Brandon Brown
Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here I pontificate weekly on a topic related to Major League Baseball. Some of the topics will be urgent matters, some may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will fall somewhere in between. The good thing about this site is that it is free and you can click to leave. If you stay you will become smarter, that’s a money back guarantee. Let’s go.
Call them whatever you want. Fans of good weather. Pioneers. Travelers. The guy from the early 2000s who went around telling people “I love my Patriots, Yankees, USC football, Duke basketball, and Lakers!” Whatever name you give them, don’t give them any shred of respect as sports “fans.”
Disgusting.
For a long time they really bothered me. I’ll still never respect that kind of fandom, but on the other hand I’ve come to believe – and I hope everyone will join me – that they’re not worth our efforts in hate.
Just smile.
Why?
Because you know you’re better.
Have you supported a champion at least relatively recently? And before that title, did you put in all the necessary suffering that all true fans go through? Remember how incredible it was to root for a champion? I will never forget this. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. I cried tears of happiness.
No fan of fair weather will ever experience this. In fact, they are depriving themselves of this kind of ecstasy. Going through years of suffering with a team only to see them finally win it all is 100% the fan version of the perfect old quote, paraphrased:
We will never truly know the thrill of victory until we experience the agony of defeat.
Right.
If I had abandoned the Cubs after, say, 2003, and then returned during the 2016 playoffs, I certainly would have been happy. I could have gone to the games and greeted other Cubs fans and acted like I was along for the ride the whole time. I can’t see any circumstances where I would be crying tears of joy after Game 7 in this scenario. It was years of defeat that paved the way to finally emerge with a tearful and joyful release.
No fair weather fan goes through this, and again, they are just depriving themselves.
Why on earth would it piss me off that a group of people decided to deprive themselves of the best part of sports fandom? My only message to all the fair weather fans, and deep down you know who you are: Without a doubt, single-handedly ruin your sports fan’s life. I won’t get in the way.
A former coach of mine liked to use a phrase that sticks with me to this day: “Control what you can control.”
It sounds strange, obviously, but it’s very simple and something you can take anywhere. In baseball terms, it meant we can’t control things like the weather, the umpiring crew, the other team, the fans, etc. We can control, however, how we behave.
Like I said, you can apply it anywhere in life.
In terms of fair weather fans, we can’t control which teams these people choose to claim they love. We can control our reaction to this and it should range from indifference to laughter. Maybe we should feel sorry for them? Whatever the reaction, it shouldn’t bother us and it certainly shouldn’t make us angry.
And if someone accuses you of being one, respond with a virtual yawn. You know better and you don’t need to prove anything to anyone. If they want to make themselves feel better by telling you that you’re a fan of fair weather, just laugh and walk away. Please, please don’t give in to the Quiz Game (you know, when someone tries to ask you a series of trivia questions to prove that you’re not a true fan) as it’s a total waste of time. You don’t owe these people anything. Be safe in your fandom. Again, you know best and that’s what matters.
Above all, don’t worry fair weather fans. They are not worth our time. Best of all, they will never reach the highs that we have, as we have been through all the lows and that only makes us stronger and more appreciative as fans.
