I made a bit of a mistake yesterday: I turned on sports talk radio for about ten minutes. The station was 790, the time was about nine a.m. And in those ten minutes, I heard Brad Davies tell me that once you move from a city, even if that city is where you grow up, you can no longer pull for that team to win. So if you were born in Chicago and moved to Houston for a job, you can no longer pull for the Cubs or White Sox. Or if you moved here from Boston, or St. Louis, or Cleveland, or New York, or anywhere, it doesn’t matter. You can only pull for the Astros.
Following this, Davies told me that he was pulling for the Lakers to beat the Spurs because he is bored by the Spurs. Not bored by the Spurs’ style of play. Or by any of their players. He’s just bored of seeing San Antonio win the thing all of the time. Now, I’ll let Jason handle the whole Spurs basketball thing, but I just want to ask: What kind of stupid decision is it to pull for a team because you’re bored by another team? The Rockets are out of the playoffs, and I really don’t watch the NBA much anymore, but the Spurs are a fun team who are well-coached, can play fast or slow, are good at the fundamentals, and are basically everything a basketball fan should want from a championship team once the hometown team is out of the running.
Then I made things worse by hopping on the internets and going to Chron.com to check up on Tuesday night’s Astros game. And what did I read? Jose de Jesus Ortiz saying that Astros fans are among the best in the majors while calling the atmosphere at MMP one of the best in baseball. Is he talking about the same bunch of fans who whined about the roof being opened during the World Series because it was too cold? Is he talking about the same fans who are louder for those stupid-ass scoreboard games they play between innings than they are during the game? Is he talking about the same people who scream whenever a pop fly is hit to second base? You mean those same fans who continue to treat Carlos Beltran like crap? Come on, the guy only played here for about four months. It’s not like he was here for several years. So grow up already.
Now, I haven’t been to as many stadiums as Mr. Ortiz – I’ve only been to 20. But there’s just no way you can expect me to believe that the plastic, manufactured atmosphere at MMP is one of the best in the majors. Go to a Yankee/Red Sox game, then you’ll see atmosphere. Or Giants/Dodgers. There was more atmosphere at U.S. Cellular for a nothing game between the White Sox and D-Rays last season than in just about any game I’ve ever seen at MMP.
So, Brad and Jose, do me a favor, please stop insulting my intelligence. – John Royal
This article appears in May 22-28, 2008.
