Who do you root for other than the Blue Jays?
| Boston |  5 (5.62%) |
| Detroit | 2 (2.25%) |
| Minnesota | 12 (13.48%) |
| New York Yankees | 4 (4.49%) |
| Oakland | 15 (16.85%) |
| Texas | 3 (3.37%) |
| Washington (Montreal) | 6 (6.74%) |
| Whoever's playing the Yankees | 22 (24.72%) |
| Other AL team (please specify) | 6 (6.74%) |
| NL Team (please specify) | 14 (15.73%) |
It is really the only aspect of my personality that is directly masochistic.
I have no choice, though, because my mom and her side of the family is from Chicago, and every time I visit we have to catch a game at Wrigley. My favourite memory is attending a game between the Cards and Cubs in the heat of the McGwire/Sosa race for the record. McGwire hit one out, Sosa didn't, but the atmosphere definitely felt playoff-like.
I've been a Jays and Yanks fan since the beginning of the 90's (I didn't follow baseball in the 80's). I've only become a Red Sox fan in the past couple of seasons. Some days I have on a Red Sox hat with a Yanks shirt on.
I casually root for the Padres. In the playoffs I root for underdogs in general, and against the Yankees and Red Sox in particular.
Many people know that I used to, in fact, be a Yankees fan, with the A's being the casual interest because I lived in the Bay Area and detested that other team across the Bay. But the Jason Giambi transfer was the final blow, and whatever allegiance I had to the Yankees, diminishing with each free-agent spree, was gone entirely, and I embraced Miggie, Chavy, and Huddy with glee.
I still love them, even though the nucleus that fed my "early years" as a true A's fan has been dispersed. I hope to be around when the A's get past the first round of the playoffs. Really!
After the 1985 collapse against the Royals, at the tender age of eight I was so badly burned by the experience that I swore to live ever after a life of quiet detachment. If I could have spent the rest of my days alone in a shack in the woods, I would have considered it sweet relief. But since I lived in a suburban redoubt with little forested area to speak of, and had to follow baseball, who better to cheer for than a bunch of sadsacks content to drift along in the nether regions of the A.L. East? Surely these gentlemen would never allow me to feel the pain that Jim Sundberg and George Brett applied. And certainly they kept up their end of the bargain, until one fateful October evening in 1997, when the fates aligned and old friend Tony Fernandez exacted a pound of flesh as compensation for my moments of doubt in 1985.
As for the Padres, they are a more recent source of interest. My wife's family comes from San Diego, and I'd be hard pressed to think of a more pleasant, beautiful city.
Given that, where I live (Mass), and Remy and Orsillo on broadcasts I've found myself enjoying Red Sox games more and more. But if the Red Sox lost to the Cardinals in the World Series less year I wouldn't have had any more or less enjoyment from it (which I know reads as a contradiction).
The Jays are the only team that will pull on my emotions.
This year, I like Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, maybe Colorado. I also like the Padres, but don't mistake me for a fan of any of these teams. My NL team was the Expos, but there's no connection to Washington now since I liked the Expos as a franchise and history as opposed to the actual roster.
No one said you couldn't include minor league teams, so I've always liked the Mudhens and any other minor league affiliates of the Jays. If only Syraceuse was relocated to Mississauga...
The Red Sox have boasted a litany of my least favourite players. Dewey Evans...Tony Pena...Mike Greenwell...Jody Reed...Dennis Eckersley...Roger Clemens v.1...Tom Brunansky...Oil Can Boyd...Trot Nixon...Kevin Millar...David Wells...
I don't like them now; they were the Jays' most formidable rivals when I was a baseball-obsessed elementary school student in the '80s; and if you ever travel to see the Jays play, you'll never find more hostile or less hospitable fans than at Fenway. There are good and bad everywhere you go, but otherwise innocuous clapping or cap-wearing always -- always -- seems to earn visiting a shower of debris and profanity in Boston. Bruins fans are similarly uncool.
Even Yankee fans generally leave you alone.
My dad was always an Indians fan (and a Browns fan too...though as far as I know he's never been to Cleveland)
He started following them in the late 50s right up until the late 90s. I think he could handle decades of losing, but that tease in 1997 was just too much for him. Since then I've been quietly rooting for them to win back his faith
I don't really root for other baseball teams, but I root for lots and lots of players. And I don't even play in fantasy leagues. Almost every team, though, has players I like and want to see do well. Even the Yankees.
I was a baseball fan before the Jays or Expo's landed in Canada.
The first world series I ever watched was Balt. vs. Pittsburg. The Pirates won powered by Roberto Clemente. So I always had a soft spot for Batlimore since.
First game I ever seen was at the old Ex. against the California Angels. That team was a virtual allstar team, Carew, Downing , Lynn. I loved that Angels team so have had a soft spot for them too.
Living in Vancouver right up I-5 we have always recieved Mariners broadcasts, so I kinda like them too.
Herbek, Molly and Kirby sort of softened up the Twins for me too.
I am strictly an American League fan going back to that Orioles - Pirates series. In fact if Vancouver ever was granted a National League franchise I would likely largely ignore them. Well maybe.
I guess though, I really like players, good guys who work hard and I like teams that assemble a bunch of them. Though a hardcore Jays fan I can be pretty happy watching an Angels - A's game just the same.
I liked poll.
Uh, the Red Wings?
Ladies and gentlemen, the only thing the 2005 rookies agree on!
Really? Really? Now I'm going out of my mind with envy. I had to spend most of my life believing the Red Wings would never win a Cup. (Hell, I spent much of the 70s and 80s wondering if they'd ever win a game.) The relief, the vindication, the sweetness of the reward I finally experienced... and then came the Konstantinov accident a week later, and I didn't even get to enjoy it.
Did you have an Yzerman sweater when you were little? (I had Gordie Howe, of course, seeing as how I'm really really old and I can remember him when he had dark hair...)
Other than that, I just want who ever is playing the Yankees to win, I relish in their defeat.
Unfortunately, no. The closest I got was my dad's old jersey from some house league; his team was the Red Wings and he wore 18. It was one off, so I wore it when playing. Yzerman's from the same town (okay, he moved there when he was 10) that my grandmother lives in, so that sort of started my Wings fandom. Back-to-back wins when I was 10 and 11 didn't hurt, either. Oh, and when I was 15. Take that, Leaf fans!
and then came the Konstantinov accident
You know, I never thought it was possible to out-PIM Darren McCarty, but he did. (Question: Why is there an I in the acronym for Penalty Minutes?)
And finally...FREE MANNY LEGACE!
Isn't it, though? However, I didn't have the stones to vote "Whoever's playing the Yankees." Some things...I...I...I just can't handle the pressure!
In all seriousness, it's a well-justified hate I have. If we ever get stuck at a home run derby together, I'll share the story with you.