This might be a dumb question, because I'm sure probably most people root for teams they watched as kids or teams where they live, but I'm from Mississippi - north Mississippi - and we never really had a "regional" baseball team. The Texas Teams, the Cards and the Braves were all a bit far away to really count (plus the Braves were pathetic). I didn't even get into baseball until I was in college, and that was the first year the Braves went to the World Series. I was pulling for them then, but the next year I felt it was a bit unfair to jump on the bandwagon of a newly-winning team I had never pulled for. Couple of years later I started watching the Cubs on WGN with Harry Carrey and really enjoyed them (and him) so I decided I'd be a Cubs fan.

Last year I decided I needed an AL team too, just for balance, but I hate the Orioles so I finally went with the Red Sox because 1) I liked the Cubs because of Wrigley, the Ivy, etc. and Fenway seemed to be a similar match; 2) I have this thing for Nomar G.; and 3) like the Cubs, they're sort of underdogs, or at least cursed.

This year I decided I also need a west coast team, since my two are midwest and northeastern, so I'm now a Padres fan, because 1) I love San Diego, the city itself; 2) "Some Like it Hot" was filmed in SD and I love Marilyn Monroe; and 3) I have this thing for Ryan Klesko. So now I'm a Cubs/Padres/Red Sox fan.

I've been so busy trying to decide what teams I like I'm just now really starting to follow them very closely. Anybody else have any strange reason they're for one team or another, or am I just a complete freak?

I fell in love with the Mariners in 1995 when I first moved to Seattle, it's kinda weird because I hate most other sports. Growing up in Southern Cal, I was always a Dodgers fan, and was a young kid during the "Fernandomania" years. I went to quite a few games with my brother in those days. I love to be at the ballpark in the summer, with the nice weather, cute guys, and the great smell of junk food. (now they have garlic fries, which I can't be without!) I'm back in California, and still listen to M's games. BTW, does anyone have "MLB EXTRA INNINGS"??? I'm thinking about getting it.

The first team I really got in to was the 1971 Oakland A's, when I was 11, the Reggie Jackson/Sal Bando/Catfish Hunter era. I liked them because their uniforms were cool--that green and gold!--and the players hated each other and probably did drugs; they looked like animals. I couldn't be accused of being a bandwagon hopper when they won 3 WS titles in a row.

In 1974, the Air Force base I lived on in Southern Joisey arranged a night at Yankee Stadium. Lucky me: 5th row seats behind the 3rd base dugout to see Nolan Ryan pitch. I became an Angels fan there and then and it's continued ever since.

I don't really root for any other teams--I'm not a whore--but I certainly, shall we say, intensely dislike certain other teams:

* Dodgers: The Anti-A's. Family-oriented, obsessed about their images (see: Garvey), everything I hated as a teenager. Still can't stand 'em and I chortle loudly at their every failure.

* Braves: Any team that uses/allows to be used in their name the term "America's Team" pisses me off (see: the Cowboys); that, and the fact that they've been really, really, really boring for dog's years and despite romping in relatively weak divisions, have only won one title.

* Mets: No rational explanation, I just can't stand them. Maybe it was my couple of bad experiences at their awful ballpark? The Mets *tee hee* have Mo Vaugh *buwahahahahahaha*!!

Strangely, I don't hate the Yankees though I'm usually not a fan of dynasties. They lack enough personality--they're kind of dull and workmanlike as they scythe through the AL--to really get my goat.

Ain't being a fan great?

I grew up in the Philly suburbs and have yet to attend a Phillies game. Stereotypical homo that I am, I did not enjoy watching sports in high school. Especially baseball. Mind numbingly slow! As child I just couldn't appreciate the slow pace. So i never became a Phillies fan. I do remember them winning the WS in 1980. I was 6 and didn't really care. but everyone else was happy so that was cool.

In college, I attended my first baseball game ever at candlestick park while doing a summer job in the Bay Area. No biggie, went to extra innings so that was kind of cool. I remember asking my friends lots of degenerate questions like what happens if....?

After college, I moved to Boston for graduate school and attended my first Red Sox game as part of the graduate council's orientation thing. One of the guys I went with was hot. That's basically all I remember, oh and the Red Sox won.

It wasn't until my hubby and I moved into an apartment across the river from Fenway that we really got into baseball. He's was a big baseball fan back when he was in High School, but there are no baseball teams in upstate New York so he fell out of the habit. When the Fenway lights were on, he would check up on the game out of curiosity. Eventually he watched more and more of the games, and I started paying attention when I saw Jason Varitek on the TV. I asked him who he was. He told me he was the catcher, and now I know I have a strong attraction to catchers.

