Home Teams Vs Favorite ones
(aside, here's some [link|http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1172618|OWL stuff]).
Kewl pictures, thanks!
Never works to be for both teams. You'll always come away bittersweet. Better to say - screw all you Cards fans, I'm an Astros nut (followed by getting drenched in liquids of various content levels). If the Cards then win, everyone will love to give you a hard time. If the Cards lose, you not only get to rub it in, but also be hailed as a true assessor of talent.
I've never had that happen, come away bittersweet, for example. Maybe that's because I cared about non-home teams that had their own magic or fame to them, at the time.
First off, I haven't been into baseball in years. When I first got into sports in general, my ex-fiance was working at the stadium, so I initially tried to develop an interest to have something in common with him. But I didn't just want to root for the home teams with him, because that was "his turf" and I know that sounds funny, but he was very competetive and territorial, so I found my own teams to root for (mostly so he would have that sense of competition with me).
Biggest problem was that I found teams the rest of the world revered for one reason or another like the Houston Astros, when Nolan Ryan was at his height of greatness. People respected the Astros because of Ryan. And there were the Penguins who were bringing into being a young player named Mario Lemieux, who was starting to make a name for themselves.
Those were the only teams I got into at the time, I never cared for feetball. Then, when I was away from my ex, and had someone who cared about sports, i.e. John, and who welcomed me rooting for the home teams with him, I basically learned to root for the home teams with him. Now he doesn't like hockey, so I never had that issue with the Blues, but when I liked the Blues, Brett Hull was a St. Louis Household name, so once again, greatness. And when I first started liking football, Warner was taking us to the Super Bowl, once again, greatness.
So my new rule is that basically I root for my favorite teams, Baseball-Astros, Hockey- Penguins, Ducks, Sharks, Football- Steelers unless they are playing my home team in an extreme situation such as the playoffs.
It's hard not to get into the spirit of St. Louis sports fever when one of their sports teams is into the playoffs or headed to the final showdown, so it works.
And a side note, if I wear anything with Mario Lemieux or the Penguins around town, or even to the Blues game, (although I usually wear something about each team in that case), people understand I am admiring a great hockey player in Mario, and aren't offended by my show of support for the Penguins.
However.... if you wear a Steelers shirt or show support opposite the cardinals, (i.e. my Astros hat), they aren't as friendly. I try not to bring trouble on myself especially in a bar when watching sports. ;)
Sitting on the fence, just makes both sides want to pelt you. :-)
So I'm not exactly sitting on the fence, I just have my favorite teams, and then I have my home teams. John, believe it or not, doesn't have favorite teams either way, he just loves to watch football. He doesn't care for baseball, but he has gotten into hockey. But when work tells him to wear red, and root for the cardinals, he dutifully wears red and takes one of our stuffed cardinals to sit on his monitor. And he's even watched parts of the baseball games, although not an entire one. So it's all about that St. Louis Sports fever. ;) We're caught up in it, whether we want to be or not.
Hope that makes sense, and sorry it was a little longer than I usually post now.
Brenda
