Jumping Ship?

[MvP]

Another issue with rooting for another team is that you have to be very dedicated to it due to the 162 game season. Since ESPN only talks about and shows highlights of the big-market teams (basically Yanks/Sox), you're gonna have to be on MLB.com checking box scores and highlights almost every day. This may sound easy for the majority of sports fans on this website, but for a non-diehard fan, it's difficult. It takes more dedication to follow an out-of-state team in the MLB than in any other sport.

 

[Slateman]

I guess I did that with the Orioles.

Part of it was the Nationals coming to DC in 2005. But mainly it was how awful Peter Angelos was during the whole process.

 

[FirstTimer]

I grew up loving baseball in the 1990's, it was my favorite sport. I remember watching the Red Sox play as many nights as I could for an ADD 8 year old. Growing up on the Rocket, Mo Vaughn, Mike Greenwell, Tim Naehring, John Valentin, Troy O'Leary, etc. was such a fun time.

After the 2004 season, I lost all interest in baseball as a whole, specifically because the Boston Red Sox fan base and their management style. In 2007, I played an exhibition Madden game against my roomate as the Sox beat the Rockies to win the World Series.

I love everything about the game, but I hate everything the Red Sox stand for. Is it wrong of me to abandon the local yahoo's (minus Yawkey, kyhadley, etc.) and to start rooting for a random team that's never really had any success? I need to find a way to get back into it, and what a better way then to follow a team such as the Kansas City Royals or Oakland Athletics, aka all hail the small market team?

Is there anything wrong with this? Anyone ever jumped ship on a team before? It feels weird to me, because New England sports is all I really know, but in order to get back into the game I feel it has to be done.

I jumped ship from the Cardinals to the Cubs years ago on the NL side of things. I grew up a Cardinals(and Red Sox fan) because my dad was. Well I live in an area more saturated with Cubs coverage so over time I started knowing more/following the Cubs more and that grew into fandom.

I still remember waking up and reading Cardinals boxscores though. Loved me some Brian Jordan, Ron Gant, and Ray Lankford. Rick Ankiel is still one of my favorite players etc.

Two reasons...

1) They despised everything the Yankees were about, then just souled their soul (sic) to achieve their success. Buying championships and throwing money at any player that's a free agent isn't my idea of fun. Always been the guy who built up bad teams in video games since I was young.

2) The fucking fans... just awful. I've never seen a worse fan base. New England Patriots fans are much better than Red Sox fans. I could write a 300 page essay on how bad the fans of the Red Sox are.

I'd disagree a bit about "buying ships" Especially in 2004 and 2007. Thos teams were built on some pretty decent trades plus some nice signings and some nice homegrown talent. But I can see your point. The "woe is me shit" gets old from the fanbase but I generally ignore that.

As far as fanbases go, The Red Sox IMO are one of the better ones in baseball and comapred to Chicago fans...well they are brilliant. You live around them more though but I will say this, the ones who talk the most seem to be the dumbest and most meatheaded, but that goes for any fanbase really so i think coupled with you wanting to make a change to start with the fan issue seems worse than it actually is. Just my two cents.

As far as a team to follow....Tough call. I'd say it'd come down to: Cubs. :smug: Maybe St Louis. Coming from Boston you'll want a team with some history behind it. The Braves would be a great one as well. Easy to follow. Really good young talent. Good/interesting history. Easy to follow nationally thanks to DirecTV.

I'd lean towards the Braves though.

 

[Sharkweather]

Easy to follow nationally thanks to TBS.

Wut?

Ted Turner doesn't own the Braves anymore.

 

[FirstTimer]

Wut?

Ted Turner doesn't own the Braves anymore.

Could have sworn TBS still shows a shit ton of their games. Maybe I'm confusing them with MLB Netowrk of the local Fox Sports statio. DirecTV and the million channels I get fucks with my head. I know I saw A LOT of Braves baseball last year.

Yeah it's the regional SPorts I'm picking up along with the MLB Extra Innings and MLB Network.

My bad. I still say go with the Braves. They seem to always have a solid national broadcast schedule too because of a pretty damn strong national fanbase.

Plus it's an easy transition for you Len, they used to be from Boston.

 

[Golden Taters]

Become a Mariners fan, we suck and have never made the World Series.

 

[NAHSTE]

Len, don't you live in New Hampshire? Might I suggest the Blue Jays? You get all of their prospects coming through the AA affiliate, the Fisher Cats. At least then you'll have some sort of personal connection to the team by following the kids through the farm system. Plus they are scrappy underdogs who are still decently fun to follow and watch, and you get to cheer against the evil empires.

Could have sworn TBS still shows a shit ton of their games. Maybe I'm confusing them with MLB Netowrk of the local Fox Sports statio. DirecTV and the million channels I get fucks with my head. I know I saw A LOT of Braves baseball last year.

Yeah it's the regional SPorts I'm picking up along with the MLB Extra Innings and MLB Network.

