As a sports fan, it is exciting and fun when our teams win. Likewise, it is sad when they lose. However, it seems so much of sports fandom has to do with our interactions with other people. For example, when our team wins a championship, we buy shirts, hats, license plate frames, and just about anything else that allows us to tell the world that our team won the championship. We also are more than happy to brag a little bit with social media posts.
The significant portion of my own sports fandom comes from friendly rivalries with my friends. I have many memories growing up as a UCLA fan in Los Angeles and how excited we would be each year for the big game against USC and having ucla v usc day the Friday before the big game each year. Then I got to college and learned of a big rivalry that I really didn’t even know about… That is with all of my new friends in Northern California who basically hated all things Los Angeles, but especially the Dodgers and Lakers… My top two teams at that time.
After the Dodgers beat the Yankees for the 2024 World Series championship there was a text thread with several of my college friends. Most of them, save one other, are San Francisco Giants fans and thus haters of my Los Angeles Dodgers. However, in this case, I think it’s interesting to note that the group thread started earlier in the day when it was posted that another one of our friends had made the decision to let his dad die gracefully without any more significant medical efforts. As we are on vacation this week, I sat in the hotel restaurant, listening to Dodger talk on the Internet radio. So many of the callers who called in would talk about their fathers. Many mentioned fathers who had died. Many mentioned being dodger fans since childhood. Many mentioned never being able to attend a Dodgers World Series parade since the last World Series parade was in 1988 as they did not have one after the 2020 Covid/abbreviated season world championship.
I know for me personally the death of my mother in 2016 changed so much of my outlook on life. I still enjoy sports but I realize it really doesn’t matter. It’s fun when they win. It sucks when they lose. But it doesn’t matter. My friend who is sitting with his dying father… That matters.
I am not sure what my point is here…. I suppose my point is that we should enjoy sports. We should buy our shirts and hats and everything else. We should even send friendly jabs via text to our friends who are less fortunate with their sports teams. However, at the end of the day, it just doesn’t matter.
Peace and AUDI 5000 G
