As fans, how much do we root for the laundry?

[maumann]

@justgladtobehere made an observation that deserves to not mess up the trivia thread: "Loyalty towards a sports team is more than just a season to season interest in the local 9 beating some different local 9. Good luck selling tickets when each year every team is being rebuilt.:

I've often wondered about that statement and whether it holds true across levels, regions and pursuits.

What percentage do you root for the laundry and what percentage for the name? That's definitely worthy of a doctoral thesis, because I can see varying amounts at the pro and college level, and varying amounts based on regions of the country.

If you switched the uniforms of the Auburn and Alabama teams for one game, how many people in Sylacauga would even notice? Or for that matter, UF-FSU in Lake City, or UGa-Tech in Macon (OK, nobody roots for Georgia Tech, but ....)?

However, the experiment is way different in a Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. Or Steelers-Browns.

But the NBA is proving that you can have ridiculous amounts of player movement and fans will still flock to see those teams and their favorites.

 

[maumann]

By definition, I'm a laundry guy. I'm old enough to be a grandfather to anyone playing in a Gators uniform, so logically I should like Georgia or Florida State just as much. (Like that's going to happen.) At the same time, as I get older, I have less interest in the actual energy required to care past looking at the score in the next day's .... Twitter feed. I realize that's a minority of alums from my school, let alone the mindless lemmings who can't spell "university" let alone attend one.

Same thing with the Tigers. Mickey Stanley's retirement ended whatever connection I had to the 1968 world's champions. But going on five decades, I've wasted much of my adult life staring at box scores and yelling at well-paid professional baseball players who don't even know I exist.

Maybe I just like the logo. I sure haven't enjoyed watching the actual games, even during their recent run of success. However, I love the sport more than ever. Go figure.

 

[DanOregon]

I view it as rooting for the fans - I want the locals to be happy, so I want the local team to win.

 

[Webster]

While a Knicks fan, I tend to root more for players than “my” team. In a sport like football, where there are so many players, that’s less true

 

[micropolitan guy]

Root for individuals to do well, but always cheer for the team above all else.

 

[swingline]

Laundry all the way. The names change through the generations, but the laundry remains the same.

Of course I have had some favorite players that I especially wanted to do well, including a certain booger eater and the Wainwright/Yadi combo. Mahomes and Kelce are climbing that list.

 

[Spartan Squad]

That rinse cycle is just the best!

 

[Spartan Squad]

Very much the laundry with a few exceptions. There are a few players I'd never want to play for my local team. Just too much bad blood. Puig going to the Giants, for example. I'd hate him every day until he was cut.

And the laundry attitude goes both ways. Doesn't matter who is on the team, never rooting for anyone playing south of Bakersfield and north of Escondido

 

[outofplace]

I'm a laundry guy in most sports, though the Steelers and Penguins are the only teams I truly care about. The rest, I'm done caring five minutes after the game is over.

Baseball is my exception. I was a devoted Pirates fan as a kid, but the combination of baseball's financial system and incompetent ownership that doesn't care about winning got me to the point that I can't bring myself to care even on the rare occasions that they are good. The playing field is better, but still not level, but ownership has actually gotten worse. When I look at MLB, it's all about my fantasy teams. Does that count as laundry?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I guess you can say it’s about the laundry, but for me, it’s also about family. I grew up rooting for teams with my father. I rooted for the teams he rooted for. So the tradition continues.

 

[heyabbott]

It’s all about the laundry. Rooted for and defended Bryce Harper for his entire Nats career. Now it’s ‘ **** that guy’ hope he fails everyday. I’ll check b-r to see how guys I used to root for are doing with their new teams but I don’t change teams. Except when the Giants traded Tarkenton back to the Vikings. I became a Vikes fan only while Fran played there. That was 40 years ago.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Laundry ....

But if your most-disliked player - Tom Wilson, Vontaz Burfict - suddenly becomes a member of your team?

 

[heyabbott]

Laundry ....

But if your most-disliked player - Tom Wilson, Vontaz Burfict - suddenly becomes a member of your team?

I grew up a die hard Knicks fan. It was great and easy in the beginning. I saw Frazier and Reed and the 69-70 teams. I went to playoff games and Championship games. I saw the Knicks beat the Lakers. I saw Monroe’s first game as Knick after rooting against him as a Bullet, it was easy to root for him. I loved Cazzie Russell, but when they traded for JerryLucas I was a Lucas fan. Even tried to imitate his shot. I rooted for failed drat picks like Dean Memminger and Henry Bibby, the trade of Frazier to Cleveland. I went through the bad times with the Knicks, the Sugar Ray Richardson teams, loved Bernard King.
But I also went toMaryland when Ewing played for Georgetown and I hated Ewing. I tried to like when he was drafted by the Knicks. But I couldn’t. Stopped rooting for the Knicks. HE spoiled being a Knick fan for me. The reverse laundry theory

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I grew up a die hard Knicks fan. It was great and easy in the beginning. I saw Frazier and Reed and the 69-70 teams. I went to playoff games and Championship games. I saw the Knicks beat the Lakers. I saw Monroe’s first game as Knick after rooting against him as a Bullet, it was easy to root for him. I loved Cazzie Russell, but when they traded for JerryLucas I was a Lucas fan. Even tried to imitate his shot. I rooted for failed drat picks like Dean Memminger and Henry Bobby, the trade of Frazier to Cleveland. I went threw the bad times with the Knicks, the Sugar Ray Richardson teams, loved Bernard King.
But I also went toMaryland when Ewing played for Georgetown and I hated Ewing. I tried to like when he was drafted by the Knicks. But I couldn’t. Stopped rooting for the Knicks. HE spoiled being a Knick fan for me. The reverse laundry theory

Outing: Yab is Bill Simmons.

 

[heyabbott]

Outing: Yab is Bill Simmons.

With all respect that’s due, **** you

 

[maumann]

My father is from Detroit and probably was a big fan of the Tigers, Lions and Red Wings in his youth. (I know he's talked about how he could name every player on each team in the American League in the 1940s.) But with the exception of taking me to games, he has no rooting interest at all. And he found his interest in the Dolphins was completely connected to Don Shula's tenure there, a man he admires. Otherwise, he loves watching games and keeping score. But I don't think he cares at all about the outcome.

My best friend growing up was a huge Packers/Lakers/Dodgers fan (lived in Des Moines and Burbank before moving to the Bay Area) and wore USC merchandise because his grandmother worked there. He'd tune his radio to hear Vin Scully at night and quote Chick Hearn. But once the Garvey/Lopes/Russell/Cey/Yeager era ended, he eventually switched allegiances. He's a Giants season-ticket holder (of all things) and a graduate of Cal. He can't stand USC now. So he's a bandwagon/turncoat?

 

[CD Boogie]

While a Knicks fan, I tend to root more for players than “my” team. In a sport like football, where there are so many players, that’s less true

I was a huge Knicks fan during the Ewing era, having followed him from my college rooting interest at the time, Georgetown. But the Dolan era has completely turned me off the team, minus the brief bit of Linsanity. I don't root against them, but they are so inept that it's not even worth following them until there is a regime change. I simply can't abide an organization that's run by a baffoon.

Some years the team you root for is easier to root for than others. Like last year's Red Sox team.

Contrast that with Sox teams populated by morons and goons like Manny Ramirez, Derek Lowe and Josh Beckett.

It sickened me when the Steelers signed Michael Vick -- but I still kept watching because I'm not that holier than thou. As a sports fan, I can tolerate criminality more than I can tolerate incompetence.

 

[CD Boogie]

My father is from Detroit and probably was a big fan of the Tigers, Lions and Red Wings in his youth. (I know he's talked about how he could name every player on each team in the American League in the 1940s.) But with the exception of taking me to games, he has no rooting interest at all. And he found his interest in the Dolphins was completely connected to Don Shula's tenure there, a man he admires. Otherwise, he loves watching games and keeping score. But I don't think he cares at all about the outcome.

My best friend growing up was a huge Packers/Lakers/Dodgers fan (lived in Des Moines and Burbank before moving to the Bay Area) and wore USC merchandise because his grandmother worked there. He'd tune his radio to hear Vin Scully at night and quote Chick Hearn. But once the Garvey/Lopes/Russell/Cey/Yeager era ended, he eventually switched allegiances. He's a Giants season-ticket holder (of all things) and a graduate of Cal. He can't stand USC now. So he's a bandwagon/turncoat?

He went from a Dodgers fan to a Giants fan? As an adult? He needs to be tagged for further study.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I've lived in Boston for 45 years, and am still a fan of the Philadelphia teams (except for the Flyers, were just getting started when I went away to college, so no time for loyalty to develop. Is that rooting for laundry, or rooting not to lose one's childhood? My late parents, on the other hand, were Philadelphia fans when we lived in Delaware, but when they moved to Florida became Braves and Jaguars fans because those were the teams they saw on TV, so they started following their storylines. Evidence for the sports as soap opera theory.

 

[Webster]

I grew up a die hard Knicks fan. It was great and easy in the beginning. I saw Frazier and Reed and the 69-70 teams. I went to playoff games and Championship games. I saw the Knicks beat the Lakers. I saw Monroe’s first game as Knick after rooting against him as a Bullet, it was easy to root for him. I loved Cazzie Russell, but when they traded for JerryLucas I was a Lucas fan. Even tried to imitate his shot. I rooted for failed drat picks like Dean Memminger and Henry Bibby, the trade of Frazier to Cleveland. I went through the bad times with the Knicks, the Sugar Ray Richardson teams, loved Bernard King.
But I also went toMaryland when Ewing played for Georgetown and I hated Ewing. I tried to like when he was drafted by the Knicks. But I couldn’t. Stopped rooting for the Knicks. HE spoiled being a Knick fan for me. The reverse laundry theory

Ewing was a great Knick and gave total effort every game. If they had never traded Mark Jackson for Charles Smith, that’s a team which would have won a title.