Converting Teams. Is it Possible?

[NCCubFan]

Im not going to suggest being a Cubs fan to anyone.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Cub fans.

[shnsajax]

Having just moved to Dallas I am more interested in seeing the Frisco Rough Riders than I am the Rangers. I don't dislike the Rangers I juts have almost zero interest in them, and more interest in seeing other AL teams come to play them. I think I lost interest in them once Nolan Ryan retired.

[snoodmonger]

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.

 

 

Macias and Neifi don't play for us anymore.

[Andy]

It's definitely possible. I rooted for the Braves out of geography as a little kid (though admittedly knew less than nothing about baseball), moved to Indiana at age 10, and eventually picked up the Cubs, and it wasn't something I set out to do. Atlanta's just another team to me now - though I do like Chipper and Andruw Jones, the only two Braves I really remember watching prior to my switch.

 

Everyone else in this thread is right. Switching teams is not something that just happens. Eventually, you fall in love with a team, whether you can help it or not.

[killthegoat06]

No. You don't choose to like a team. If we could, I doubt I'd choose the cubs. It's something that just happens.

 

It is possible, to become a fan of a team however. I have just recently become a blazers fan in addition to being a bulls fan. I didn't decide it, it just happened.

[BigbadB]

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

 

Alcohol.

[CuseCubFan69]

I like the Blue Jays because they are the parent to the Syracuse AAA team but when the Cubs and Jays played I had no problems rooting for the Cubs, rooting for the Jays in that game were not even part of the equation. I've heard rumors that the Mets are going to be the next parent team and that would be tough for me to root for the SkyChiefs if it does happen.

[BigbadB]

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.

 

Spot on. San Diego isn't a secondary team for me, but most everyone who lives here is a Padres fan. They are on tv every game, and being a baseball fan in general, it's easy to find myself tuning to a Padres game, which generally starts several hours after a Cub game is long over. They have good broadcasters who make the game entertaining when the product on the field isn't so entertaining. If the Cubs didn't win (and they never do), I'd be fine with the Padres winning it all. It would be good for the people in this town to finally have something to cheer about.

 

I never gave a crap about the Padres before I moved here. Now, I follow them because it's hard not to.

[danonwaveland]

It took my brother a few years, but he became an ardent Broncos fan when he moved to Denver many years ago. He now prefers them to the Bears. That being said, there's a difference between your childhood team and a team adopted in adolescence or adulthood.

 

I suspect most Cub fans have been so since early childhood -- when we were young, impressionable and naive -- and got home in time to see Ernie on WGN hit his ninth inning game-winning homers. If you do not become a true Cub fan until you are of legal age, you are either masochistic or madly in love with Wrigley Field. That being said, there's nothing better than being a Cub fan. (Thank you, sir. May I have another?)

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Sandberg>Mazeroski>Morgan

[JeffH]

Much like the roommate switch, this can only be accomplished by knowing George Costanza and having access to his dementia.

[champaignchris]

Before the 1993 season, after years of bungling a great crop of young talent culminating in Maddux signing with the Braves, I said I was done with the Cubs. I went out and bought a Braves hat and swore I'd never root for the jokers again. That lasted about until Spring training broke.

 

Who'd have thunk that Ric Wilkens and Jaimme Navarro would eventually lead the Cubs to a scintilating 84-78 season! I say that sarcastically, but 84-78 probably makes the playoffs in 2008. Hope springs eternal!!!

 

Other people might be able to convert to other teams. I cannot. I will always be a Cubs fan, for better or worse. Usually worse.

[photoguy9883]

...I suspect most Cub fans have been so since early childhood -- when we were young, impressionable and naive -- and got home in time to see Ernie on WGN hit his ninth inning game-winning homers.

 

Speak for yourself. Some of us came home during our childhood and saw Mark Grace hit a double to win the game.