Can you remember the first time you
had your first team? What I mean by that is do you remember the first time you
felt the desire to cheer on a team. A team you felt was your team? A team that
you felt you could go behind and put your faith in?
For some people this is obvious. For
some it’s the moment they were born or the moment they went to their first
school. Some wait til college to really get behind a team. They feel a
connection to that team. There are very few professional teams, if any, that I feel
I can get behind. I like watching individual players. I like watching dynamic
plays. I usually like to follow players that put on a show. Because of this I tend
to be what some term a “fair weather fan”. I don’t care though. Should I feel
sorry for following players closer than I follow teams? LeBron James is an
example. The man is a beast on the basketball court. When he played for the
Cavs did I root for the Cavs? Of course. He was awesome to watch. Before he
went to the Cavs could I tell you anything abo the institution? No, ill be
frank I didn’t know a thing. Now that he’s left the organization do I care
about the Cavs? No. I watch Miami now(and even though LeBron choked and even
though he’s getting a lot of heat for his behavior and lots of people think he’s
cocky he’s still an incredible player who is fun to watch). Michael Vick is
another person who is fun to watch. When he was a Falcon I watched Atlanta now he’s
an Eagle I watch the Eagles (My wife also happens to be a fan since they are
from Philly so it works out). These players are fun to watch and I like it. But
I haven’t really gotten behind a team.
That’s a
lie:p my first team was probably Waimea High Menehunes. It was my school and I cheer
for them. Then I went to BYU and I cheered for them(sometimes it’s painful to
watch them play and they have let me down a lot in the past but it’s still my
school). I like UH too but at the professional level there aren’t any teams
from Hawaii. It would cost too much to have everyone fly back and forth for
games so I never really grew up behind a team and so I've never really had a
team. That is, until nowJ
I am officially a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies
It all
started when I married my beloved wife Sarah. She has a custom of going back to
the east coast once a year and when I married her I had the opportunity to go. I
personally have no connection to the east coast besides her. So anyway of all
the souvenir things that I could buy from Philly the one thing that I wanted
was a hat. I like hats and I have never owned a MLB one(I usually just buy
something from Lids and put a patch on it or just wear a blank one. I used to
get surf gear eg quicksilver, T&C etc but I stopped cuz they got expensive.
Plus I don’t like any of the teams enough to actually sport their gear). So I went
there with the intention of buying me a hat. I wanted the old school maroon one
because I liked the color better than the red. I found a hat a bought it and
had a neat new maroon hat and that was that.
Well I thought
that was that but it wasn’t.
my wife will tell you that I get more attention from people
because of my hat than any other thing about me(its debatable. I get attention
for being brown and for wearing Hawaii gear too that’s why). People have
stopped me though to ask about the hat and ask if I was from there. My response
is always the same. I tell them my wife is from there. Besides the attention I began
to grow fond of my little that. It seemed to match with most anything, it was
new and in good condition. It was comfortable and I liked how I looked in it. It
started to grow on me.
We recent
had the opportunity to fly to Philly again. The weather was lovely and I recognized
a lot of stuff from before. On the plane ride over we were watching the game on
TV. It was the Phillies and the Cardinals trying to see who would go to the
NLCS. As I sat on that plane I felt the familiar excitement; the excitement
that arises from having a team to cheer for. The excitement that stems from
being around lots of other people who seemed unified in one cause. With determination
that matches that of the players, each fan believes that he or she can cause the
team to win. It is to somehow with sheer will power, push your team forward. With
more faith than you seen on most Sundays (tragically) everyone is united and
hoping and watching in intense anticipation for the game leading scores and the
amazing defensive stops. I felt that excitement again as I watch the Phillies. It’s
a first for me to feel that for a baseball team. They continued to grow on me.
And then they tragically lost! Oh the heart break! Oh the disappointment? What
happened? Where were our star players? Why were they not clutch? The game was
still in reach and the came up empty….lame….how is it that I feel such things
for a team I never knew….
Finally,
we arrive at the present time. I am sitting in my Advanced Physiology class and
I am walking to me seat and another kid in class says “hey where’s your Phillies
hat? hehe”. The familiar taunting tone was barely detectable yet it was
present. I stopped to think about it for a second and realized what he had been
talking about. He saw me with my hat beforehand wanted to rub in the fact that
they lost. It made sense. After class I approached him and casually talked to
him about it. he lived in Boston and Atlanta and was a Braves and Red Sox fan. He
talked about the Philly fan base and the team as I expressed my dismay to him. And
like the sun rising it the morning it dawned on me;p
I am a
Phillies fan. The idea had slowly but surely grown on me over time. As my
friend spoke to me I felt it. I felt the pride that a fan feels when speaking
of his team. I felt the anticipation of next year’s team and a hope for another
shot at the World Series. I felt like I could identify. I felt like I finally
found a professional baseball team to root for. I decided then that I was a
Phillies fan and that I would cheer for them. No matter how good or bad they
are I will cheer for them. It’s a good feeling to be a part of something bigger
than you. For lots of people being a fan is rather insignificant. It’s not a
promotion and it’s not a honor someone bestowed. It’s not something you're born
into and it’s not really something exclusive. You don’t have to be rich or poor
or belong to any clubs in order to be a fan yet you still get to be unified,
when your team is on the field, in cheering. It took me a while to realize it.
in fact it grew on me so slowly I barely realized it. But that day it was clear
to me. And I'm glad. Instead of having just a nice maroon accessory I now wear
my hat with pride.
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