So that's it -- location and a hot catcher.

I'd like to say that I'm a good loyal fan, but I'm not. I don't pay all that close attention... it's better for my sanity. 6 months is too long for me. I get burned out rather quickly. i get too emotionally involved for my own good.

Also, I like to joke that we can't ever be 'real' Red Sox fans as my better half was jumping for joy in 1986 rather than depressed and crying. He's a Mets fan from his Jersey Days.

I'm a Yankees and Jets fan because my father was. We've watched the games together and went to some of the games. My father is still a fan of both teams, but he cannot bear to watch the Jets anymore. It's rather difficult to watch a Jets game with Dad when they have one of their famous snatching defeat from the jaws of victory games.

I was a Rangers fan, also because my father was, but I morphed into a Devils fan. My father has never had any interest in Pro Basketball, but I follow the Nets a little, because they are the local team.

When I was 9 years old in 1986 I was taken on a field trip to a Mets game. Then I saw in the newspaper the next day that they were in first place. I became a fan overnight and now 17 years later I"m still a die hard fan (and still waiting for another world series!).

I never out and out root for other teams per se, I just might want one team to win over another if it has implications on the Mets.

When the Mets aren't in the postseason, I usually hope a team not normally in the playoffs wins (ie the angels last year), but I don't go nuts like I do for the Mets.

I LOATHE the yankees. I hate the braves but only recently.

Josh

Grew up close to Pittsburgh. Love the Bucs but hard to follow them now.

My team now is the A's because I live in the Bay Area and hate the Giants. Also because my little sister lives in Seattle and is a huge Mariners fan. Nice rivalry there.

Since I am originally from New York, there was really only one choice for me in baseball--the Yankees. My dad and I were the Yankee fans, and my two older brothers were the Mets fans. Yankee stuff has been all over my bedroom for 33 years, and now it's all over my office at work. It's funny, but the Yankees are what have kept Dad and I together all of these years. He could never handle the gay thing, nor my politics, so we always discussed the Yankees (or the NY Knicks or NY Rangers depending on the time of the year) instead. Since my dad and I have had so many differences, I can at least look fondly at all of the baseball games to which he took me. Even when he got laid off when I was kid and we had to move to Texas, we still went to Astros games or TX Rangers games (when the Yanks were in town, of course). When I get frustrated at my dad's lack of understanding about the way I (or anyone else whom is gay) live my life, I think about things like this. I guess it seems like a silly relationship, but it's the best we can do after all of these years.

I didn't become a baseball fan till I was around 12 or 13.I remember the Reds and Cubs were playing on tv at Crosley,and the announcer mentioned that the (Indpls) Indians were the Red's top farm club.So even though I liked the blue Cub unis,I decided the Reds were my team.Neither team was particularly good-the Cubs had Santo and Banks, and the Reds had some rookie named Rose. :cool: I became a big time Red's fan,and it broke my heart when they lost the series to the Orioles in 1970.

My first World Series exposure was the Cards/Red Sox in 1967.It seems unbelievable to me now,but I actually remember listening to the games on the radio over the intercom at my grade school.The next year my teacher actually brought in a tv and we watched the Cards/Tigers series on tv during school.I rooted for the Tigers because for some reason I didn't like the Cards-probably the fact that they beat the Bosox in that heartbreaker in '67.In '69 it was the Amazing Mets,and I think everybody outsde of Baltimore was pulling for Seaver and the Boys.I didn't really know anything about their history of total ineptitude,I just knew that I was swept up in the incredibility of the moment.No one thought they had a prayer because the Orioles seemed invincible.I remember betting some kid that the Mets would win 4 straight,and feeling like a fool when they lost game 1.But then they won the next 4-I think that might be where I got infected with the gambling bug.

That Mets squad was loaded with hotties.I didn't know I was gay or even what gay was,but I knew I liked looking at well- built, handsome men with their shirts off. I remember watching the post game lockerroom interviews and hoping to see some skin,the same way I do now. Everybody remembers Tom Terrific,but they had another young stud named Nolan Ryan.I remember an article in SI about the Mets.The author talked about going to Ryan's house on a hot day and being greeted by the barechested Ryan. Unfortunately,the guy from SI was too selfish to share the photos with the rest of us,but just the thought of seeing that prime specimen of young manhood without a shirt was enough to fuel plenty of fantasies for me. :cool:

I moved to Atlanta, and just started going to the games. This was back in the old days when a big turn out was 5000 fans. Watching them go from last place to contender was alot of fun.

