Fan or FANatic?

A week since I last posted? I'm letting you guys down. My boy, Mr. Armchair, has been pumping them out. If you are interested in the Buster Posey play at the plate, the Ohio State mess, or LeBron please go check him out here. Again, since I have not been doing a post after every finals game, I won't do a major recap here. Just a few key points:

1. My Pick is Alive! - I picked Dallas in six. Dallas has a very good shot to do this in six. I may be crazy but I thought during the introductions Miami looked pretty tight, and in fact they came out and played tight. 2 full days of LeBron bashing and questions about themselves may exacerbate it. I think Miami plays too tight and loses Game 6.

2. LeBron is not Michael. LeBron is not Kobe. LeBron is not even Wade. In fact, I will say it, if their career arcs continue this way, Wade would be ranked higher all time on my list than LeBron. LeBron is Dr. J 2.0. Athletic freak of nature who relies on this to get by, but in no way does he have the same packages as Kobe, Michael or even Wade. Of course, maybe he's tired, or he's hurt, but so is Wade and so is Dirk. LeBron just doesn't have the same makeup.

3. Chris Boshtrich sucks. Sure he went 19 and 10 last night but was -13 on the floor and got abused yet again on a go ahead driving dunk by Dirk. Should never have signed him and used the 100 mil on two or three other decent pieces.

4. If Dallas has finally found their shot, this series is over. The first four games saw Dallas get a bunch of good open looks and not convert. It was the most frustrating thing ever. Last night wasn't. Miami can't win if Dallas gets and hits those same looks.

Alright on to the real post. Again this is a post request from a loyal follower, so if you ever have post requests don't hesitate to ask. I will be happy to write on anything within the scope of this blog. I think this should have been one of my first posts, but it took awhile to form in my head. The rules of fandom, why bandwagon fans are acceptable and what it means to be a fan. One of my favorite sportswriters has already written a fan manifesto that is ever evolving. Check it out here. It's a funny read. I may repeat some but only because I truly believe them, and also because you may not go read the article.

Like Simmons, I think I shall slap together some rules in an incoherent order:

1. If you only like a certain player you can not be a fan of the team. Example, my law clerk has a good friend who is a big LeBron James fan. For that reason he claimed to be a "big" Cavaliers fan. The second, LeBron jumped ship he became a "big" Heat fan. This is the worst kind of person. You can have favorite players on favorite teams but you can not have a favorite player and then have whatever team he is on be your favorite. A better example of this is a good friend I have who is a big Troy Polamalu fan. He likes watching Steelers games, but only because of Troy and he would never consider himself a Steelers fan.

2. If you live in a city that fields two teams in the same sport pick one. You are supposed to live and die with your team (more on this later). If you genuinely think you can't lose because both your city teams are playing each other then you aren't a fan. You can not be a Yankees and Mets fan. You can not be an A's and Giants fan. There is no way you should be a Jets and Giants fan, and if you are legitimately a Clippers fan don't you dare jump on the Lakers bandwagon during the playoffs.

3. If you don't follow a sport, but a friend does, don't talk shit about your friend's team. I get this crap sometimes from people who don't follow college football and then talk shit when the Gators lose. It's dumb and pointless. I don't follow hockey but have several friends who are Sharks fans, I left them alone.

4. Your team needs to come from a place that can be regarded as your hometown. For me, I learned about sports when I was 5 and living in Dallas I adopted their teams and was lucky enough to see a game in each stadium of their baseball, basketball and football teams before I was moved to San Diego at age 8. But I took my teams with me. Sure i followed San Diego teams and became somewhat of a sports bigamist (more in the next rule) but I had my teams from my first sports home town (I was born in Baton Rouge, LA and moved from there when I was 3) and never gave them up. You can not live in Sacramento and be a Lakers fan without good reason. You can't just say well LA is in California I'm a Lakers fan. That's a frontrunner fan and ranks among the worst kind of people. I will issue one caveat though. If you live in a city without a team, you do not have to be a regional fan. If you live in Vegas you don't have to be a LA or SD fan even though they are the closest cities with teams to them (unless you consider Arizona close as well). You can pick any team, but stick with that team forever, don't waffle just because you don't have a hometown team.

