It's been a running joke in the fantasy baseball threads that my #1 allegiance is to my fantasy team. That may be true ( ) and some believe that such a vacuous allegiance leaves me unrooted and unstable (I think those were Gina's words ).

Living in Chicago, I guess it would be natural for me to follow the Scrubs or the White Sox but you know what - I'm just not feeling those two teams. It may be partly because I'm a Chicago transplant (I was originally from Houston), so a connection to either team would be flimsy at best. Also, rooting for lovable losers is one thing; rooting for losers with the Chicago Tribune as owners is another.

In any case, I'm in search of a new team to follow. I pose the following questions: Why do you root for your favorite baseball team? Were you born into it? The great tradition? Great fan base? Great management/ownership?

I'm a former Houston-ite myself. I was 7 yrs old and at the game when Mike Scott tossed a no hitter vs San Diego to clinch the pennant for the Lastros in 86.

That said, I am a baseball nomad. I wander from team to team searching for a new homeland. I like what the Strangers have done the past few seasons w/ their farm system, but the nomad life is the life for me I think.

EDIT-I really love College Baseball though. I root for my beloved University of Texas at Omaha Longhorns!

Hmmmm...Jeter??

Seriously, I think I love to follow the Yankees because they're always a pleasure to watch. They can always be counted on for great plays, for last-minute clutch plays that leave you breathless, for exciting games, all season long. They have a rich history with a roster that is simply unmatched (IMHO).

Oh, and it helps to be from the Bronx!

Mr. Cold-Hearted, Not-Personal-Its-Business, Fantasy-Loving, Astro-Hating, Flip-Flopping CS wants to know why I love my team?

Houston is the only city I know - where I was born, raised, live, and plan to stay. I think that this gives me the natural inclination to root for the home team. Also, anyone in my family that follows baseball follows the Astros. My uncles, grandpa, and brother are about the most pessimistic fans you can find, but deep down, they also care about them and want them to win. I love that I can always enjoy watching a game with my fellow fans in the family anytime we're around each other during the season. Even in the offseason, it's a constant conversation piece among us.

As reluctant as I am to trust any "big business" people in baseball, I feel like our owner truly cares about the fans and wants what's best for the team. If a deal needs to be made, he's willing to go through with it, and he always shows appreciation for all of the fan support. I missed out on the Larry Dierker managerial era, but he's a much respected figure in the Astros organization, and my mom has mentioned how much she liked him when he was skipper. Despite a few complaints I've had - probably simply out of needing someone as a scapegoat - I think Garner's also done a fine job in the time he's been with us.

We've got a few fairweather fans down here that think the season starts around September/October, but the real fan base really is great - always willing to cheer them on and stay dedicated. I'm sure we don't compare to Boston or NY in terms of strength, but us true-blue followers do what we can to support our team. In school, on the Internet, at the stadium, and elsewhere, I've always found it a pleasure to talk with other Astro fans, and I think that, aside from a few bad eggs, our group will - at the very least - show respect for other teams. (Except the Scrubs. Right, CS?)

Finally, the players themselves are the main reason I root for the Astros. They're nicknamed the "good guys," and they truly are. Sometimes they're even too nice - I've seen Berkman pick up equipment/gear for players from the other team. Several of them are very religious, and I've read they have prayer meetings when they can't attend church. They're funny in interviews and have great personalities. Of course, some come and some go, but I get really attached to them.

....and that's why you should pick Houston, CS!

And no mention of Willy, Gina??

That's interesting that your entire family roots for the Astros. I am quite the outcast in mine. My dad, although from the Bronx, used to spend his summers with his aunts and uncles in Brooklyn. His uncles always took him to Brooklyn Dodger games, so he did NOT like the Yankees. I don't know if I'd use the word "hate", but it was probably close. When the Dodgers left NY, my dad was heartbroken, and eventually became a Mets fan. My brother and his daughters are therefore big Mets fans.

