Posts Tagged "fandom"
Hey, your fan is showing…
Over the last weekend I was kind of half watching the Battle of the Bay: 49ers versus Raiders while working on my Econ midterm [that I got an A- on!] and twittering about it when I got into a fun little battle of words with a Niner fan. The banter went back and forth, mostly about how crappy the Raiders are and my lack of a denial [I mean, they are!] but what stood out the most was this exchange:
While I am still a huge sports fan, I mainly feel the fanatic part of me has largely been tempered after taking classes at Michigan. I just don’t get caught up in the glitz of things like I used to; I’m just not as emotionally attached as I used to be.
That is a potential side effect but it doesn’t happen to everyone who works in sports. Some people still manage to maintain the complete fan naiveté, others become more tempered [like myself], and still others pretty much have their inner fan completely subdued as if they’re dosing up on Xanax or something.
Anywho, so my secret is out. I’m not that big of a sports fan anymore. I hardly keep up with anything and I’m lucky if I can remember who was drafted when [much to the chagrin of my nephew, who CONSTANTLY likes to ask me about so and so or who that football guy is]. Now compare that to the me in high school when I could recite the starting five for every basketball team in the NBA, the first 15 guys drafted in both the NFL and NBA drafts [oh, and when I actually watched the draft!] and when I was ready to go to death for my favorite teams. My life revolved around Sportscenter, so much so that I wanted to work for them. Yeah, I was ready to move out to Connecticut. Heaven forbid you say anything negative about someone I liked. I complained and moaned like the most seasoned of sports-radio call-in listeners about what I would do if I ran the team or how I would have managed a certain situation.
So pursuing a career in sports was the most obvious of things for me. If only I knew what that would entail. I’ve said it a few times before but I remember my very first day of class at Michigan, sitting in a classroom in the CCRB [Central Campus Recreation Building] above the squash courts and down the hall from the weight room with anticipation, only to be told that I would systematically be destroyed and built back up. Okay, not in those exact words but I’m sure that’s what Dr. George really meant to say.
Who knew that by the end of my four years there I’d turn into a pretty savvy and arguably [by some] emotionless fan. I was effectively groomed for management, which was pretty much the point. You can’t be a raging fan and properly manage a team [or, to be honest, work for a team]. You have to be able to make the proper and necessary business decisions, because after all, it is a business. Looking back, I know I would have sucked as a General Manager because I would have been too caught up in the fan aspect of a player instead of looking at it from a more critical eye. There are many layers that typical fans [not all of them!] miss out behind every decision.
And don’t get me started on trying to reason with a die-hard fanatic [trust me; I used to be one of them!]. Like many things, you cannot have a logical discussion with someone who operates wholly on the emotional side.
I did notice that when I started working for the minor league baseball team, my subsequent viewings of Sportscenter plummeted. It just reminded me too much of work. I wanted to come home and escape everything that happened that day and watching baseball highlights all night was not helpful. Then I began to dread going into extra innings because that meant I would be getting home that much later or that, at one point, didn’t care who won; I just wanted someone to get a run so I could finally go home!
I’ll let you in on a little secret: during the really long extra inning games, most front office staff are no where to be found because they’re in their offices finishing up as much work as possible so they can go home sooner after the game ends.
So in an effort to maintain my sanity, I started branching out and watching and paying attention to other things. I just don’t find it fun to be immersed in something all day and then come home to surround myself in the same stuff. Sometimes you just need a break and figure out how to better balance your work/life.
But I will say that I still have those moments of pure fandom; when you’re kicking back at a game and you’re caught up in the moment. Like how I was always excited when the home team knocked in the winning run in extra innings, or nearly going bat crazy watching that epic Yankees-Red Sox extra inning thriller a few weeks back. Or how much fun I had watching the Mariners’ play in Seattle.
And those moments feel soo good.
The fan in me hasn’t died. It’s just realized that the sun will rise again and the world will continue on whether or not the Yankees win the World Series.
And that, my friends, was a hard lesson to learn.
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