Call them "bandwagon" or "fair weather" fans -- I prefer the latter, but maybe it's a regional vernacular? -- we've all seen them through much of our sports fan lives. The fans who jump from team to team and just always seem to be wearing the gear of one of the best and most popular teams. Many die-hard types are driven utterly bonkers about this phenomenon and I know from experience. It used to infuriate me.
Nowadays, it doesn't bother me and I don't think it should bother anyone else.
The frustration is understandable. We all have our examples. I happened to be the Pacers fan in central Indiana through middle and high school who watched as most of our sports fans in the school were wearing Bulls gear at the height of the Michael Jordan dynasty. I also watched as everyone became Pacers fans just in time for the 2000 run to the NBA Finals with M.J. retired.
It made me so mad. How dare you get to enjoy this after I put in all that time without you?
It's probably natural to feel protective like that. These are my guys, not yours.
These feelings of resentment sometimes breed the Quiz Guy. You know, he might see me in a Cubs shirt now and try to be some sort of "I'm proving you are a bandwagon fan" smart aleck by asking questions about 2012 or even back into the early '90s.
You're a Cubs fan, huh? OK, well who was the manager in 2012?
The 21-year-old version of myself would have immediately answered (it's Dale Sveum) and then started digging my heels in.
Keep going. Quiz me all day. I've been a die-hard fan since I was six years old and I know almost everything.
The now 38-year-old version of me says to myself, "Settle down and shut up."
You know what the proper reaction to the Quiz Guy is? Laugh and walk away. If he keeps after you, keep laughing about how sad his life must be to be so worried about your fandom.
Because, ultimately, what does it matter? You know the truth. The Quiz Guy doesn't know you and is drawing false conclusions based upon who knows what.
I've been a Cubs fan since I was six and never strayed. I've been to Wrigley Field when it cost way too much money for my financial standing at the time and I've been there when it was pretty empty (it was downright depressing toward the end of 2012).
If anyone doesn't believe me? I'll just channel Larry David:
So many of us have been in this situation, too, where you suffered with your favorite team and then it got good and you were accused of being part of a group of fair weather fans. Such as ...
- The current Cubs
- The current Indians
- The 2014-16 Royals
- The 2013-15 Pirates
- The 2012-current Nationals
- The 2010-13 Rangers
We could keep going with examples from all over the place. Every time a team rises from a period of either turmoil or extended mediocrity, the popularity of said team rises and then all fans are branded as bandwagon.
Attendance figures are bandied about on social media from opposing fans so they can "prove" their fan base is stronger. People at games heckle those in opposing gear and accuse them of being bad fans. I'm not suggesting it should stop. Fans are gonna fan. I'm just saying that if you end up the target, here's why you ultimately shouldn't care:
Because when that one moment happened that made all those years of suffering feel worth it, the actual fair weather fans will never, ever get to experience that.
For me, I was shaking, light-headed and felt like I could barely breathe throughout almost all of Game 7 of the World Series.
For others, you have yours. You know what that moment was like for you. Definitely share it in the comments if you want.
Fair weather fans never get those, fellow die-hards. Not like us.
The one argument I can see against mine that has an awful lot of merit is how much more tickets cost when teams get good. The die-hards then feel like they're priced out. The only thing I'd say to that is that it's a fact of life that better product increases demand and obviously that means price goes up. It happens in every industry. Personally speaking, my wife and I taking the kids to their first-ever game in Wrigley Field coming in 2015 was much worse timing than if we felt like the kids were old enough to go in 2012. But hey, that's how the cards were dealt and we wanted to take them, so we ponied up.
Logically speaking, on this front, wouldn't you rather be watching your favorite team as the best team in baseball in the World Series on TV than going to see the worst team in baseball from a seat in a mostly-empty ballpark in September?
That's a pretty easy choice for die-hard fans.
You know that saying, "you can never truly experience the joy of victory until you've suffered the agony of defeat?"
Again, bandwagon fans skip the agony of defeat part. Little do they know, they are cheating themselves.
So don't be angry at them. Feel sorry for them. They are truly missing out on what we get.
