Being a Fan

TEAM CANADA Hockey fans!

When I was 16, I bought this cheesy little book called The Fun Book! 102 ways for girls to have some in some bargain bin at some bookstore. It had lots of suggestions, like rent a convertible for a day and tie a scarf around your hair while you drive (preferably beside the ocean or a long desert highway), and go have a drink in a hotel bar. I couldn't rent cars or drink in bars then but they seemed like cool ideas for when I was older. Now that I am older, I haven't rented a convertible, and while I've been to a few hotel bars it's not a regular habit. They still seem like cool ideas though. One of my favourite suggestions in the book was "Be a fan" - complete with a really cute illustration (the book had really good illustrations) of this curly haired woman wearing a team jersey and watching sports on TV while cheering. I loved that one then because I was a big sports fan in high school.

Here's the book

In 2000, 2001 and 2002 the Toronto Raptors basketball team were good enough to make the playoffs. So many of my friends liked the Raptors. It was always fun to get to school and talk about the Raptors game from the night before. And I was lucky enough (thanks to my dad) to get to go to a lot of games, including a playoff game in May 2001 when the Raptors were playing (and that game beat) the Philadelphia 76ers. Going to games was always so much fun! That year the Raptors heartbreakingly lost Game 7 in Philadelphia at the buzzer and I was crushed. The next year, if I remember correctly, they lost in the first round of the playoffs. But those years of cheering on the Raptors were so fun! Now they haven't made the playoffs in years and aren't that good anymore but I still do like them and hope they will get good again. I definitely know the best players from the early 2000s way better than I know or care about the best players today. I obviously loved Vince Carter (we all did and we were all sad that  he ended up leaving the Raps) since he was a Raptor but I also loved Chris Webber (C-Webb) of the Sacramento Kings. He was the best!

C-Webb

In terms of Toronto professional sports teams, I like the Blue Jays and Raptors best (it's a tie).  My love of the Jays stems from the early 1990s when they won the World Series twice (1992 and 1993) and were awesome!! Last year and this year, mostly thanks to my dad who is a big Jays fan, I have gotten back into them. I like watching the video replays of the game highlights that they win. Last year, my parents, D. and I went to two games (the Jays won both times) which were a lot of fun. I was (and definitely still am) a fair weather Leafs fan. I only ever care when they are in the playoffs.When I was in high school they made it as far as the conference finals a couple of times and that was  exciting. But I have just always preferred baseball and basketball.

The three outfielders do this every time the Jays win!

But in addition to baseball and basketball, I really like professional tennis. Tennis also one of the few sports where professional women players get as much attention as professional male athletes do, which is awesome (it's just sad that doesn't happen in more sports.) My all-time favourite tennis player is Steffi Graf. I also really really like Andre Agassi though and I love that they are married! I also really like Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Rafael Nadal. Tennis can be a really exciting sport to watch. I also like how it's an individual sport. Team sports are cool but there's also something neat about competing for (and relying only on) yourself.

Steffi

Serena and Venus

The worst part about being a fan is that it is so hard when your team loses! I especially feel like I can't take it when the team/player I like starts to lose. I remember when I was a kid and Steffi Graf was still playing tennis. I would start to watch the final of whatever grand slam tournament it happened to be and if she started to lose I wouldn't be able to handle it and would just off the TV and run upstairs. This year's Jays have so far in the season been a disappointment. They just cannot get to 6 games below .500 (at least so far) and that's bad! That's terrible in fact. They keep plateauing out at 7 games below.500 and it is really frustrating! If I am watching a game or checking the score and they are losing, I just turn off the computer and decide not to watch. Then I also try to avoid The Toronto Star's website because they always put  the Blue Jays score right on the homepage. It's nice to be surprised though. For example during last year's women's US Open tennis final, I saw that Serena Williams was down in the final set and it looked like she was going to lose. So I turned off the computer and figured she had lost. The next day when I went online, I saw a headline about Serena's comeback and to my happy surprise discovered she had actually come from behind and won. So that was nice! But yes, normally the way I deal with it when my team/favourite player loses is to pretend the match/game didn't happen :)

In some ways it's embarrassing that I care (it's embarrassing that anyone does) when my team loses. But on the other hand, I guess that's what makes it so much more fun when my/your team wins. There's this line in the song 11th Dimension by Julian Casablancas where he sings "Where cities come together to hate each other in the name of sport." I read an interview with him where he said he was thinking specifically of the Philadelphia Phillies and the NY Mets rivalry and how Philadelphia and New York supposedly hate each other because of that rivalry. Julian Casablancas also said in this same interview that he is a Mets fan which I love because I feel like most celebrities are Yankees fans so I think it's cool he prefers the Mets. But anyway, I get his overall point that cities hating each other because of sports is ridiculous. But I also think it's pretty confined to that one sport. In that, people from Philadelphia hate Mets fans and hate NY in regards to its association with the Mets but can have other objective opinions about NY not based around baseball. Maybe for some really intense diehard baseball fans it's a different story and they'd disagree with me, but I'd still like to think most people would be able to separate their sports and non-sports feelings.

So to conclude, being a fan is a good way for girls (and guys) to have fun. But it's also difficult at times. For now, I will just hope that in June the Jays can finally make it to 6 (and hopefully 5-4-3-2-1-0) games below 500, and that the tennis players I like win the French Open.