5. If you lived in one town and adopted their teams and then make a long term move to another sports town I find it acceptable to be a fan of that team in certain situations. The teams need to not play in the same league or conference, nor should they have a significant rivalry if one exists. If you come from Oakland as a Warriors fan and move to Sacramento you can not also cheer for Sacramento period. However if you are a Rangers fan and move to San Diego you may also cheer for the Padres unless they ever play each other. I think sports bigamy is ok in these instances, but your new team should never override your old team even if the new team is out performing the old team.

6. Fan is derived from the term fanatic. I fully believe you should live and die with your teams. If your team wins you should feel like you won. If your team lost you should hate it. Fan spend time, money, and energy following sports and they should act as if they really are a part of the team.

7. While fans should feel like they are part of team, they shouldn't be over-the-top homers or over-the top cynics. For the latter, Philadelphia and New York fans are the worst for this. They are so quick to boo I wouldn't want to play for any team in those areas unless they made me a godfather offer that allowed me to sleep on a bed of money. It's as if those fans take pride in the fact that they aren't homers and show it by booing mercilessly. On the flip side, fans are responsible for holding their teams and its respective players accountable. Too often fans blame everything other than their own players or management and it's obnoxious. It's ok to be a fan and call out your players.

8. Bandwagon fans are ok. They don't earn respect but they are ok. Too often you hear from fans of some underground indie band complain about the new fans, as if being one of the first fans of the band is some great personal accomplishment. That's stupid. If you are a fan of some band you should want more fans of the band to increase the successes and accomplishment of that band you love so much. The same goes for sports and teams. A lot of hard core EPL fans resent casual soccer fans the same way those indie band fans resent new more mainstream fans. It's as if they feel they have a proprietary right to the sport and the non hardcore fans will ruin the sport. I live in a city with only one sports team and I would easily classify the fan base as mostly bandwagon. But when they are on the wagon, it does nothing but benefit the team. It increases the teams revenue, it holds the team accountable for putting successful products on the field/court, and it generates buzz. Of course, you should always stick with your team through thick and thin, but if you are going to be bandwagon fan at least don't be a front running fan. Don't cheer for another team while yours is down. But ultimately, I have no problem with bandwagon fans, not everyone can really devote time, money, and energy to sports, but they do fill in those gaps and make the good times that much better.

9. If you have no rooting interest root for validation. Mr. Armchair wrote this in his blog before the NBA Finals (link above) and i agree with it mostly. Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki have played instant HOF careers but are missing the one thing they need to cement the legacy. Being called champions. It's ok to root for these guys if they aren't your rivals or a team that may not live up to rival status but you have good reason for hating. If anyone in San Antonio or Houston is cheering for Dallas for validation that breaks rule number 10. If Yao Ming had a legendary career by year 13 in Houston but no title, I still wouldn't cheer for him. But, for instance I did cheer for Drew Brees two years ago. First, he was mishandled in San Diego so I had an attachment to him as a player. Second, he played for the Saints which isn't a rival or a team that has caused problems for the Cowboys leading up to that Super Bowl. But I wanted Brees validated and I was indifferent otherwise to the game. Cheering for validation within these limits should be acceptable as a fan.

10. You should openly hate your rival. This is what makes sports fun. Too much is made about people being haters. If you love a team and hate it team it gives you double excitement. You get to cheer madly for your team to win and you get to cheer madly for your rival to fail. Under no circumstances should you ever cheer for your rival unless it directly helps your team or for whatever reason you bet on them (try to keep that to a minimum). I hate the A's and actually consider them my baseball rival. But I will cheer for them to beat Seattle if Seattle continues to sit up Texas' butt in the division standings. Every team has a "rival" even if it's not historically documented. The Nationals may not have an obvious rival but those fans have surely got to be sick of hearing about how great Philadelphia and Atlanta are every year.

Those 10 rules are really what I consider important being a FANatic in the rules of fandom, and whenever they are broken it does irritate me. Agree or disagree? What does being a fan mean to you? Do you have a personal fandom rule that you really hate seeing broken? Post it below!