Days like today make it difficult to be a fan. Well, not a fan in general but a fan of the Irish specifically. Sure, I could go through the various problems, bitch and moan about what needs to be done but really, what would be gained? I'd feel a bit better but then tomorrow I'd read more about the game and I'd start obsessing over things until next Saturday. The nice thing about following a baseball team is that there are multiple games a week so you can't really dwell on just one. With football, there's lots of down time which makes for way too much fan involvement.
I consider myself a fan for four teams, Notre Dame (football), the Cubs (baseball), the Bears (football) and Indiana University (basketball). There are plenty more which I follow somewhat but those four, I follow daily. Sometimes I think that number is too many especially after what happened in Chicago. I'm just now able to talk about it. A few people joking said I should be Steve Bartman for Halloween and I just looked at them in shock. It doesn't matter if the series didn't hinge on that particular foul ball but I look at it as a symbol for the loss.
Being a fan of a team transcends almost everything else in life. It lasts longer than relationships, isn't affected geographically and generally can't be ignored. Perhaps that isn't healthy but it's the reality. This struck me today when they showed a clip from the 1993 game between Notre Dame and Florida State. My life is so different in those ten years. I hadn't met my wife yet. I was dating someone else very seriously. I was going to school in Chicago with little thought of returning to Southern California. On a whim, we drove the 3 hours from Chicago to South Bend on a Friday morning, spent the day walking around the campus just soaking up the atmosphere. We bought two tickets for the game in the student section and watched one of the greatest games ever. Fast forward ten years and I'm a totally different person yet my being a fan of the Irish hasn't changed one bit.
To me, that's the amazing thing about sports and something which can't be easily explained or understood.
Posted by Josh at November 1, 2003 10:55 PM | TrackBack