The unfortunate necessities of fandom
Oct. 13th, 2011 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularI was born in 1971 in Columbia University Medical Center, at the north end of Manhattan Island, within a stone's throw of the old Hilltop Park, the home of the New York Highlanders, who would become the New York Yankees.
My parents never told me any of this, but I suspect that New Yorkers are subjected to an arcane ritual on birth or naturalization that allows them to become fans of the New York Yankees without their souls being sandblasted away to oblivion. Some choose otherwise, as is their right, but calling New York home allows us that luxury. (The invocation is dissipated as soon as you wish misery upon them, and cannot be cast a second time.)
However ... those who invoke the protection of that semi-ancient ritual, which may or may not involve being anointed with beer from the last barrel brewed by Colonel Jacob Ruppert, occasionally find themselves burdened with obligations they (I should say we) find distasteful.
To wit: I have sympathy for the Chicago Cubs. Up until now, I have wished them well, and have winced in sympathy at their difficulties.
However...
If the reports are accurate, and the Cubs are now being placed in the hands of Theo Epstein, that must change.
I'll still wish the Cubbies well, and hope that they ascend to the peak ... just as soon as they rid themselves of the taint of the Red Sox.
The taint isn't that the Sox won. It isn't even that they won by defeating the Yankees in the most agonizing manner possible. It's that in victory, their fan base became vengeful and bloodthirsty and ...
...sorry. I'm still bitter. It took me a while to get over 2004, and it also took a different arcane procedure to allow me to look at baseball with some semblance of equanimity. (That procedure was painful. Think the Klingon Rite of Ascencion, only with good bagels.)
Intellectually, I think I may still want the Cubbies to do well, but I dare not challenge the arcane rituals, lest my own soul be torn away as I cast aside their protection.
Well, there's one point where I can unreservedly root for the Cubs.
That'd be when the Red Sox go to Wrigley.
My parents never told me any of this, but I suspect that New Yorkers are subjected to an arcane ritual on birth or naturalization that allows them to become fans of the New York Yankees without their souls being sandblasted away to oblivion. Some choose otherwise, as is their right, but calling New York home allows us that luxury. (The invocation is dissipated as soon as you wish misery upon them, and cannot be cast a second time.)
However ... those who invoke the protection of that semi-ancient ritual, which may or may not involve being anointed with beer from the last barrel brewed by Colonel Jacob Ruppert, occasionally find themselves burdened with obligations they (I should say we) find distasteful.
To wit: I have sympathy for the Chicago Cubs. Up until now, I have wished them well, and have winced in sympathy at their difficulties.
However...
If the reports are accurate, and the Cubs are now being placed in the hands of Theo Epstein, that must change.
I'll still wish the Cubbies well, and hope that they ascend to the peak ... just as soon as they rid themselves of the taint of the Red Sox.
The taint isn't that the Sox won. It isn't even that they won by defeating the Yankees in the most agonizing manner possible. It's that in victory, their fan base became vengeful and bloodthirsty and ...
...sorry. I'm still bitter. It took me a while to get over 2004, and it also took a different arcane procedure to allow me to look at baseball with some semblance of equanimity. (That procedure was painful. Think the Klingon Rite of Ascencion, only with good bagels.)
Intellectually, I think I may still want the Cubbies to do well, but I dare not challenge the arcane rituals, lest my own soul be torn away as I cast aside their protection.
Well, there's one point where I can unreservedly root for the Cubs.
That'd be when the Red Sox go to Wrigley.
