Fan Dance

Okay, right, I live in New York City. But that does not automatically make me a New York Yankees fan. Or, for that matter, a New York Mets fan. Far from it. My fandom for any individual baseball team expired when I moved from San Francisco to NY in 1971 and even that residual feeling is only now sparked by the steroidal Bay Area hysteria of Barry Bonds and his allegedly drug enhanced pursuit of Hank Aaron’s home run record.

I do like baseball; it’s an almost perfect game, even though I detest the Designated Hitter rule in the American League (that’s the ugly worm in this sports tequila that I just can’t swallow). Baseball is a game of summer with a symmetrical beauty that occasionally can blow you away with incredible athletic fireworks. It’s beautiful to watch in person but, even on television, it can rivet your attention. With instant replay it’s a different kind of spectator sport but still valid entertainment and it’s easy to understand why it fulfills the seemingly universal need to be a fan for a specific team, even though it is mostly based on geography. The gospel seems to be that you simply must root for the good old home team no matter what but, sorry, I need specifics. I am, admittedly, pretty much a fair-weather baseball fan and don’t really get all that interested in any sport, not just baseball, until the end of the season. It’s nice if a local team has made the playoffs, it seems to make a lot of people around me happy, but the first 7/8ths of a season is just so much filler to me.

So what if the Yankees are currently in last place in their division of their league; reminding me of that doesn’t offend me in the least, no karma off my nose. The Mets are in good shape at the moment, I guess, but call me in September and if they’re still atop the pile then my interest will be piqued; even if it’s only geographically.

As for Mr. Bonds I hope he keeps up the good work and doesn’t bail out before he breaks the record…it’s because of him I at least check the San Francisco Giant’s stats and therefore might qualify as a Giants fan. Sort of.