Mr. Babe is a big Yankee fan, and he would always try to get me to watch the games with him. Slowly but surely, I was completely hooked.

Great topic Don Sicilia.

Well as you know I am a huge New York Mets fan. First of all not only was I born into the team, but I was born around the same time that they came into existance. My father grew up a die hard Brooklyn Dodgers fan and my grandfather a New York Giants fan. As most sports fans in New York know, a fan of either of these teams usually hated the Yankees, especially the Dodgers fans. So when the Dodgers and Giants moved out west, and the New York Mets came into existance, both my father and my grandfather became Mets fans, thus my being born into and brought up as a Mets fan.

Every year, for my birthday, my father, grandfather and my uncle would take me to see the Mets play the L.A. Dodgers, who usually were always in town on or around my birthday.

My grandfather's company had tickets right over the visitors dugout. One year, on my seventh birthday, we were at a game and Tommy Agee was stretching by third base. I called out to him and asked him if he could please sign my program. I happened to be eating Pizza and he looked up at me (obviously kidding around, but I did not know it at the time) and said " If you give me your Pizza, then I'll give you my autograph." So I handed him my program, he signed it, and then I went to give him my Pizza and he said no. I kept insisting that he take the pizza because he gave me his autograph. He was hysterical laughing but obviously wouldn't take my Pizza. From that day on Tommie Ageee became my favorite player. Needless to say the Mets went on to win the world series that year.

Growing up, the Mets were mostly terrible but yet lovable and exciting. It is the great memories that I have of going to the Mets games with my father, grandfather and uncle coupled with the great memories of some of the players like Agee, Seaver, Harrelson, Milner, Kingman, McGraw etc. that I grew up rooting for over the years.

While the early Met teams never really had the star players, those teams were always exciting and many times were the Davids who faced the Goliaths, and beat the odds. You have to love a team like that!



Amazin Mets. You Gotta Believe!


Don Cardi

Well even though I'm not a real big baseball fan I do root for the Texas Rangers, because all my fave teams are from texas(for some strange reason) but at the same time I find myself rooting for the San Diego Padres as I kind of think them as my home team, as I was born in San Diego.

Plus I also root for the Atlanta Braves simply cause it drives my best friend crazy as he hates the braves.

In a word.... "habit".

Like DC's dad, I was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan from my earliest memories on to when they left Brooklyn. They were the home team. They represented the blue-collar, "everyman" baseball fan. They had the stars I loved ... Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Carl Furillo, Jackie Robinson. When they left Brooklyn (in 1958) they broke my heart and I had a hard time rooting for them after that.

The only team left in New York then was the Yankees, and they were always considered the enemy in my household, so it was not even remotely possible that I would root for them.

The Mets came into existence a few years later and I tried rooting for them... they were God-awful back then. It was at this time that one of my brother's best friends, Rico Petrocelli, was signed by Boston. Not having any real allegiance to another team then and combining the fact that I was about 14 years old and personally knew someone in the majors I became a Red Sox fan.

They had some of the worst teams imaginable back in the mid 60's but then came "The Impossible Dream" team of '67 and the rest is history.

I've suffered the last 40+ years with more heartache than a baseball fan should experience. That heartache was tempered somewhat after '04 but even after watching some great talent leave "my" team in recent years I'd never dream of changing my allegiance.

Like I said... its "habit".

Well, by default I'm a Buffalo Bisons fan, so therefore I'm also an Indians fan, but not as much as I love the Yankees. They are my favorite sport team anywhere, maybe even more than my Sabres. Baseball has always been a huge part of my life, and I remember growing up hearing about the legendary Yankees like Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Dimaggio, etc. and just falling in love with the lore of the team. It still lives on now.

But while I almost never get out to the city to watch at the stadium, I do have season tickets to see my Bisons.

