Have you ever thought about switching teams?

[SouthSideRyan]

Rooting for a sports team is nothing like watching a TV show. You're not rooting for Wheel of Fortune to win its timeslot in the ratings. Sports is entertainment, but it's competition too.

[Sammy Sofa]

The point of giving up on the team would be that it's no longer fun to root for them. Like I said, when the show you're watching sucks, you change channels. You watch in the first place because you hope it will be fun, you have an emotional attachment to the uniform, or whatever. But to say that you could never root for another team, to me, is like saying you grew up watching "Wheel Of Fortune", you LOVE "Wheel of Fortune", and you would NEVER watch another game show, because you're a "Wheel of Fortune" fan, darnit.

 

I see nothing wrong with someone channel-surfing their baseball teams if it makes them happy. I already know I'm rooting for the Phillies in the playoffs again this year. Love that lineup.

 

And where is anyone saying that people can't watch another team or root for another team over individual games or series? Do you not see the difference between that and completely changing your allegiance again and again when someone asks you the question "what team are you a fan of?" Almost everyone here has teams they root for other than the Cubs in the playoff series in that particular context of the Cubs not being in it. It's not like everyone here turns off baseball once the Cubs are out of it or the playoffs being without the Cubs.

 

Honestly, if the Cubs right now are enough for someone to give up on them and completely change their fandom then they haven't been a fan prior to 2003. To completely change one's fandom over a crappy year, especially if they claim to be a Cubs fan, is a load of [expletive] and it was never more than a dalliance or bandwagon deal to begin with. This is what it is to be a Cubs fan (and a sports fan in general) far more often than not, for better or for worse. You stick with your team when it comes down to the THE team you are a fan of through whatever happens. If all you're going to do is slink off in shame when the team is bad and then come back when they're good, what's the point of claiming to be a fan of anything in the first place? That's not being a fan of anything in particular except winning.

[Guest]

The Cubs are still real to me!!

[champaignchris]

I tried. Prior to the 1993 season, I actually went out and bought a Braves hat. I was sooooooooo pissed about the bungling of the Maddux deal. But I couldn't follow through on it. The Braves didn't hold my interest and by the end of the year, it was all about the Cubs again.

 

Some really pathetic years in between - 1994 and 1997 - and the strike, and I was ready to swear off baseball entirely. But, of course, 1998 comes along... Sammy and the home run chase, Woody, the playoffs, and I've been hooked, hard core ever since.

 

Oh well. There's always next year, right.

[kujay]

Honestly, if the Cubs right now are enough for someone to give up on them and completely change their fandom then they haven't been a fan prior to 2003.

 

Exactly. Here's a little perspective for you. I was born in 1979. The Cubs have made the playoffs 6 times in my lifetime. The Cubs have also made the playoffs 6 times in my Dad's lifetime. He didn't have me when he was 10 either.

 

There have been far worse stretches to be a fan of this team. We've just been teased into thinking it was, uh, gonna happen. Other than 1969, my dad saw a lot of [expletive] baseball until Sutcliffe and Sandberg came along.

[imb]

I don't care if someone wants to switch teams - just do it already - what annoys me is people who hem and haw and ask if it's ok and wonder out loud who they should root for, etc....

 

I don't get into the whole "well you're not a real fan" blah blah blah nonsense because who cares if you are or not, it doesn't effect me in anyway. just shut the hell up about it, i don't want to be a part of your need for attention (unless it's a funny need for attention)

[Pushfrog98]

I rooted for the Astros back in 1992 for about a week.

Sorry, it was 93, after the Maddux debacle.

[illiniguy]

How could you do that? Think about how awesome it was to be a Cubs fan in 03. After Ramirez hits the grand slam to go up 3 to 1. If they ever did win it all and you switched, how could you ever watch baseball again?

[Guest]

I rooted for the Astros back in 1992 for about a week.

Sorry, it was 93, after the Maddux debacle.

Thank goodness you corrected that I was about to have kittens.

 

Anyway, I was out of the country for much of 1994 to 1997 so I missed a lot of suck.

 

I did, on occasion get TBS on a satellite dish, so I got to see Maddux pitch very well for the Braves.

[champaignchris]

Honestly, if the Cubs right now are enough for someone to give up on them and completely change their fandom then they haven't been a fan prior to 2003.

 

Exactly. Here's a little perspective for you. I was born in 1979. The Cubs have made the playoffs 6 times in my lifetime. The Cubs have also made the playoffs 6 times in my Dad's lifetime. He didn't have me when he was 10 either.

 

There have been far worse stretches to be a fan of this team. We've just been teased into thinking it was, uh, gonna happen. Other than 1969, my dad saw a lot of [expletive] baseball until Sutcliffe and Sandberg came along.

 

So true. For all the crap that's gone down this year, it's still looking like it'll be the first time since '70-'72 that the Cubs have had three winning seasons in a row. (They had six in a row from '67-'72.) Because those Banks/Williams/Jenkins/Santo years straddled the late 60's/early 70's you could argue the 00's has been the best decade for the Cubs since the 30's.

