IT'S ALL ABOUT HOPE VERSUS HURT AS THERE'S NOTHING LOGICAL ABOUT FANDOM!

By Edwin Cooney

Are you a fan? Did you become a fan through the power of logic? Really? It's possible that there's some logic in your explanation of your fandom, such as your love for the hometown team, but if you come from New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, it's possible that you heartily dislike one of your hometown teams! 

It's my guess (and that's all it is) that the Houston Astros will defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in the upcoming 2022 World Series! The Astros are so talented, deep, and, yet, young, that like the old Bronx Bombers, it doesn't seem they can possibly lose. 

After all, the human truth is that neither winning nor losing really and truly makes sense. Both victory and defeat often strike without the least bit of warning! (Ask the 1969 Orioles and Mets.)

If you still don't believe me, just ask a Los Angeles Dodgers' fan if, after winning 111 games, they expected to lose to the San Diego Padres, a team that didn't even win 90 games in 2022.

I've been a New York Yankee fan since 1954 and my fandom, although many don't believe me, my love for the Yankees has little to do with the Yankees themselves. I was forced to separate from my biological family at birth, but during a rare visit in 1954 with my "real" Uncle Joe who was a Yankee fan, I became a Yankees fan as well in order to identify with him. (I love to shock people by asserting that had my Uncle Joe been a Communist, I'd have become a Communist!)

Of course, there are all kinds of fans! First, there are the disillusioned fans such as the Chicago Cubs' William Sianis, a tavern owner. The Cubs (foolishly, of course!) refused to let Sianis bring his pet billy goat to a World Series game against the Tigers in 1945. Thus Mr. Sianis put a curse on his Cubs. His “curse” lasted until 2016 (71 years) when those celebrated Cubs won the World Series over the Cleveland Indians (who, of course, really lost on their own). (Note, one can't mention curses of any kind or type without referring to "the curse of the Bambino" on the Boston Red Sox in 1921 for selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.) 

Then there's the stupid or, at least, the selfish fan like Steve Bartman who caught a foul ball during the 2003 playoffs that Cub outfielder Moisés Alou would like to have caught to subdue a Marlins rally. The Marlins offense was allowed to proceed and the Cubs lost that series which they might well have won thus ending Sianis' curse thirteen years earlier.

Next, there's the gullible fan like me who, for many years, allows him or herself to believe that the team he or she roots for belongs to them. Fans like that are told that “your" Yankees, Dodgers, or A’s are "on the air!" There are even such entities as "Red Sox Nation" designed to convince the fan that his or her status as a "fanatic" encompasses an actual national patriotism.

Finally, there is the hopelessly unlucky fan like the Phillies grandmother who, sitting behind third base during a Phillies/New York Giants game in 1957, was struck twice by a foul ball off Phillies outfielder Richie Ashburn. The second foul ball hit this lady as she was being assisted onto a stretcher right after being hit by the first Ashburn lined foul. Richie Ashburn was doubly embarrassed and brought her flowers and candy throughout her hospitalization. He even arranged for her two grandsons to visit the Phillies' clubhouse. However, the boys (who were big Philadelphia Eagles fans) suggested that she take them to an Eagles' scrimmage, where  she might accidentally be tackled. Obviously, those two little boys were fans as much as they were grandchildren!

Emotional investment in a singer, a sports hero, or even a politician is as American as voting or enthusiastically screaming (keep Jack Kennedy and Elvis Presley in mind). Taking all of the advertising dollars, the ballpark concessions, and memorabilia revenue into consideration, our economy even depends on it. 

The perspective here is that as wonderful, exciting, and profitable as it all is, little of fandom has anything to do with logic, patriotism, or what everyone else (except me) calls “common sense!”

One more thing: If today's New York Yankees really and truly belong to the fans, there's no way the Yankees will let Aaron Judge go to another team even if they have to legally adopt him!

As for hope versus hurt, hope ultimately prevails because without hope neither you nor I would dare to be a fan!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY