Baseball

[shadows]

Originally Posted by Talvenada

SHADOW:

I listen to WFAN.com in NY and Mike Francesa (big NYY fan), and he says the top 3 teams are The Yankees, Sox & Phillies.

I realize you're a Jays fan, but if it came down to those 3 teams, who would you root for? At least, The Phillies have Doc to root for.


TAL

Out of the three I would pick the Phillies. Not just due to them having Doc, but also for the fact that they are not divisional rivals to the Jays.

[smc]

Originally Posted by shadows

Out of the three I would pick the Phillies. Not just due to them having Doc, but also for the fact that they are not divisional rivals to the Jays.

Wait a minute. Rooting for a "divisional rival" is verboten, but the traitorous act of switching to a National League team is acceptable?

Who are you? Louis Riel?

[transjen]

Originally Posted by smc

Wait a minute. Rooting for a "divisional rival" is verboten, but the traitorous act of switching to a National League team is acceptable?

Who are you? Louis Riel?

I see nothing wrong with having a fav NL team and a fav AL team

My fav NL team is the Phillies

While my fav AL team is the Orioles
Jerseygirl Jen

[smc]

Originally Posted by transjen

I see nothing wrong with having a fav NL team and a fav AL team

My fav NL team is the Phillies

While my fav AL team is the Orioles
Jerseygirl Jen

Oh, Jen, I was just having some semi-obscure-Canadian-reference fun with shadows.

I have a favorite NL team, too. It's the Pirates. I just feel like they need to have a fan who cares.

No, seriously, I like other teams besides the Red Sox. I went to college in Maryland and spent lots of time at Orioles games, and still want to see the Orioles succeed ... despite being in the same division as the Sox.

I like the SF Giants because my grandfather taught me to like them when I was a kid. He was a NY Giants fan and they still showed SF games on NY television years after the Giants headed west.

Bottom line: I love baseball.

[shadows]

Originally Posted by smc

Oh, Jen, I was just having some semi-obscure-Canadian-reference fun with shadows.

I have a favorite NL team, too. It's the Pirates. I just feel like they need to have a fan who cares.

No, seriously, I like other teams besides the Red Sox. I went to college in Maryland and spent lots of time at Orioles games, and still want to see the Orioles succeed ... despite being in the same division as the Sox.

I like the SF Giants because my grandfather taught me to like them when I was a kid. He was a NY Giants fan and they still showed SF games on NY television years after the Giants headed west.

Bottom line: I love baseball.

No worries smc, I caught the Riel reference.

A Pirate fan, eh? It must be hard to watch that team! They trade away pretty well all of their talent when they are about to get a raise. I think the Pirates need new ownership otherwise there will be no change any time soon.

[smc]

Originally Posted by shadows

No worries smc, I caught the Riel reference.

A Pirate fan, eh? It must be hard to watch that team! They trade away pretty well all of their talent when they are about to get a raise. I think the Pirates need new ownership otherwise there will be no change any time soon.

Didn't you catch what followed the Pirates reference? "No, seriously ..."

I loved watching the Pirates back in the Willie Stargell days (okay, the crazy uniforms were a bit much to take), but I think Major League Baseball ought to step in and take that team away from the owners and force a sale to someone who cares!

(I knew you'd get the Riel reference. But I bet you didn't expect me to make that reference, my friend.)

[shadows]

Originally Posted by smc

Didn't you catch what followed the Pirates reference? "No, seriously ..."

I loved watching the Pirates back in the Willie Stargell days (okay, the crazy uniforms were a bit much to take), but I think Major League Baseball ought to step in and take that team away from the owners and force a sale to someone who cares!

(I knew you'd get the Riel reference. But I bet you didn't expect me to make that reference, my friend.)

I remember reading about the Harold Ballard days for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He did not give a shit whether or not the team did well so he put the crappiest(cheapest) team that he possibly could on the ice so he could get as much money in his pockets as possible. Thank goodness he is no longer the owner. With the Pirates, it seems like that is the exact same thought process for the owner. As long as money is being made, why would more money need to be spent on players?

You're usually pretty good for a reference or two on any given night.

[shadows]

Originally Posted by transjen

I see nothing wrong with having a fav NL team and a fav AL team

My fav NL team is the Phillies

While my fav AL team is the Orioles
Jerseygirl Jen

I can live with you liking the Orioles(would be better if you liked the Jays...), Jen. I am just glad you didn't say the Yankees.

[transjen]

Originally Posted by shadows

I can live with you liking the Orioles(would be better if you liked the Jays...), Jen. I am just glad you didn't say the Yankees.

Why i like the Orioles

Because of my grandfather, My grandfather my moms dad he lived in Maryland so a lot of times when my parents drove down for a visit my grandfather would take me and my brother and my sister to watch the Orioles play so i'd see players like Cal Ripken [my fav Oriole of all time] Eddie Murray Billy Ripken, I even got to meet Brooks Robinson who was way before my time but my grandfather got me to ask him to sign a baseball for me which i still have

Jerseygirl Jen

[shadows]

Originally Posted by transjen

Why i like the Orioles

Because of my grandfather, My grandfather my moms dad he lived in Maryland so a lot of times when my parents drove down for a visit my grandfather would take me and my brother and my sister to watch the Orioles play so i'd see players like Cal Ripken [my fav Oriole of all time] Eddie Murray Billy Ripken, I even got to meet Brooks Robinson who was way before my time but my grandfather got me to ask him to sign a baseball for me which i still have

Jerseygirl Jen

That is a very nice reason, Jennifer.

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by transjen

I see nothing wrong with having a fav NL team and a fav AL team

My fav NL team is the Phillies

While my fav AL team is the Orioles
Jerseygirl Jen

JEN:

This is not meant to be insultive or offensive in ANY way.