[Misfit]

Born in '84 and began watching in '92. I perceive the 2000's so far to be one of their better group of years since the early 1900's.

[TruffleShuffle]

i would never switch to another team. i did bandwagon onto the phillies last year since i grew up about 15 minutes from philly, and i root for the twins in the AL, but the cubs will always be my team. if they suck and are out of it, like in 2006 or the last month of this year, i just find other things to do and don't bother setting aside time to watch the games. i guess you can call that being a frontrunner, but i'm just not going to waste 3 hours of my life watching a game that doesn't matter for anything.

[Magnetic Curses]

i knew a guy who switched teams a while ago and then he switched back.

[BCVM22]

i knew a guy who switched teams a while ago and then he switched back.

 

Shouldn'ta let him.

[Moises a loo]

Rooting for a sports team is nothing like watching a TV show. You're not rooting for Wheel of Fortune to win its timeslot in the ratings. Sports is entertainment, but it's competition too.

 

That's a good point.

 

And I don't want to give the impression that I dump the Cubs at the drop of a hat, just that I believe everyone has a point where it ceases to be worthwhile to stick with any particular endeavor. I have the same emotional attachment that most here do, and it's not necessarily easy to just stop caring. But it grates a bit when people act like it's literally impossible.

 

And for the record I do hope for TV shows I like to do well in the ratings, so they'll stick around longer.

[Sosa21MVP]

I think the only way a person could switch teams would be that they weren't emotionally attached to the Cubs to begin with. When I get mad at the Cubs, I just stop watching or paying attention to baseball for a few days.....or in the case of this season, maybe even weeks at a time.

[KatJ]

Prior to the 1993 season

 

Please don't say Prior. Ever. Regardless of the context.

[Sammy Sofa]

Rooting for a sports team is nothing like watching a TV show. You're not rooting for Wheel of Fortune to win its timeslot in the ratings. Sports is entertainment, but it's competition too.

 

That's a good point.

 

And I don't want to give the impression that I dump the Cubs at the drop of a hat, just that I believe everyone has a point where it ceases to be worthwhile to stick with any particular endeavor. I have the same emotional attachment that most here do, and it's not necessarily easy to just stop caring. But it grates a bit when people act like it's literally impossible.

 

Who said it's literally impossible?

[KatJ]

Random thoughts related to the original post:

 

-You haven't seen me around this board for the past couple of years. When the Cubbies aren't doing so well, I tend to immerse myself in other things. Actually, theatre has won my attention over baseball for the past couple of seasons... but I still pause if I happen to see the team on TV. But that doesn't happen very often, given that I live in Seattle. Still, guess who will be saving for the mid-week series in June of 2010... and calling in sick, should I have a day job then.

 

-I dread the thought of ever living in St. Louis, or even south of Jackson. But I've survived 10 years in Seattle as a conservative, so I guess I could make it anywhere.

 

-Had the Cubs not done well in 2001, I might have followed the Diamondbacks because of Grace, like my uncle switched football allegiances to KC because of Joe Montana. OTOH, after I learned more about what a douche Gracie is outside baseball, that would probably have been short-lived.

 

-If I ever see Ryne Sandberg in a Cardinals uniform, I'll have to shoot him.

[Misfit]

The Cubs will have gone 101 years now without a World Series. I am 25 years old. I have not lived through 101 Cub seasons without a championship. Maybe this logic is flawed, but let's say the Cubs won it all in 1983, the year before I was born. What difference would that make to me if I wasn't around to see it?

 

Perhaps, I am gullable, but I would think that at some point, the Cubs will win a World Series in my lifetime.

[imb]

The Cubs will have gone 101 years now without a World Series. I am 25 years old. I have not lived through 101 Cub seasons without a championship. Maybe this logic is flawed, but let's say the Cubs won it all in 1983, the year before I was born. What difference would that make to me if I wasn't around to see it?

 

Perhaps, I am gullable, but I would think that at some point, the Cubs will win a World Series in my lifetime.

 

"I was dead for billions of years before I was born and I suffered no inconvenience for it."

[Old Style]

never

[Soul]

I find it interesting that we are having this discussion in the context of a team that just won two division championships in a row, and is currently 5 games over .500

 

OK, sure, it's a down year. But this is the kind of discussion I would expect to see after 5 seasons of 100-loss baseball. Not now.

[Misfit]

I only asked because the Rick Reilly SI article had me wondering if Cubs fans have either thought about it... maybe not now, but in the past when there certainly was more of a reason for possibly thinking it.

[jersey cubs fan]

I only asked because the Rick Reilly SI article had me wondering if Cubs fans have either thought about it... maybe not now, but in the past when there certainly was more of a reason for possibly thinking it.

 

Stop reading Rick Reilly.