Converting Teams. Is it Possible?

[brint]

After 15 years allegiance to a team, is it possible to make a switch? I don't know that all those years can just be undid and transferred elsewhere. But I just moved from Dallas to Chicago, and figure it's about time to put an end to an era. The Rangers and Tom Hicks are certainly making it easy of late.

[Little Slide Rooter]

You cant just decide to become a fan of a team. It just hapens. Like falling in love or finding your favorite Maki roll. If I could, I would have been a Red Sox fan for the past 4 years,

[Mephistopheles]

Im not going to suggest being a Cubs fan to anyone. You're better off converting to the Yankees, Cardinals or Red Sox.

[imb]

Wait, you're thinking of purposefully rooting for the cubs? This is like someone choosing to become to gay.

[wekse]

Im not going to suggest being a Cubs fan to anyone. You're better off converting to the Yankees, Cardinals or Red Sox.

 

whatever man, being a cubs fan is all sorts of fun and you know it.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Im not going to suggest being a Cubs fan to anyone. You're better off converting to the Yankees, Cardinals or Red Sox.

 

Or even a White Sox fan. At least then you dont have to worry about expectations and you can ramble on about 2005.

[UMFan83]

Yeah, I'm still deciding if I will one day steer my kid towards following the Cubs.

 

That said, I'd much rather make one more Cubs fan than one more White Sox fan. So I would suggest the best way to 'convert' would be a spend a nice summer day at Wrigley Field. Also joining this message board is a start, but only if you know that speed is meaningless, leadoff isnt a position, and can define VORP and WARP. Otherwise, you'll come to hate us and consequently the Cubs.

[SouthSideRyan]

Depends on where you moved to. If you're in the Lakeview area, you'll probably learn to hate the Cubs. I'd say take a passing interest in them, and you'll get sucked in like so many ill gotten souls before you.

[UMFan83]

Depends on where you moved to. If you're in the Lakeview area, you'll probably learn to hate the Cubs. I'd say take a passing interest in them, and you'll get sucked in like so many ill gotten souls before you.

 

Why hate the Cubs? Because they disrupt your life? I find that they don't really disrupt mine that much at all. It will take 5 minutes extra to get home from work on a game day (whether the traffic is leaving Wrigley or getting there), and most everywhere I go is unaffected by the Cubs. Then again, I live West of the park on Southport and rarely go East of Racine for any of my daily errands.

 

BTW, the original poster said in a previous thread that he moved a few blocks away from the park. I think you'll like the area as long as you don't mind the minimal disruptions that game day causes.

[SouthSideRyan]

I say that based on what I've been told by non-Cub fans(not haters either) who moved there and had to deal with the lesser contingent of Cubs "fans" after night games. It's no different than how I've learned to despise the White Sox from living near Beverly.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

For some it maybe possible, for others it's not. I've always been a Cubs fan, but when I lived in the DFW area I'd go watch the Rangers about 20 times a year. I always remained a Cubs fan, but I started rooting for the Rangers. I still want them to win, but I don't have the attachment to them that I do for the Cubs.

 

I don't think you can just make a conscious effort to switch teams. You might say it's so, but I'm not sure your emotions will follow so easily. If I were you, I wouldn't make a "formal" switching. But if you're living in Chicago, go to the games. Root for them to win. If the attachment happens, then so be it. If not, nothing lost.

[brint]

I don't think you can just make a conscious effort to switch teams. You might say it's so, but I'm not sure your emotions will follow so easily. If I were you, I wouldn't make a "formal" switching. But if you're living in Chicago, go to the games. Root for them to win. If the attachment happens, then so be it. If not, nothing lost.

 

Good call. It's not like I need a deeply-rooted personal history to enjoy a ball game. And I suppose there's no need to disavow my Rangers. Because with my luck, the minute I do so they'll start winning championships.

[brint]

Wait, you're thinking of purposefully rooting for the cubs? This is like someone choosing to become to gay.

 

If I can't choose my sexual orientation, and I can't choose my baseball allegiance, what the heck can I choose?

 

I think we just obliterated free will. Oh well. I was never a fan of my own decisions anyway.

[UMFan83]

I don't think you can just make a conscious effort to switch teams. You might say it's so, but I'm not sure your emotions will follow so easily. If I were you, I wouldn't make a "formal" switching. But if you're living in Chicago, go to the games. Root for them to win. If the attachment happens, then so be it. If not, nothing lost.

 

Good call. It's not like I need a deeply-rooted personal history to enjoy a ball game. And I suppose there's no need to disavow my Rangers. Because with my luck, the minute I do so they'll start winning championships.

 

Exactly. You can adopt the Cubs as your NL team. Just please don't become a White Sox fan.

[XZero771679666304]

Wait, you're thinking of purposefully rooting for the cubs? This is like someone choosing to become to gay.

