The True Meaning

A part of this post was originally part of my last post, but I decided to make it a stand-alone.

Disclaimer: I may get a little ranty again. I can't promise anything. I've always thought about this, and I kinda feel like sharing. Also, I realise this might now just apply to Toronto, but it's the only city/area I can talk about.

Maybe sports fans in Toronto have become so conditioned to losing thanks to the Leafs, that they're too sceptical to support anything that might be better than mediocre. Maybe they've become so cynical to winning that they can't innocently support it. That now instead of being supportive, they sit back and wait. They hold out their support to see how the team will actually do. When they win, they're all over it. They walk the walk and talk the talk of someone who's been a fan from the start. But as soon as the team falters a little or stops winning/being impressive, they're gone. Their support completely forgotten, and in most cases they'll start talking about how all along they alone knew that the team wasn't going to do any good.

I realise I just described bandwaggoners. I don't consider them fans, but sadly without them...fan bases in Toronto might realistically be ever so tiny.

It's possible things weren't like this 40 years ago when the Leafs weren't so far removed from a Stanley Cup win. I don't know. I've only ever lived in a Toronto sports world where the Leafs dissapoint every year, and that gloom seems to become a cloud over any other sports success no matter how good. In this instance, and only in this one instance, I absolutely loathe that Canada is hockey country, and that my favourite team and I live in Leaf country.

This is not to say that I don't cheer for other Toronto teams to win. I think it sucks when they lose, and rocks when they win. But I do my best not to bandwaggon. I pay attention to sports, I love them, but everyone knows plain and clear the Jays are my passion, followed by sports in general. I don't really like hockey, but have enough Canadian pride that I want a Canadian team to win. I have enough Torontonian sports pride to want a Toronto team to win when there isn't another Canadian team. I don't think that's bandwaggonning, just being a hometown/country sports fan.

It's great to win, but in the end if you love a sport and/or a team, shouldn't you just love to watch them...no matter how painless or painful? Maybe I'm a naive sports fan. Maybe having become a Jays die-hard during their *ahem* not so good seasons after the World Series has conditioned me to love my team no matter what. I realise being a die-hard Jays fan and baseball fan in general first and foremost makes me a minority in Canada. I'm okay with that. I came to terms with that a long time ago. Personally I think I'm incredibly spoiled to love a team that won the championship twice early in both of our lives, and I that I fell in love with them not because they won, but indifferent to it*.

I just think...if you're a fan, you're a fan. Bandwaggoning, no. Questioning and being critical of your team, yes. Saying you're a fan, but never enjoying, embracing or celebrating your team even in the bad times, no.

At the end of the game, day, and season...having a smile on your face and in your heart because you just got to watch your favourite sport/team play win or lose, championship or not, yes.

That is the true meaning of being a fan.

JaysGirl5


*Note: To clear up, I am the biggest sports fan in my family and didn't really start enjoying following major league sports until my teens, after my Jays die-hardedness had started. So that really meant that being under 10 when the Jays won the World Series and no one else in my family following sports, I wasn't really aware. Frankly, I fell in love with being in Rogers Centre (SkyDome) in '93 and watching Joe Carter, Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green play in the mid-'90s. Yes, I'm defending being a Jays die-hard. I really didn't become one because of the World Series. At the time, I didn't really know it was going on. I just really loved watching them play, win or lose.