Baseball, Death and Are You a Bad Fan?

By Jack Jablin

Yeah, it's kinda like that

On Tuesday, the 8th of August, I sat in row X of Kauffman Stadium - just yards from Kansas City's famous Arrowhead Stadium - with my best pals at my side and frosty dew in hand. I had come to see the Red Sox and Royals do battle in a series that may as well have been a "gimmie" for the BoSox, but there I was, front and center in Kansas City rooting for my team regardless of the task before them. I ignored the thousands of BoSox fans behind me, I stood strong as the mammoth typhoon known as "Red Sox nation" surged toward the overwhelmed Kansas Royalty. As far as I knew, I would at the very least get the chance to root for my team and watch Sox phenom Jonathon Lester perform, and while I believed that my Royals could overcome the odds, I had no idea what this game would mean in the long run.

No idea, at least, until the Boston Herald reported that Jon Lester was being tested for cancer. If this were true, Lester's career may tragically be cut short and this game may have been one of the very few that he ever got to start.

Of course, this article was merely a cheap way to hook readers and sell newspapers. I say this not only because of the fact that Jon Lester's enlarged Lymph Nodes could mean anything from a minor infection, to cancer or any number of things in between, but also because it surely caused undue stress to thousands of fans, supporters and baseball fans alike. Jon Lester's physical condition is certainly a serious one, but to make the leap into "let's give him a prayer, a coke and a smile" territory is questionable ethics on many levels. He may have been tested for cancer, but this kind of irresponsible reporting is as exaggerated as putting out a news flash reading "BIG GEORGE UNDERGOING TESTS FOR COLON CANCER!!!" every time that Steinbrenner has a colonoscopy.

Never the less, the 'news' does get one thinking about life, death and the big picture of baseball. Do you think somebody who dedicated their life to baseball would complain about their choices if all of those days on the field gave them skin cancer? Do you think that any fan who goes a lifetime without seeing his team win it all really sheds a tear on his death bed? Well, I may not be the oldest person on this site, I may not (hopefully) be near demise, but in my experience, it's the moments we've lived that are important, not the moments that never came to fruition. It's seeing your hero, meeting an icon, or merely having a deep love for your team that gives baseball a real purpose; why shouldn't it be the same way with life?

Of course, life isn't as simple as who you meet or what you witness. Life isn't something you can sum up, no matter how often writers like myself try to make words sound poetic or logical, life will always be neither. Life changes, it sideswipes you often and sometimes it hits you hard. Sometimes horrible things happen - like twenty two year old kids getting cancer before they can even define the word "prime" - sometimes things change for the better. However, if there is one thing that stays constant, it's the ability to rely on yourself. Your instincts will never betray you, so you shouldn't second guess yourself. You shouldn't believe in something or follow someone just because some external source tells you to, you should experience it as your own and find your own way... Which leads me to the question, Are You a Bad Fan?

August was a horrible month for bandwagon fans. The thousands of Chicago White Sox hats that have popped up since last October have mysteriously vanished into the vast sea of Dodger blue that has been laying dormant in the shadows. Now, with Yankee fans coming out of the woodwork, and people saying "oh yeah, I've always loved the Tigers", the question on tap seems to be, "which side are you on?" Are you a "pink hat fan", or are you part of ye olde faithful? The fact is, baseball is about team colors, it's about loyalty and supporting your team through the thickest patches of darkness; the fans are the ones I see wearing BoSox hats, despite their team losing 6 in a row and the "Boston Massacre". The real fans are the ones who stand and fight while their team is hurting, they are the ones who can look to next season and say "damn, this was a hell of a ride! I can't wait 'till next year!"

The hardest part about bandwagon fans is that they infiltrate our homes, our stadiums, our families and our friends. They are like spies, the James Bond's and Sydney Bristow's of the sporting world, and their mission is simple: search for and acquire recognition. They'll always be on the podium, and they'll never feel the heartbreak of defeat because they're sitting comfortably in the motherly arms of limitless success. For this, should we hate them? Perhaps, but remember, once you hate one gaggle of bandwagon fans, you have to be universally against fans like them, family or otherwise.

Yes, bandwagon fans are the plague of sports, but how do we know who is loyal and who is a fan for hire? Well, Check the Stats and I have developed a fool proof system to wade through the crowd and pluck the bandwagon fans from the shadows; we will reveal this system on this Monday's ODC. Until then, what say we stick to one team and just enjoy the ballgames for what they are: poetry in motion. Years from now, we may not remember who won on September first, but I would rather forget that mundane detail than wallow in retrospect, asking myself whether or not I was even a fan on this day.

Stand tall, support your team and above all else, punch any White Sox "fan" who doesn't know who Buck Weaver is.

Cheers,
Jack Jablin

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