times for your team, it is the exact opposite. Supporting your team the same regardless of the result of a given game or season is how I feel you properly root for a team and I have not seen enough of that from my counterparts. What a waste of essentially unparalleled sports achievement.
Dan
