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

My family is all from Pennsyl-tucky. We moved out of state when I was 6. I fell in love with the Steelers, Pirates, Penn State and Sixers and stayed with them.
Until the baseball strike of 94 and losing seasons
Until college football became a business (IMM) more interested in money than fairness. And the whole Sandusky scandal (I was cashed out before then).
When Barkley retired and the game became unwatchable.

I still love the Steelers. I hope I can hold it for as long as I live. I cried in 1981, on my birthday when the Steelers lost to the Bengals to miss the playoffs. It was the first year I started to watch games.

 

I was suggesting a scenario if Finley's one-year contract rule was in place.

 

I think rooting for the laundry leads to rooting for the participants. You tend to read more about guys from "your team," get to know their stories.

 

Bill fan, Sabres fan till I die. Grew up going to the local Jesuit school's Saturday night college basketball doubleheaders at the Aud, with my dad. So even though I didn't go there for college I'm also a Golden Griffin for life even though I haven't seen them play since 1974 or so.

Grew up an Indians fan, closest MLB team. Became a Twins fan when I moved to the Upper Midwest, then a Mariners fan when I moved to the PNW. The M's have sucked so bad since 2001 my fandom has waned considerably.

 

Wasn't the Indians' AAA team in Buffalo for a long time? It was so successful that it was in the running for the expansion to 28 teams, I believe. Maybe the expansion talk was just a feel good thing, but I remember the team was thought of one of the most popular AAA teams.

 

The spin cycle tries just as hard as all the other cycles but you never give it any credit!

 

Yes, the Indians were Buffalo's parent team for many year, after the Pirates, who also had a long run. The Indians moved their AAA affiliate to Columbus as part of the growing trend to keep as many affiliates in your customer area as possible. The Bisons were with the Mets for several years after the Indians but that did not work out well. Toronto has been an excellent parent team.

Buffalo was talked about in the last wave of expansion but just doesn't have the MLB corporate or population base. Triple A is perfect. Beautiful stadium in the center of a reviving downtown.

 

You are born to teams and into the leagues you were thrown. I root for the geography of my birthplace. I cheer for certain players outside my laundry, but there are not many.

Colleges are more my alma mater and my current geography, but I do root for two I have credit hours with and one where my wife works.

I also hate certain programs like Penn State and Michigan State for obvious reasons. Penn State more for the direct connection. MSU seems a little more indirect so less hate.

 

For the first 20-25 years it was pure territorial laundry ... Lakers, Dodgers, Rams, Kings, USC, Long Beach State ...

... and fuck the Angels and and Raiders and Clippers and UCLA.

Then the whole fanboi thing started to become less important.

I'm almost 48 and sports is about everything BUT the laundry.

 

For me, it's laundry plus team identity/personality. As others have noted, for those of us who were kids pre-cable, the nearest teams were far and away the easiest to root for. I'm from Georgia & have been a Braves fan since 1970. Didn't follow U.S. sports too consistently when I lived overseas, but I couldn't ever root intensely for another baseball team. (Was never tempted to root for the Natspos when I lived near DC, as I didn't like all the hype around Strasburg & Harper.) Otherwise, I'll tune in and out of fandom for teams I have some connection with if I like their personalities. Graduated from Vanderbilt, and I later followed their basketball & football teams when I liked their coaches (Stallings & Mason, not so much the others), I guess because coaches are more central to college team identities. When I lived in Madrid 2007-10, it was easy to root for Barca, but when Guardiola left & they got Chewy Luis Suarez, I lost interest. Couldn't ever be a fan of a one-and-done NCAABB team because of the lack of consistent identity, and that may be why I don't follow the NBA any more until the semis or finals. My son's interest has reawakened my fandom, especially for the Braves.

More generally, it seems like the nature of fandom has implications for efforts to build a new team or league. I would want a structure that encouraged some personnel stability over a period of a few years. Giving bad teams a chance to become competitive is also important, but that conflicts somewhat with keeping the same personnel. It's been fun to watch Atlanta United, but I'm not sure it would be fun to be a fan of one of the MLS's bad teams. Now that MLS has been around for 20+ years, it's developing the traditions/legacies that others have mentioned, as a few parents can tell their kids about following the same team as a kid.