A real conundrum...

[Lord Jim]

Since I moved out here to The City That Used To Know How But Did Too Many Drugs In The Sixties And Forgot, some 25 years ago now, I have been a San Francisco Giants fan....

I adopted them as my home town baseball team,( having had my genuine home town baseball team, The Washington Senators, ripped away from me and transplanted in Lord Give Me Strength, Arlington Texas by the evil Robert Short...I'm sure he's roasting in a special place in hell... just when I was getting interested in baseball, at the tender age of 11.)

But now, for the first time, it appears that my adopted home town team, (and my relatively new real home town team, The Washington Nationals) might actually be squaring off in post season competition....

This creates a real dilemma for me...(I haven't had this problem in regular season play; I've gone to see the Nats play the Giants a number of times, and always root for the Nats; secure in the knowledge that they sucked so bad that I would never face this sort of crisis of conscience...)

I've never had this sort of problem with the Niners versus the Redskins...

I've got nothing against the Niners, and I'm happy to see them do well if the Redskins don't (Like last season...and too many seasons... ...but hell, it's not like they're The Dallas Cowboys....)

But as any native Washingtonian will tell you, there's no such thing as a former Redskins fan....

It's kinda like that Marine thing....

But now that they might very well meet each other in the playoffs, I really do have a problem with deciding whether to root for the Giants or the Nationals....

I've been pulling for the Giants, in good years and bad, since the late 80's....

But the Nats are my home town team....

[Gob]

Rooting for the Nats? Pulling for the Nats? Jesus Jim, why not just come right out with is and say you enjoy gay sex with basketball players!! (I'm sure Scoot will back you up! Fnaaaarrrr....)

[Long Run]

Truly one of the great issues of our time: root for the team where you live or the team where you grew up. Since my Giant rooting goes back to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, its easy for me to stay in their camp. As should you.

[Gob]

"Giant rooting "? "In their camp"? There's more to this baseball than I ever thought!!

[Lord Jim]

Truly one of the great issues of our time: root for the team where you live or the team where you grew up. Since my Giant rooting goes back to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, its easy for me to stay in their camp. As should you.

LR, even though I lost The Senators as my hometown team when I was eleven years old, I still have a baseball that was signed by Frank Howard, Mike Epstein , Paul Casanova, and Ted Williams, (who was The Senators manager at the time) on Autograph Day on a warm spring day at RFK Stadium in 1970....

You're right...

I'm rooting for the Nationals!

[dales]

BOLDFACE, mine...

Truly one of the great issues of our time: root for the team where you live or the team where you grew up. Since my Giant rooting goes back to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, its easy for me to stay in their camp. As should you.

Jim,

Root for the Giants you live here, don't you?

[Lord Jim]

Dale, I have a baseball with the signatures of Frank Howard Mike Epstein and Ted Williams....

What part of that do you not get?..

[Gob]

???

[Lord Jim]

Frank Oliver Howard (born August 8, 1936 in Columbus, Ohio), nicknamed "Hondo," "The Washington Monument," and "The Capital Punisher," is a former left and right fielder, coach and manager in Major League Baseball who played most of his career for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Senators/Texas Rangers. One of the most physically intimidating (6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)) hitters in the sport, he was named the National League's Rookie of the Year in 1960, and went on to lead the American League in home runs and total bases twice each and in slugging average, runs batted in and walks once each. His 382 career home runs were the eighth most by a right-handed hitter when he retired; his 237 home runs in a Washington uniform are a record for any of that city's several franchises, as are his 1969 totals of 48 HRs and 340 total bases. His Washington/Texas franchise records of 1,172 games, 4,120 at bats, 246 HRs, 1,141 hits, 701 RBI, 544 runs, 155 doubles, 2,074 total bases and a .503 slugging average have variously been broken by Jim Sundberg, Toby Harrah and Juan González.

[MajGenl.Meade]

You avoid such conundrums! Support a team from Cleveland - any team

[dgs49]

Both the Giants and the Nationals are entertaining and worthy of support. If you want a reason to pick one, the Nationals are simply the recast Montreal Expo's, right?

Fucken foreigners.

Root for the Giants (then if they lose, switch sides and deny that you ever did).

[Joe Guy]

Another alternative is to partipate in a baseball pool and root for the score...

[Gob]

Come to the dark side Jim!!

[Sean]

The whole idea of choosing your sports team is alien to me. I was born in Manchester to a United supporting family and my mum took me to Old Trafford for the first time when I was just a few months old. There was no choice. That's the way it happens. We actually lived closer to City's ground but that didn't matter. Our house was red and that's that! If you aren't born into a tradition like I was you get out a map and find the closest footy ground to where you were born. That's your team and it NEVER changes*.

I knew I guy from Wimbledon who was a true Wimbledon FC supporter before they moved to Milton Keynes. Now he doesn't support any team but just enjoys his football. That's the way it works there. His team no longer exists so he no longer has a team.


*Well, never changes among true fans. There are exceptions...

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm with you there Sean. My dad was a Tottenham boy from Harringay. I was born in Walthamstow and the Lilywhites were (near enough) my hometown team.

I dislike that bandwagon fans just pick and choose (coincidentally I'm sure) from the top teams of the moment instead of their city/county/state team. Now I can understand it when (say) Australians are forced to support England or the Proteas in order to feel less like losers

Meade

[Gob]

I support "The England and Wales" cricket side.

The Welsh rugby side, (and anyone playing against England.)

The Scarlets (Llanelli) rugby side.

I've never followed a soccer team, (I suppose I could support Swanseaat a pinch.)

The Brumbies and Raiders local union and league sides.

NSW Origin side.

and, of course, my main team; Belconnen ramblers (U 19 girls A grade.)

[MajGenl.Meade]

I support "The England and Wales and South African" cricket side.

Fixed

[Gob]

Bitch!

[oldr_n_wsr]

So it's the Montreal Expos vs the New York Giants. Tuff choice.

[kristina]

I support the Red Sox and anyone who's playing the Yankees.

seen on a t-shirt once when I was back East...

edited to remove extra puntuation.