Hawaii wrote in My Broadcast Team Can Beat Up Your Broadcast Team:
I am no longer a serious Met fan, having left that part of the country years ago. I stayed a fan for a while out of childhood alleigance (and because I didn’t have time at that point in my life to engage in the effort it takes to learn to love a new team), but now that I am in San Diego I finally have given my soul to the Padres. I still root for the Mets when they are not playing the Padres or hurting our chances. Right now is good because I need the Mets to hold their division (and hopefully the Phillies will fall back some) and make sure that the Friars don’t have any competition for the wild card place should we need it.
I’m sorry we messed up so royally for you last week, getting swept by the Phillies. We didn’t play well, and every ball that could have bounced (or rolled) the wrong way did. We’ve atoned somewhat in the past several days, and it helped that the Phils lost the series to Florida, which is a pretty spunky team. Honestly, though, of all the other teams in the NL I think the Padres worry me the most of potential playoff opponents the Mets could face. With Young, Peavy, and Maddux opening games and Meredith and Hoffman closing them down you have formidable staff. (But Peavy going tonight on three days’ rest? It’s kind of early to push the Panic Button, don’t you think?)
I love what you wrote about learning to love a new team. It’s one thing to inherit your fandom from your Mom or Dad. It’s different when you’re an adult and find yourself in a new town. After several years of living in Cubs/White Sox/Royals/Cardinals/Twins/Brewers territory and never really warming up to any of those clubs, I’m glad I picked the Mets. They are a fun team and their history is a good mix of success (1969 and 1986) and abject failure (early 1960s, especially, but also The Worst Team Money Could Buy years) to help keep things in perspective.
But it kind of stinks to love a team long-distance because it’s difficult to be at the ball park for things like Opening Day or Ralph Kiner Night or to just pull a Ferris Bueller and ditch school or work to catch a day game. It would be great to be at Shea this coming Sunday when Pedro Martinez will make his first home start since his rotator cuff surgery last year. Shea Stadium is going to be rocking. Maybe as much as it did for the Beatles:
