Why fans hate their teams

That's a great point, and one I've often harped on. When I was a kid (the 80s), the Red Sox were just another team like the Orioles or the Tigers. I think ESPN had something to do with it. Anyway, that's off the topic.

On to a subject more related to the original topic, I think a lot of fans have expectations that are too high for certain parts of their team. For example, I think a disproportionately high percentage of fans think their team's bullpen stinks because they remember the blown saves more than the converted ones.

 

Glad I'm not the only one. I grew up in a family of Bostonians (and rabid Red Sox fans for generations). While I grew up a Cubs fan, thanks to us getting WGN in 1984 and the fact that the American League was a rumor where I grew up, but I also followed the Red Sox (and thought I was the only Red Sox follower in Central Indiana), and really enjoyed the 2004 run -- if for no other reason than to watch my family enjoy it.

Then, ESPN happened, and the only two teams in baseball became the Red Sox and Yankees, and any Boston hats & shirts I have are tucked away safely in the closet, never to be seen in public.

However, we really do root for laundry. Ryne Sandberg and Rick Sutckliffe and Leon Durham and Lee Smith and Mike Greenwell and Dwight Evans and Oil Can Boyd are all retired -- the guys who were essentially superheroes to a young sports fan growing up. I have no tie to either team other than the typical boyhood fandom that most of us developed. And I still have an irrational fandom of the Cubs, if for no other reason than Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson played for them 20 years ago. And because Mike Fontenot isn't Ryno, Alfonso Soriano is as bad as Dawson was good, and Kevin Gregg blows more saves in a week than Lee Smith did in a season, I have this belief the Cubs have "let me down" and "dislike" a team because they don't make me feel good.

However, it's somewhat ridiculous to hate guys because they happen to be hired to play for a team you like. Or to like guys for the same reason ...