My bad. I still say go with the Braves. They seem to always have a solid national broadcast schedule too because of a pretty damn strong national fanbase.

Plus it's an easy transition for you Len, they used to be from Boston.

LOL at people who still think TBS shows Braves games exclusively. They show a national broadcast every Sunday, maybe like 3-5 a year include the Braves. TBS stopped airing the Braves in 2007 or '08 so they could get playoff baseball and increase their national presence.

Another issue with rooting for another team is that you have to be very dedicated to it due to the 162 game season. Since ESPN only talks about and shows highlights of the big-market teams (basically Yanks/Sox), you're gonna have to be on MLB.com checking box scores and highlights almost every day. This may sound easy for the majority of sports fans on this website, but for a non-diehard fan, it's difficult. It takes more dedication to follow an out-of-state team in the MLB than in any other sport.

Not with an mlb.tv account!

:sammysosadatass:

 

[Mogriffjr]

Become a Rays fan...

or Mets, they seem to want to do it the right way with building up a team...besides u can come suffer with me and empire...

 

[Villain]

If you root for a Chicago team you get to catch some games on WGN. If you root for the Dodgers you get to be a fan during a new era with a new owner. If you root for the A's you get the opportunity to be excited about the development of an awesome young prospect only to see him traded away just at or before his prime.

 

[Woy]

Root for the Cardinals because I root for them. :motte:

 

[Len B]

Len, don't you live in New Hampshire? Might I suggest the Blue Jays? You get all of their prospects coming through the AA affiliate, the Fisher Cats. At least then you'll have some sort of personal connection to the team by following the kids through the farm system. Plus they are scrappy underdogs who are still decently fun to follow and watch, and you get to cheer against the evil empires.

Good point. I don't know if any of you remember, but I used to be the clubby for the Fisher Cats when Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil and Travis Snyder were there. I actually live in Manchester, where the AA affiliate is located. Can see games for incredi-cheap.

The negative to this though, is I'd now like two teams kg likes :smug:

 

[killgod]

Good point. I don't know if any of you remember, but I used to be the clubby for the Fisher Cats when Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil and Travis Snyder were there. I actually live in Manchester, where the AA affiliate is located. Can see games for incredi-cheap.

The negative to this though, is I'd now like two teams kg likes :smug:

Do it.

We can have a VSN Polak convention when MattUM comes to town to see a game. (Just don't tell him I'm going to induce vomit all over his dad)

 

[NAHSTE]

Good point. I don't know if any of you remember, but I used to be the clubby for the Fisher Cats when Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil and Travis Snyder were there. I actually live in Manchester, where the AA affiliate is located. Can see games for incredi-cheap.

The negative to this though, is I'd now like two teams kg likes :smug:

I remember that, if I recall you hated the jerb?

But yeah if the ML affiliate is in your town, that seems like a guilt-free bandwagon hop to me. No one could hold that against you. Isn't Toronto the next closest big league city as well? SOUNDS LIKE A MATCH TO ME.
:joeybats:

 

[Len B]

Yeah, job was awful. Lasted about three months before I said fuck this, and told the guy I was all set.

 

[Youk]

Good point. I don't know if any of you remember, but I used to be the clubby for the Fisher Cats when Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil and Travis Snyder were there. I actually live in Manchester, where the AA affiliate is located. Can see games for incredi-cheap.

The negative to this though, is I'd now like two teams kg likes :smug:

I'd rather take that than having to be washed up Juan Gonzalez's bat boy when he came to the Long Island Ducks...

Back to an older topic, the Red Sox fans really kill me once in a while. I think the fact that I don't live in New England helps though. I don't have to deal with the idiots who don't know what they are talking about, or shit on the Yankees for spending money while the Red Sox do the same, etc. All I hear about is Yankees this and Mets that (not so much), so avoiding the obnoxious (Red Sox) fans is easy. The fans have became the exact thing that I hated about Yankees fans. The arrogant, spend now, championship every season or it's a failure mentality. Obviously you want to win every season, but before when the Sox didn't make it, they would make some changes, but it wouldn't be this disaster that we saw this past season. It's just another Red Sox collapse and failure, but it's not "lovable" anymore.

I think there are several types of fans, no matter how hardcore or oblivious they are. The loyalists, bandwagoners, underdog lovers, and the ones who don't care. The loyalists will stick with the team, no matter the success or failure. The bandwagoners will root for the better teams in the league. The underdog lovers will go for the underdog teams, which is where I think a lot of Sox fans stood. That's why when all of the bandwagoners came along, the underdog fans bounced, and the loyalists were getting sick of it.

In the end, go with the Seattle Mariners. I used to follow them a bit as a kid just because of Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, and Ken Griffey, Jr. It's a completely different team, but you don't have to be a diehard fan of any team. Just find one to follow a bit, to keep you into baseball.

 

[NAHSTE]

mariners till i die

:crying: