When I was a kid, I had favorite teams. Growing up in western Connecticut, it was just about obligatory to follow the Yankees or Mets. Just my luck: I chose to root for the Yankees in the early 1970s, which was just about the least successful era in their storied history.
Due to fantasy baseball, I cared more about Matt Garza pitching well than I did about who won the Sox-Rays game last night.
Just before the Yankees turned the corner with the help of Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, and other early spoils of the free agency era, I switched my allegiance to the San Diego Padres. I would go as far as to say that I was likely the only person in Connecticut who would claim the Padres as a favorite team.
Why did I opt to root for such an incredibly woeful team? I think it was a spillover effect. I always liked the San Diego Chargers uniforms, and I always liked to pull for an underdog. Hence I ended up with two awful franchises to root for in the 1970s.
Hey, you couldn’t call me a bandwagon hopper.
When I moved to Boston for college in the 1980s, I gradually adopted another long suffering franchise in the Red Sox. However, I also joined a Rotisserie baseball league in 1986, and it has made me a permanent baseball mercenary.
Sure, I enjoyed it when the Red Sox finally won it all in 2004 and again in 2007. For the most part, though, being a fantasy baseball owner has led me to root for individuals while remaining somewhat indifferent to teams.
At its worst, fantasy baseball makes me root for ridiculously specific results. Last night was a good example. I do like to see the Red Sox win, but Matt Garza—one of my starters—was pitching for the Rays, and Rafael Soriano is my closer as well as theirs. On the other hand, I picked up Sox rookie Daniel Nava recently.
As a result, I ended up rooting for a low-scoring game in which Nava might hit a home run for the lone tally off Garza. If the Sox were to win, let it be 1-0. If they must lose, let’s have it be 2-1 with Soriano getting the save while Nava gets four hits.
Certain rules do emerge. You have to root for one of your pitchers against one of your hitters, as pitchers play much less frequently. You can get unduly excited when a player hits a home run with the score already 10-1—a point at which most fans have checked out figuratively or literally.
You really do start to care about whether Ramon Castro will be a better backup catcher than Jason Varitek.
It may make you more knowledgeable about baseball, but you also become less partisan about your favorite team.
Is that a good thing? Probably not, but there’s no turning back now.
