View from the bandwagon

Here's the deal, as a self-important, somewhat stuck-up Boston sports fan, I often find myself deriding fans in other, less sports savvy cities as some form of "band wagon jumpers." You really only need to look as far as Colorado Rockies fans for an example. They couldn't give away tickets all year, then once the team goes on that crazy run, all of a sudden every lame fan in Denver is wearing purple and knows how to spell Tulowiski.

Here in Boston, we're born with our fandom ingrained, so I thought. In the depths of 2003, I often wished that I could drop the Sox and become a fan of another team, which would be akin to suddenly being able to make myself 6 inches taller or make my eyes blue or something. At one point that winter it seemed entirely rational when I thought, "if we could somehow just turn back time, I'm sure Grady would pull Pedro to start the 8th." I died more than a little that night, as did my sister-in-law who came very close to getting a shoe in the temple when I came home and threw said shoe across the room in frustration, unaware she was sleeping on the couch.

So, bandwagon fan? Not me.

But, this recent C's resurgence has me wondering. Take Tuesday night. My (much) better half was away for the evening, and I had hatched quite the plan: Get out of work a little early, get take-out BBQ, and check out the C's game. I'm all of a sudden a C's fan after years of only watching them as an excuse to grab my baseball wallet (happy, Mike?), get out of the house and drink some beers.

Likewise, when the Sox's season cratered in 2006, I took that opportunity to completely and totally drop out of the nightly torture that being a Sox fan can entail. In all of September I watched about 5 games. Being a season-ticket holder, I would arrive in the 4th and leave in the 7th, the very act that I enjoy mocking LA fans about so much.

So, bandwagon fan? You know, I don't really know.

I'm still pretty confident in my Sox fandom. My two-packs-per-game smoking habit whenever the playoffs roll around attests to that. But for the C's? Yeah, I am a bandwagon fan. And I'm OK with it. I can enjoy the team winning without feeling like someone is repeatedly kicking me in the grapes while telling me my whole family died except for my wife, who he's sleeping with, when the team loses. It's actually pretty nice. I imagine that's why people become fans in the first place? That following sports is actually fun? Crazy.

To bandwagon fans out there, I guess I never resented you, or thought you were lame. I was just jealous. Although, that won't stop me from ripping you to shreds once baseball starts up again.