I was born and grew up in the Lion of the Valley, St. Louis, and was in love with half the Cardinals players when I was growing up (Bake McBride, Keith Hernandez, Sixto Lezcano, Joaquin Andujar, Ozzie Smith, etc.), so it's a natural I root for them. I should say that I did not like baseball for a while because my father loved it, so there was a short period of rebellion, but I fell back in love and was a stats freak for many years (one reason I particularly root for certain pitchers).

I root for the Yankees because I always liked them, and wanted to have an AL team to root for. My two chief reasons for being a Yankees fan, I think, are Reggie Jackson and Dave Winfield, two of my all time favorite players. I still can never forgive George Steinbrenner for how badly he treated Winfield, though other teams have treated great players (Boston, Jim Rice, etc.) much worse. The fact that the Yankees have been winning over the last 7 years hasn't hurt, though I'd still root for them.

If my two teams end up facing each other in the World Series (as in 1964), it'd be very tough, but I would probably give the Cards the edge only because they haven't won as many Series (9 vs. what is it, 25?).

I'm a native Angeleno whose childhood was spent at Chavez Ravine watching the Dodgers and the Memorial Sports Arena (then the Forum and now Staples Center) watching the Lakers and Kings. I still love the Kings--am proud to be a season-ticket holder--and the Dodgers, but my pro basketball team of choice is the Blazers; I went to college in Portland, fell in love with the City of Roses and became a huge Blazer fan. Of course, it helped that I was living there in 1977 when the Blazers won the championship.

~Adam

Great thread topic, and great stories, all.

I grew up following my hometown Red Sox during the Yaz, Evans, Rice, Fisk years, and grew to love my new home city Expos, bad logo and all, from the early seventies on. I just won't know who to cheer for when my two teams meet in the World Series this year. :cool:

No other team comes close to those two, and I NEVER root for the Yanks or Braves. For any game where I don't really have a favorite team, I always root for the underdog.

My team above all teams: America's St. Louis Cardinals.

I'm not from St. Louis. I'm not from anywhere in traditional Cardinals country (south of Minneapolis, west of Terre Haute or Louisville, east of the Pacific and north of the Gulf of Mexico). I think I'm a Cardinals fan by divine intervention, or inspiration, or maybe some atavistic genetic trait that surfaces in my family on occasion.

I grew up in the Pittsburgh area and often caught the Cards at the worst baseball stadium of the recently past "modern" era ... Three Rivers. I fell for the really boring 70s Cardinals of Jerry Mumphrey, Ken Reitz and some guy named Mike Tyson (not that one). I think part of it's that the Cards would always hit a lot of foul balls near me (the only foul ball I ever caught was hit by a Cardinal), which to a teenager is a big thing. And part of it was the super-cool "two birds on a bat" logo they've used ever since I can remember. And the first World Series I can remember: Detroit vs. St. Louis, 1968.

And once you start to like the Cards, it's easy to fall in love with them. They have a great history and tradition. They win regularly ... but never so often that it becomes obnoxious. They do have the best fans in baseball ... smart, polite, loyal, devout. And St. Louis during baseball season is a great place for a baseball fan. Even some 80 year old grandmother on the street will talk you ear off about great moments in Cardinal history, or what free agent the Cards should sign.

My favorite NFL, NBA and (when I have one) NHL team will change over time. Now they're the Steelers, the Rockets and the Hartford Whalers (not the Carolina Hurricanes ever). But next year it could easily be the Jaguars, the Sac Kings, and the Winnipeg Jets. But, in baseball, the Cardinals will continue to be my team as long as I'm breathing.

[ April 23, 2003, 08:22 PM: Message edited by: Charlie in the Trees ]

What? Worse than the Vet? Are you out of your mind????!?!?

I fall under the "root for the teams where you live" category and since I've always lived in Philadelphia, well, you get the idea.

But it was interesting last where when I was in Baltimore for so long. I didn't really root for any Baltimore teams, but I wasn't exactly unhappy if they lost. So if I ever relocated for good, it would be easy for me to find a second set of teams to root for, strictly as backup, of course. wink

Growing up outside of M'waukee, I came of age during the short-lived Brewer glory days -- George Bamberger, Harvey's Wallbangers, Vukovich, Yount, Fingers ... consistently WINNING 80-90+ games -- a World Series appearance -- boy those memories are fading fast!

