2008 Woodie Awards
The stormy fan
Ryan Weaver
Issue date: 10/27/05 Section: Opinion
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I have an issue with the "fair-weather fan" bashing I have seen in Boston in the past year, and specifically Lauren DeLong's "Fair-weather fans frustrate" article in last week's Berkeley Beacon.
Sure, everyone loves a winner, but anyone who roots for the underdog knows the losers are much more endearing. There's a mind-altering disease that old-school Red Sox fans are high on these days though: let's call it Hub-centricism.
The disease is defined by memory loss: now that the Sox have won and are the center of the sports universe, the "die-hard" fans believe it has always been thus, that there wasn't a time where crowds applauding fruitlessly was believed to be the cure for the Curse of the Bambino.
Now that we've all cheered and we've all cared, not sharing the Red Sox is unsportsmanlike, especially when a real supporter should believe that the best thing for the team is a more-the-merrier attitude-whether they win or lose.
I guess you could call me a stormy-weather fan. I think that teams whose loser status is legendary are the best to join. These organizations will roll out the welcome mat for anyone who roots for their cause.
For someone who was raised without a sports team, this has been key to those who command my adulation.
I don't think those on guard for "fair-weather fans" know what it is like not to have a team-one you're raised with, one you're trained to love. I grew up without a baseball or a football team to call my own in the sports-deprived state of Utah.
When my family moved to my mother's hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. before the start of high school, I came down with what some might call a bout of fair-weatheritis.
The Buffalo Bills enthusiasts welcomed me because it was in my blood, but also because they needed all the help they could get.
Not only did my mom root for the Bills, who were one of the lowliest teams on the scene and still are, but she also had cheered for them for 20 years while she was 2,000 miles across the country.
Sure, everyone loves a winner, but anyone who roots for the underdog knows the losers are much more endearing. There's a mind-altering disease that old-school Red Sox fans are high on these days though: let's call it Hub-centricism.
The disease is defined by memory loss: now that the Sox have won and are the center of the sports universe, the "die-hard" fans believe it has always been thus, that there wasn't a time where crowds applauding fruitlessly was believed to be the cure for the Curse of the Bambino.
Now that we've all cheered and we've all cared, not sharing the Red Sox is unsportsmanlike, especially when a real supporter should believe that the best thing for the team is a more-the-merrier attitude-whether they win or lose.
I guess you could call me a stormy-weather fan. I think that teams whose loser status is legendary are the best to join. These organizations will roll out the welcome mat for anyone who roots for their cause.
For someone who was raised without a sports team, this has been key to those who command my adulation.
I don't think those on guard for "fair-weather fans" know what it is like not to have a team-one you're raised with, one you're trained to love. I grew up without a baseball or a football team to call my own in the sports-deprived state of Utah.
When my family moved to my mother's hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. before the start of high school, I came down with what some might call a bout of fair-weatheritis.
The Buffalo Bills enthusiasts welcomed me because it was in my blood, but also because they needed all the help they could get.
Not only did my mom root for the Bills, who were one of the lowliest teams on the scene and still are, but she also had cheered for them for 20 years while she was 2,000 miles across the country.
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