Victory Is Mine

Sports cities accepting mediocrity

Les Carpenter of the Seattle Times writes an interesting piece in his last column for ST, discussing Seattle sports fans' historical tendency to accept mediocrity. Recent signs indicate that may be changing, but this is something we'uns down in Louzeeannah wrestle with all the time. Do Saints fans accept mediocrity? It's easy for me to say that we do, but I should admit that I have very little frame of reference. Other than Louisiana, I've only spent time in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Certainly I know Louisiana the best from having spent the first 20 years of my life there, and I know Los Angeles fairly well from having spent my four years of college there (while I never made it to a Lakers game, I did see the Clips, Angels, Dodgers, Mighty Ducks, Kings, USC and UCLA football, UCLA basketball, and I even trekked down to San Diego for a couple Chargers games). Four years of Los Angeles was enough to confirm my lifelong-held suspicion that it is indeed the biggest bandwagon city on the planet. Not a whole lot of Lakers jerseys when I first got there in 1997, but by the time I'd graduated and Kobe and Shaq were winning championships - those jerseys were all over the place. (Contrast that with, say, Boston, where Sox hats were abundant before last year's WS win, or even Cleveland, where Indians and Browns merchandise rarely has trouble selling.) Even L.A. fans don't argue with the joke that they all get to Dodger games in the 3rd inning and leave in the 7th. They just don't really care about sports that much. Don't get me wrong - there are die-hards, just like anywhere else. It's just that the deep-rooted allegiance to its teams doesn't exist there. It's why the nation's second-largest metropolitan area couldn't support even ONE NFL team, let alone the Raiders AND the Rams. Perhaps they could take some tips from the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin, population 102,000 (they really love their Packers).

I've now been in Seattle for 4 years, during which time I've attended about 40-50 Sonics games, 20 Mariners games, 3 or 4 Seahawks games, 5 or 6 Husky football games, and 2 Husky basketball games. Hell I've even attended a minor league hockey game out here. While that's by no means comprehensive, I will say that it seems like Hawks fans and Saints fans have a common thread, which is an underlying feeling during most games that our team is just going to find a way to blow it. From reading the Sports Guy's columns or talking to a couple friends of mine who are Boston born and bred, they always had the same issues, whereas Yankee fans always seem to squeeze every last drop of optimism out of every game. They never stop hoping. Now, after three Super Bowls in four years and their first World Series since 1918, it seems like the Boston fans have gotten over it. So are we to believe that, around three years ago, Boston fans finally stopped accepting mediocrity?

Perhaps I'm messing up cause-effect relationships here, but it does appear that "accepting mediocrity" might just be a headline-grabber in cities which have been starved of championships for decades. An easy excuse to say that the fans should be more charged up, more critical. I've listened to talk radio in Seattle and New Orleans, and there's no shortage of criticism. Bold fans making signs critical of management and hanging them proudly at games? Possibly. Maybe Philly's just a helluva lot tougher than any other city. Eagles fans would certainly be the last in the NFL I'd want to piss off. At least one could hope to outwit a roid-raging Oakland Raiders fan if it ever came to that.

And on the topic of Eagles fans, Les, I should note that Philly is still without a championship in any major sport for two decades. Who cares if their team made it to the Super Bowl if they didn't win it? I don't think Eagles fans are taking much solace in that.

I'd be interested to know if the fans in Cleveland believe that their problem is acceptance of mediocrity. It's been awhile since any of their teams has won anything. I just don't think it's possible for a team's fans to rise up in an organized fashion and demand change in such a way that their actions will somehow result in a championship. Maybe an extended period of futility will keep fans away from the games, but it didn't work in Boston for eight decades, and Philly fans still seem to pack their stadiums despite the lack of titles (and then we get on the topic of "promise," and how long that can sell tickets, which is a whole new discussion I suppose, but related).

I need to do more research here. Maybe an examination of championship teams in different sports over the last few years, and how they evolved into a title team. To be continued...

posted by Publius @ 1:46 PM