When I was growing up, I was disappointed that The A's had moved to KC, because I would have had a team in each league. Then, I found out that people around during those years were fans of one team or the other, and in NY it's still that way today with NYY or NYM for 95% of their baseball fans with the 5% showing up in October. The Angels and Dodgers seem to have that kind of relationship, The Giants and A's do too, and CWS and CHC do as well. Football and basketball fans are also in that same 1-team boat.

The old days in NY were: the snobs were Yankees fans, the white collars were Giants fans, and the blue collars were Dodgers fans.

I don't know what the story was in Boston with The Braves, but maybe The Professor will chime in.

I like the idea of having a team in each league--like CHI, NY, LA, SF-OAK--but I've yet to hear of any city doing it that way.


TAL

[smc]

Originally Posted by Talvenada

The old days in NY were: the snobs were Yankees fans, the white collars were Giants fans, and the blue collars were Dodgers fans.

I don't know what the story was in Boston with The Braves, but maybe The Professor will chime in.

I assume that by "The Professor" you mean me. Let's nip calling me that in the bud right now, please.

I may be old, but I wasn't even born when the Braves left Boston in 1953. I do know lots of people who were around then, though, and generally they say that when the Braves were here the breakdown was somewhat along the following lines (at least in the last decade of the Braves being here): fans for whom the Red Sox mattered most, 80%; fans for whom the Braves mattered most, 20% (a big part of why they left); baseball fans who followed both teams and couldn't get enough, 99%. People old enough to remember still talk about seeing Warren Spahn pitch.

I will say it again: there is no city where baseball is more popular than Boston.

I think Talvenada's explanation of the "old days in NY" is oversimplistic. One side of my family was in New York (the other up here in Boston), and so I spent a lot of time down there. My mother grew up in Brooklyn and was a Dodgers fan for the same reason most people were: a combination of geography (what makes a Phillies fan a Phillies fan, e.g., is proximity to Philadelphia) and a feeling of rivalry with "the city" (i.e., Manhattan). It didn't matter whether she was from a blue-collar or white-collar family (although it happens to have been the former). My grandfather, her father, had lived on the Lower East Side after coming to this country and was a Giants fan (and couldn't have been more blue collar). I can't speak for Yankees fans. Hell, I can barely speak to Yankees fans

[Fantasex 76]

Halos fan since 74.

Atlanta Braves fan since 76.

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by smc

I assume that by "The Professor" you mean me. Let's nip calling me that in the bud right now, please.

I may be old, but I wasn't even born when the Braves left Boston in 1953. I do know lots of people who were around then, though, and generally they say that when the Braves were here the breakdown was somewhat along the following lines (at least in the last decade of the Braves being here): fans for whom the Red Sox mattered most, 80%; fans for whom the Braves mattered most, 20% (a big part of why they left); baseball fans who followed both teams and couldn't get enough, 99%. People old enough to remember still talk about seeing Warren Spahn pitch.

I will say it again: there is no city where baseball is more popular than Boston.

I think Talvenada's explanation of the "old days in NY" is oversimplistic. One side of my family was in New York (the other up here in Boston), and so I spent a lot of time down there. My mother grew up in Brooklyn and was a Dodgers fan for the same reason most people were: a combination of geography (what makes a Phillies fan a Phillies fan, e.g., is proximity to Philadelphia) and a feeling of rivalry with "the city" (i.e., Manhattan). It didn't matter whether she was from a blue-collar or white-collar family (although it happens to have been the former). My grandfather, her father, had lived on the Lower East Side after coming to this country and was a Giants fan (and couldn't have been more blue collar). I can't speak for Yankees fans. Hell, I can barely speak to Yankees fans

SMC:

Thnx, for the info. I only have a very superficial knowledge of what happened in other cities in the late 40's and early 50's. My info comes from comments made about those days, which are few and far between.

I called you professor, because I though you taught college classes for PHD's.


It's nice to see one city get it right, and root for a team in each league.


TAL

[smc]

Originally Posted by Talvenada

I called you professor, because I though you taught college classes for PHD's.

I do (how did you know that?), but I just don't want to be known as The Professor online. It's complicated, but it just doesn't work for me. Don't worry about it, though.

Here's a little piece of trivia about old Braves Field in Boston, for all you baseball fans out there. It opened in 1915, and was so huge that the first home run that wasn't of the inside-the-park variety wasn't hit until 1925! The original distance to center field was 550 feet!

[dauls]

Originally Posted by transjen

I see nothing wrong with having a fav NL team and a fav AL team

My fav NL team is the Phillies

While my fav AL team is the Orioles
Jerseygirl Jen

I have 13 favourite AL teams. I bet it's not hard to guess the damn team I didn't include in my AL favourites.

But seriously out of those 13 I have a soft spot for the poor old Athletics.

Why? A friend of mine supports them and in 1990 we were travelling around the USA by Greyhound Bus (yes, really) when we stopped off to visit some his family in Danville, CA (10-20 miles east of Oakland). They wanted to take us to see the Athletics, but unfortunately our visit coincided with an Athletics road trip and we had to leave California before the A's returned home.

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by shadows

Out of the three I would pick the Phillies. Not just due to them having Doc, but also for the fact that they are not divisional rivals to the Jays.

SHADOW:

I'm not surprised by your choice, but it is fun to warm-up for the season.

I can understand how you wouldn't want to root for NYY or BOS after years of looking up in the standings, like BAL & TB.

Francesa considers those 3 teams to be head and shoulders above whoever is next on the pecking order, are didn't name a 1, 2 or 3.

TAL