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Play Ball!
One of the sweet memories of growing up in New York was going with my Dad to see the Mets. I’d sit beside him in Shea Stadium, as he schooled me in how to keep score of every at bat. The Mets didn’t win much then, but I never cared. (We had the Yankees for that.) The experience, as great as it was, did not turn me into a lifelong Mets fan. My heart remains in San Francisco with the Giants. Happy opening day!
Photo from the series, Coney Island 1965-1970, by Stephen Salmieri
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Love opening day despite my beloved Red Sox loosing. I’m the cliché baseball fan, very superstitious. Wish the Sox had won.
My first live game memory is skipping high school, taking the subway to Fenway Park, sitting in the bleachers and drinking beer. Hard to believe we were served beer, wouldn’t happen now. This was a day game. But Fenway Park at night is a sight to behold. It’s transporting.
I used to feel sorry for Red Sox fans. But you all win a lot now.
A loooonnnnngggg time ago (think 5th grade) I was a Mets fan before switching my allegiance to the Phillies (I grew up in a place that hosted their AA farm team). But regardless of team, there is something special about Opening Day–a true harbinger of spring!
And it’s such a long season. Lots of time to get into the rhythm.
I lived in SF as a child/teen when the Giants were the only game in town. Then I was horrified at how many people switched their allegiance to the Oakland A’s when they moved there.
I’ve lived in Baltimore, and now Colorado, and I’m still a Giants fan.
Good riddance to Candlestink Park, though!
It is so much fun to be a Giants fan.
See, the wishy-washy allegiance is something *I* don’t get. I guess I’m lucky that my new home’s team is in the opposite league as my hometown team, so I can root for each of them heartily except once every 3 years, but I will never ever ever give up my hometown team. I take time every summer to follow them around the country for a few games, I subscribe to MLB TV so I can see them on the regular, and I have my allegiance tattooed on my back (no joke, and it’s a pretty detailed piece, so it was both expensive and took a while). I buy my niece and nephew gear for both teams, but about 3x more for the hometown team than my new home’s team. If all goes right, I will take them to their first game to see the HOMETOWN team in a couple years…
Tattoo? That is allegiance. Though I grew up in NYC, there are many ways that I feel like San Francisco is my real hometown. So I gladly root for the Giants.
Hrm…that is a dichotomy. DC is definitely my home. I hold no affinity for my hometown, except my ole team (and there wasn’t even a moment of hesitation having my allegiance inked right on me). I like going to games here, and I watch the Nats almost as much as my old team, but any of my far-flung friends who have accompanied me to hometown team’s games when I happen upon their fair city can tell you how school-girl giddy I am when I get to see my “boys” play in person. My cube has one Bryce Harper pic, and a whole Indians calendar, schedule, and banner pinned up. Perhaps it’s an “absence makes the heart grow fonder” phenomenon…
Being a fan is sure interesting. I get no company rooting for the SF Giants here in L.A. as it’s such a bitter rivalry.
As a born-and-raised Angeleno, that surprises me a little. So many people in L.A. are from somewhere else, that I had always found that there was such a wide variety of allegiences among my friends. Even within my own family, we have at least 5 different allegiances (Dodgers, Red Sox, Tigers, Padres and Indians. Strangely, no Cardinals fans, in spite of the fact that I have a cousin who used to play for them in the 1970’s. But I digress.)
Even after being on the east coast for 7 years, I still listen to the morning radio show on my favorite L.A. station (gotta love internet radio), and one of the DJs is a rabid Phillies fan. One morning last year, they had people call into the show to talk about their favorite sports bars, and which fans gather at which bars during the baseball season. Callers were talking about watering holes that cater to fans of all the different teams, from the Angels to the Yankees. It seemed like every team had its own little pocket of fans all over town.
I’ve yet to come across a Giants fan here. But many I need to be going to more sports bars.
I haven’t lived in L.A. for years (I’m on the east coast now), but I’ll always be a Dodgers fan. Like any good Angeleno, I follow them closely and get very passionate about it if they’re doing well, and ignore them almost completely when they’re having a lousy season. And they’ve broken my heart every year since 1988.
I was checking the broadcast schedule last week, and they’ve broken my heart yet again – unless they make the playoffs, or I catch them in person, I won’t even get to see 10 of their games this year. They have their own station now, which only broadcasts on Time Warner in the Los Angeles area. At least last night’s game was good. Go Dodger Blue!
I feel for you Dodgers fans that you can’t watch them on TV. That’s disgraceful.