 

If I can't choose my sexual orientation, and I can't choose my baseball allegiance, what the heck can I choose?

 

I think we just obliterated free will. Oh well. I was never a fan of my own decisions anyway.

 

 

Now that's just silly. Not all things are simply a matter of choice, but that doesn't mean nothing is.

 

Sure, you can choose who you sleep with, but you can't change how you feel about it. Nor can you force yourself to like something that your senses tell you tastes like crap. You can eat it, but you'll still hate it. This isn't an issue of free will.

 

Now I suppose you could change you baseball allegiance, but if you can, you must not have been that big a fan of your old team. I can't even imagine rooting for a team other than the Cubs. Life would be less stressful, but changing my allegiance would take years to complete. It would be like an arranged marriage with someone you don't really love.

[brint]

Just please don't become a White Sox fan.

 

You don't have to worry about that. Since I was a kid watching Chicago baseball on WGN, I'd always thought the Sox had this negative vibe about them. Like they're a bizarrely-animated gang of cartoon villains from some Saturday-morning cartoon gone wrong. The live in a cold, concrete shell in an urban wasteland, talk a lot of gibberish trash and wear too much black attempting to look "bad." Meanwhile, the Cubs play the fallible protagonist counterparts. A community of affable smurfs who occasionally get it together just enough to keep on keeping on.

[brint]

Now that's just silly. Not all things are simply a matter of choice, but that doesn't mean nothing is.

 

Sure it does. This is way off topic, but free will is mostly an illusion caused by our inability to see the scope of variables and processes that contribute to the reality around us. But who cares, you know? At least it's a really good illusion. We can't even tell the difference!

 

Sure, you can choose who you sleep with...

 

Can you, really? I sure can't.

 

Who I sleep with just... happens. haha

[SouthSideRyan]

Now that's just silly. Not all things are simply a matter of choice, but that doesn't mean nothing is.

 

Sure it does. This is way off topic, but free will is mostly an illusion caused by our inability to see the scope of variables and processes that contribute to the reality around us. But who cares, you know? At least it's a really good illusion. We can't even tell the difference!

 

Sure, you can choose who you sleep with...

 

Can you, really? I sure can't.

 

Who I sleep with just... happens. haha

 

What about uggos?

[AlwaysaCub]

It depends on what kind of fan you are. If you are a Yuppie or Lincoln Park Trixie-type just looking to have fun, then yes, choose the Cubs. If you are a fan like many of us who will watch every pitch of every game and pour you heart into this team only to get crapped on for years, don't pick the Cubs.

 

It seems like you should be born into being a die-hard Cubs fan. Why would you ever pick it?

[brint]

It seems like you should be born into being a die-hard Cubs fan. Why would you ever pick it?

 

We've already determined that you can't just "choose" to be a die-hard anything. But the Cubs' history is partly what makes it possible for me to pull for them this year as a Chicagoan. If the Cubs were perennial championship winners, I feel like I'd be a band wagoner doing that.

[Soul]

I've never been able to understand anyone who chooses their team alliegance as an adult. It's like they are from outer space.

 

That said though, I can see rooting for a secondary team to a degree, especially if they aren't really in competition with your primary team. For me it would be just more or less a diversion than real fan-dom, though.

[Guest]

I don't think you can just make a conscious effort to switch teams. You might say it's so, but I'm not sure your emotions will follow so easily.

 

After the Vikings lost their fourth Super Bowl, my dad gave up on them and started rooting for the Bears instead. He'll root for them in the playoffs over a team he doesn't like but that's about it.

[Abe Frohman]

I can remember falling in love with the Cubs back in the summer of 89. I tried to switch my allegiance to San Diego a couple of years later (Sheffield, McGriff, etc.), but it didn't take. Bought a Pads hat and everything.

 

There is no shaking it. In general, I hate MLB. I love the Cubs. I can't wait to take my son to his first game at Wrigley, and hopefully some trips to Spring Training. I'm going to need someone to commiserate with down the road.

[sneakypower]

all the Patriots fans outside of Boston think it's possible.

[hawkcub]

First off the Rangers are an American League team. Just make the Cubs your National League team. The twins are my American League team.

 

You can be a fan but you probably won't be a diehard at least overnight. I'm not saying a person can't be diehard evenually.

 

I'm a huge Minnesota Wild fan (NHL). Growing up didn't get into hockey at all moved to Michigan got introduced to the sport became a mild Red Wing fan. I never got to into the team even though they were contantly winning. Moved to Iowa and went to St. Paul for a NHL game really enjoyed myself. I started to watch the Wild more and eventually started to hate the Red Wings.

 

I think if a person really wasn't a big fan of a sport but then got into the sport more you could easilly drop one team for another.