Childlike Fan

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. - 1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, it was fun to be a fan.  You didn't have to have a barrage of facts to support why your favorite player was your favorite player.  He was your hero:  the one you pretended to be while playing on the corner lot.  Most of the time he played for your favorite team.  And, most of the time that favorite team was your parents favorite team.  Maybe they played in the same city you grew up in, or maybe they just had the coolest uniforms (I thought the Bengals were awesome for a short time in my youth).  We watched sports as kids, blind to the harsh reality of what was going on behind the scenes.  We assumed that our heroes played for our teams purely because they had love for the game and the city that placed them on their pedestals.  We didn't care about completion percentages, passer ratings, player efficiency, turnover ratios, slugging percentage, and we certainly had no idea what the Elias Sports Bureau was.  We didn't know what salary caps were, and we didn't care.  We didn't need a monetary value placed on these immortal men. I could, however, tell you there was no way I'd trade that Topps Jose Canseco rookie card...nope, not even for a Darryl Strawberry Upper Deck.  Canseco was the first 40/40 player!  I had no idea he did it partly because of steroids...I didn't even know what steroids were-  I just thought he was amazing.  The Bash Brothers made kids in Florida wanna play for the Oakland A's...trust me, I was one of them.  And, while we fought over who was McGwire and who was Canseco, these so called heroes were fighting addictions that I didn't even know existed.  Yeah, when I was a child....that's when sports were the best.

But, as we become men and put away those childish ways, should we also put away that childlike idea of being a fan?  I mean, now a days you can't have a favorite player, for fear that he may only be on that team for a few years...and then what?   I can't buy a jersey- by the time I can afford one (they're not cheap), the guy might get cut to clear up cap space or be traded to a rival team.  And, if you wanna tell someone what your favorite team is, you better be prepared to back it up with some cold hard facts.  You need to know how deep your starting pitching rotation is, what's their collective on base percentage, what was their "strength of schedule", how's next years recruiting class, and you better have a real good explanation as to why your team hasn't won a championship lately.  No longer is it alright to just be a casual fan.  No longer can you be a fan of a player or team just because you have a love for the game and the team that gives you hope.  Not good enough!  These days it's about obscure facts, statistics, and numbers; and despite what ESPN programming would have you believe...numbers do lie.

So, you can keep your numbers, your efficiencies, ratios, and QBR's.  I just wanna be a fan.  I like the  Yankees, Knicks, Jags, and The Fighting Irish.  My favorite players were Patrick Ewing, Darryl Strawberry, and Lawrence Taylor.  These days they're Kevin Garnett, Blake Griffin, Alex Rodriguez, Jones-Drew, and as of late Jeremy Lin.  I don't need statistics to justify why I root for them; some are exciting to watch, some make my favorite team better, and Jeremy Lin is both those and an inspirational story as well.  If that makes me childish,  I'm okay with that.  I'm not a professional sports analyst, I'm just a fan.



For more, follow me on Twitter @JustACasualFan