I've been out in the DC area quite a few years now, but still can't say I'm an O's fan. But since the Brew Crew moved over to the NL, I guess they're now my favorite AL team.

My grandmother became a die-hard Mets fan when they came to NY in 1962. All of her grandkids had to turn out as Mets fans, or she wouldn't feed us! "No Yankee fan is getting any of this food I spent all day cooking." The instant the Mets won the World Series in 1986, the phone in my dorm room rang--it was my grandmother, crying from happiness. She passed away nine years ago, but I still feel connected to her when I watch the Mets.

Metsboy, I'd love to see the Mets succeed, and the Yank$ fail miserably. what's up with the Red Sox? They need to keep up in the AL East, and put some pressure on the skanks.

On one of our first dates, my boyfriend took me to a game at Shea. Was it the beer? the pretzels? the win over the Phillies? the sexy catcher guy?

I don't know, but I've been a Mets fan ever since.

I grew up in Columbia, SC and other than a minor league baseball squad there are no pro teams there. I grew up following the Gamecocks of So. Carolina and have been a huge fan. I just love saying go Cocks! Hell, I think it's great that 40,000 people stand up and yell cocks at the top of their lungs. Is this a great country or what? I have followed the Braves for a long time, long before I moved to Atlanta. Even when I worked for the padres organization I still followed the Braves. After moving to Atlanta I have followed the Falcons more, but I still can't get into the Hawks. I do follow the Thrashers and they will soon be on their way since they have two young superstars on their team.

Like DCBucky, I also grew up outside of of MILWAUKEE. We'd go to County Stadium four or five time a year to see Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper, Stomin' Gorman, Rollie Fingers...awe yes, those were the days!!!

The one thing that remains the same from that wonderful time is that (Mr. Baseball) Bob Uecker is still calling balls and strikes on the Brewer Radio network! "Get up, get outta here, gone"!

I was only 12 yrs old when the BREWERS went to the '82 World Series and before I die I hope they get back!

!

I thought that folks in M'waukee went to County Stadium to eat Polish sausage, Bavarians, brats, and for the tailgating ... I didn't know they went Brewers games to watch baseball, too. wink

Seriously, the times I went to County Stadium, it seemed like all the folks in the stands talked about was the different brands of sausage that they sold over the years. (I think Johnsonville was the consensus choice.) Of course, those were the Tom Trebelhorn years, maybe even the year of Pat Listach, so I guess I can't blame them.

I follow the Cubs from Australia. In 1995 I was in Chicago & went to see the Cubs play & fell in love with the team. I also love their uniforms.
Unfortunatly I haven't been back to see then live. I get my fix when they appear on cable.

I've been to both... yup, Three Rivers is worse than the Vet in my opinion... although Shea is worse than them both if you ask me.

My team, obviously, is the White Sox. I grew up in the northern burbs of Chicago, where everyone (including my family) were Cubs fans. I guess I felt the urge to be different, so I picked the Sox instead (showing I was smart even at a young age). Anyways, I was elated in 1983 when they ran away with the division (first time a Chicago baseball team had won anything since 1959) and dejected when they lost to the O's. Of course, the Cubs HAD TO go and win their division the following year to steal their thunder. But anyways, I became a Sox fan in 1980 and have been one through good and bad times ever since. The strike in '94 almost ruined pro baseball for me (that was gonna be our year), but I came back and still think they can pull it out this year (if they make a managerial change, that is).

Another long suffering Brewers fan here...my greatest sports memory was the fall of 1982...was living in Door county Wiscosnin at the time & remember the 2 Brewers series...First the AL against the California Angels...down 2 games to none the Brew Crew came back to win the next 3 games to get to the World Series...Then in a momentous series the Brewers lost in 7 games to the Cardinals in the World Series....just remember every TV & radio in Wisconsin being tuned to the Brewers games & everybody watching every pitch of the action...pretty much developed my love for baseball & the Brewers from that (Robin Yount & Paul Molitor were baseball idols in my eyes)...as exciting as the Packer Super Bowl run in the mid 90's was always felt the Brewers run at the penant in '82 was the sports highlight in my life & developed baseball & the Brewers as my faves...

I grew up in northern NJ ... My dad had been a NY Giants fan (the baseball variety), switched to the Mets when they were created, and since the '69 Miracle occurred when I was a young lad, Lovable Homely Shea has been my shrine ever since.