I would say this is a good question to ask if you want everyone to discuss why they are a fan of the team they are. For example I am a San Francisco Giants fan. Why? Obviously not because they have won multiple championships since they moved to SF, or because they have possibly the greatest player ever to play the game (oh wait, steroids?). I am a Giants fan because from the very beginining they were my local team, and I loved the name GIANTS (as a 5 year old ok? It sounded so cool then) and I have been a loyal human being to my team through thick and mostly thin.

I think this question begs a counter question Don Sicilia... why are you abandoning one team and trying to find a new one? Why not stick with your beloved team through good times and mostly bad? I mean if you really wanted me to recommend a team for you to root for I would NOT say my SF Giants were the team for you! I would say root for the Yankees (Whom I despise) because if you want to be happy with a winning team year after year then how could you not root for a team that has all the money in the world to put together a winning team year after year?

Serisously? Why are you just now trying to find a new team to root for?

Sorry if I'm a moron, but can you *please* tell me how being a BUFFALO (NY) Bisons (that's hockey, right?) fan is somehow supposed to preclude one to also being a CLEVELAND (OH) Indians (baseball) fan?

I could be mistaken (and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I am), but I believe the Bisons are a minor-league baseball team, and the Buffalo Sabres are the hockey team.

Signor V.

You're right -- my bad!

Brain freeze I guess. But yeah, the Bisons are the AAA Cleveland affiliate. That explains that.

But please, that'd be like me saying the Lakewood BlueClaws (which I've mentioned quite a bit actually, the local Single-A Phillies team* -- who won their division crown this year, as a matter of fact, but anyway....) it'd be like me mentioning the Claws and expecting ppl to know who they were...

*mentioned quite a bit this Summer simply because I used to watch (now, Philly 1B) Ryan Howard for $7/game a couple years ago, and look at him now!

Both teams reside in a city that touches a Great Lake. Its a law up there that since both teams are so God-awful bad if you root for one you MUST root for the other.

Truthfully minor league baseball is becoming pretty damn popular. I know that it is almost next to impossible to get good seats to a Brooklyn Cyclones game. They have a very solid fan base, consisting of those fans who never got over the Brooklyn Dodgers moving to California, that show up for every game. And the players don't mind spending time signing autographs for the kids.

Minor league baseball has become an affordable alternative, for many families, to major league baseball.Two summer ago I bought 4 season tickets to the Cyclones and my seats were right behind home plate. It cost me a little over $1300 for 4 season tickets. Most of the Cyclones games are sold out. And this with two Major league baseball teams in the same city.


Several years ago, when the Staten Island Yankees came into existance, I decided to go to my first minor league baseball game. I walked up to the box office and asked the girl to give me four of the best seats available for the game. She looked in the computer and told me that she had four seats, second row directly behind home plate for $40. So I pulled out $160 to give her and she looked at me and started laughing and said. " No, $40 for ALL four of the tickets."



Don Cardi

DC, I think that you're absolutely right about families having to find a less-expensive alternative to major league teams, although that may not necessarily apply outside of the tri-state area. Mr. Babe was given four really good seats to a Mets game about 6 years ago. It was the first game we had ever taken the kids to see (and when my daughter wanted to know if the game was over after everyone cheered when the Star Spangled Banner was finished, I'm sure you can understand why). Between tolls, parking, food, lemonade, ice cream and so on, it cost us well over $100, and that was with FREE tickets. Unfortunately, things that families once enjoyed has now become too expensive for most.

As for trying to get tickets to see the Yankees play, you can forget it. It's next to impossible, at least at any sort of affordable price. A few years ago, we actually combined a vacation to Toronto with tickets to see the Yankees play the Blue Jays. We got terrific seats for about $25 US.

Major league baseball has all but priced itself out of my range (for the reasons that SB mentioned). Thats pretty sad. The minor league games I've gone to (the Long Island Ducks) are every bit as entertaining as the majors and the smaller, more "intimate" ballparks make those games more fun. Plus, the food and extras are waaaaaay cheaper!

