As fans, how much do we root for the laundry?

you state that Earl Morrrallmthrew the SB constantly but you believe in the purity that is mother Russia.

 

Always been laundry, but as a kid, I used to root for the players a lot more. I always wanted them to do well after they got traded/left via free agency. Except of Neil O’Donnell. I never wanted him to do well after shitting the bed in the Super Bowl.

 

I don't get some of the hatred for players who change their laundry.

I get DC being upset about at Harper, but Angels fans got pissed at Mark Texiera, who spent about half a season with the team and left for a monster free agent contract. Same with Dodgers fans and Manny Machado. Everyone knew he was a temporary fill in for injured Corey Seagar but he's looked at as a traitor for leaving.

 

No, I don't.

 

Well, Manny Machado is a flaming asshole, so...

But yeah, I don't get the anger toward someone like Teixeira. But Johnny Damon leaving the Red Sox to go the Yankees? Dead to me.

 

None of it makes sense, except in some us-versus-them primordial view. But when the 'us' is no longer really 'us', regions need narratives to create an attachment to the people representing them. Yes I root for the teams in the city where I was born, but my parents and the people around me who develop my interest would not care as much if the rosters of the teams were constantly changing.

Hey remember that year 18 year old Bobby Orr was good for the Bruins? Too bad he left for the Blues after a year. I'll tell my kid how great he would have been if he stayed and I could have watched him. Oh well.

You don't root for the laundry. You root for a history, a legacy. Something, no matter how flimsy, that can hold up to the stupidity of fandom.

 

I don't get fandom beyond a certain age. (For me it was my 30s)
I'm not mocking it; I've privately mourned that I don't feel the same way about my teams.
I came to understand that I was probably more interested in building memories than living and dying with the teams.

 

Still root for the laundry. Was incredibly easy when Sam Mills went to Charlotte after years of leading the Dome Patrol in New Orleans (yes, there was Rickey Jackson and Pat Swilling was a swift, dangerous edge rusher and Vaughn Johnson hit like a tank, but Sam called the defense). Easy when a guy like Luke Kuechly does what he does and quietly and without notoriety ... or when David Tepper tells the owners to stick it and signs Eric Reid. Not always easy when Cam Newton says stupid things regarding women or Jerry Richardson makes a fool of everything associated with him.

Was easy when Ron Francis returned to Raleigh. Easy to root for Cam Ward. Bit my lip when Mark Recchi came to Raleigh to be part of the Cup run.

Still root for the laundry. But, as with many sorts on this board, we know the in and outs of a lot more. Taken with a grain/pound/ton of salt ...

 

The Triangle was the only other place I've lived other than SEC country where you were expected to choose an ACC team to cheer for, even if you didn't attend any of them (or really care). It didn't take long to figure out the demographics and choices. And some people, like my friend Elson Armstrong Jr., were huge Tar Heel fans because they were first to break the color barrier. (Of course, Elson could also recite the entire history of North Carolina Central's "exhibition game" against Duke.)

 

Good for Dean Smith, and incredibly gutsy for Charlie Scott to endure the crap he did.

A little easier for those of us who attended a Triangle institution ... that way, the choice is made (easier still when a parent also attended one of the schools).

And, while it's great that some in the Triangle pull for one of the schools, if they're displaced and they're loyal to their alma mater elsewhere, good. I've been displaced in other markets ... didn't find a "school" to make mine. Already had one. So should the displaced if they so choose.

 

Covering sports for 30 years totally inoculated me from the fan idea that players are somehow disloyal when they switch teams for career reasons. In fact, it's one of the very few sports topics where I will argue my case when fans say otherwise. It's just so nonsensical, not to mention hypocritical.

 

We have to separate the rational from the irrational. I would hope that most well adjusted adults would come to recognize the realities of sports, even without having had a ringside seat to see how the sausage was made, to mix metaphors. But the whole fucking system is built on people's irrational interests. And these irrational interests have to be fed by a story, just like every other fucking person has needed stories to function since the beginning of time. There is no story if Pedro Martinez was really good for the Red Sox in 1998 but awesome for the highest bidder in 1999.