Saturday was one of the greatest days of my life as a sports
fan, yet I’m supposed to feel guilty about it.
Chances are, if you’ve seen a baseball cap worn on this
campus these past couple days, you know that the Anaheim Angels and
Los Angeles Dodgers both made the playoffs. And depending upon who
you ask, it’s either a paradox or a travesty to be a fan of
both teams.
Too many baseball fans view this duality as though two beautiful
purebreds produced an ugly mutt, completely forgetting it’s
the same animal in the end.
Pure Angel fans consider it treasonous to also like the Dodgers,
as though it requires betraying some kind of small-time, Orange
County roots for big-city, L.A. glamour.
Meanwhile, pure Dodger fans become territorial whenever their
suburban neighbors start to claim multiple allegiances.
These purebreds like to dismiss the mutts as fickle bandwagon
fans who jump back and forth. It’s as though there’s
some code of ethics broken by cheering equally for both of Southern
California’s baseball teams.
But there’s no serious rivalry between the Angels and
Dodgers, outside of the one FOX half-heartedly tries to create in
order to boost television ratings every time there’s a
freeway series.
For the most part, Dodger fans prefer to concentrate their
entire hatred on the Giants. Meanwhile, Angels fans are too busy
fashionably hating the Yankees along with the rest of baseball.
There’s no real conflict of interest rooting equally for
both teams. Playing in separate leagues, the teams aren’t
jockeying against each other for playoff positions. Their two
interleague series against each other are nothing more than a way
to give the players some more time to spend near home.
Nevertheless, there remains a sense of disbelief that someone
could genuinely like both teams. Perhaps there’s some sort of
ultra-passion involved with being a fan of just one team that
I’m not familiar with. Do Dodgers’ fans bleed truer
Dodger blue if they’re exclusive about it? Does a rally
monkey not work if it’s hoisted by a Dodger fan?
The purebreds like to claim that they’re laying all their
eggs in one basket, as though it is the ultimate sign of devotion,
when in reality it just shows that they don’t have enough
eggs to fill two baskets. It would seem to me that hardcore
baseball fans would feel unfulfilled with just one team to root
for. After all, that implies having a vested interest in just one
of the leagues, and therefore neglecting the other half of the
sport.
New York and Chicago are the only other regions with such a
ready-made formula to provide its baseball fans with a stake in
both the National and American Leagues. Theoretically the Bay area
does also, but it seems like the majority of its residents think
the A’s are nothing more than unattainable grades in
college.
Sporting News ranked Anaheim and Los Angeles as the greatest
sports cities last summer. Granted, the two cities are very
different, but the ranking nevertheless reflects how the fan base
can be shared between them.
Major media outlets across Southern California devote similar
amounts of coverage to the Angels and Dodgers.
Fans at both stadiums like playing with beach balls and doing
the wave.
The only tough obstacle to really uniting the two regions is the
drive from Orange County to Los Angeles. It may seem like a
daunting task, but consider how far Bay Area residents have to
drive to see any playoff baseball this fall.
The thought almost makes me feel guilty about how easy Southern
California has it.
Finley apologizes for the cheap shot at the Bay Area. E-mail
him what you think of Southern California at
afinley@media.ucla.edu.