Lori and I decided on the spur of the moment to go one of their games last year. It was a crummy night (light rain and cool) so the crowds were kind of sparse. We've never had a problem with buying tix for the game at the gate (on the night of the game) so as we were walking up to buy the tix some guy approached me and offered two tix. I looked at them and said "Sure". They were in the owner's box right behind the dugout. (We sat with the owner! ... and all this for $10 a ticket!)

The food is also MUCH better at these games (than in a major league park).

I've been a Twins fan for life because of Kirby Puckett and the fact that they won titles when I was 5 and 9 years old. Also, living in North Dakota, Minnesota sports teams are the locals, but the Twins are the only Minnesota team I like, so that is a secondary reason I guess. My family has been season ticket holders for the past 5 seasons, so that helps. Plus, the Twins are an easy team to root for with their emphasis on fundamentals, defense, and low budget success. Their best players are players that you have followed in the minors, while you anxiously waited their arrival in the big leagues. To me, it's more satisfying watching Johan Santana win a Cy Young award or Justin Morneau have an MVP-type season having followed them for years in the minors.

This past season I was given 4 seats several rows from the Mets on deck circle. I believe that the seats are something like $100 each. Even not having to pay for those tickets, it still cost me about $400 between parking, tolls, gas, food and souviners. And it takes 2 hours with traffic to get there and then 45 minutes just to get out of the parking lot for a total of another 2 hours to get home

I go to a Cyclones game and it costs me about $125 - $150 total for the four of us, WITH tickets! And I'm home in 35 -40 minutes too! Big difference.




Don Cardi

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

To answer Blibbleblabble, I'm not abandoning any team because I didn't really have an original team to root for in the first place.

At first, Gina, SB and I were joking that we turn this into sort of a running game - everyone put in their responses and I "pick" a new team to root for.

As I thought about it some more, I realized that this original premise was faulty in two ways:
- Why would anyone want me as a fan of their team to begin with?
- You can't borrow other people's experiences to adopt a team.

Realizing this, I typed up this thread to be more general - to find out why people love their teams. What became plainly obvious is people's love for the game, which actually made me very happy. In some way, their love for baseball has made me long for my own connection (and not in a "fantasy" sort of way ).

Married for three months and you have longings already???

I was really hoping this discussion would've garnered more responses.

I'm personally beginning to love College sports, its much cheaper than the pros and they play for the game, not for the money or endorsements. It's a whole different atmosphere in the stands as well. Plus SEASON tickets are only $125, thats the cost of most seats in pro sports.

Sorry I'm so late to respond to this thread.

I became a Phillies fan when I was young because it made sense geographically and my brother was a Pirates fan. The intrastate rivalry was very heated in the 70's as they battled each other for the NL East title most seasons.

I too am a big fan of minor league baseball, particularly our local Double A affiliate of the Nationals. They won 4 consecutive Eastern League Championships in the 90's.

My highlight was the deciding game of a championship series game against the Yankees affiliate, which was Norwich then. Our Harrisburg team trailed by four with two out and the bases loaded. An infield single brought us to within three, and then with two out, Milton Bradley lined a 3-2 pitch over the right field wall to win the series. Players for Norwich that game included Nick Johnson, Marcus Thames and Alfonso Soriano.

I've also seen Jeter, Bonds, Garciaparra, Rolen, Ryan Howard, Justin Morneau, Deion Sanders and Andy Pettite play at this level.

The minor league experience brings you in close touch with the players. Because my family and I went to many of the games and my kids would hang out near the dugouts, we got to know quite a few of the ball players. Now when we go to major league games, guys like Michael Barrett, Vladimir Guerrerro, Jamey Carroll or Cliff Floyd will stop to say hello during batting practice.

watching games back in MA with my father and my brothers.. this was all i had...the only thing that ever mattered to me.

the boston red sox.

best/worst thing ever.