Favorite team

We all have books about baseball, but do you have a team you root for (or against)? Growing up I was a Pirates fan, but now I'm a fan of the Boston Red Sox. Considering their record of late, maybe I'd be better off with the Bucs, but oh well. :)

I grew up a Royals fan, which was great in the late 70's and through the 80's. Somewhere in the 90's they switched spots with the Red Sox, who were holding at #2 all those years. So that's two votes for the Red Sox for favorite carcass... er, team.

Seattle Mariners in all their glory.

Always been partial to the White Sox, since my hometown Birmingham team is their AA club. Then the Braves, because their games are carried on local radio, which is the best way for me to keep up with baseball.

Grew up a Washington Senators fan, then they moved to Minnesota and I became a Twins fan (my poor father felt compelled to support the wretched expansion Senators, who eventually moved to Texas); I lost interest in baseball in college and grad school (late '60s-'70s), but it revived when I moved to NYC in 1981 and I became a Mets fan, which led to my single greatest civic moment as a New Yorker, the sixth game of the '86 Series, when I poured out into the streets with all the other denizens who'd been glued to their TVs (yes, one person can pour... if he's sloshed!) and joined the mass celebration.

(What do you mean, why a Mets fan? You're not implying I should have had anything to do with the Kingdom of Evil, are you?)

I grew up in Oklahoma and discovered baseball when the Game of the Week usually showed the Yankees and Mickey Mantle, so I've been a Yankees fan since the early 60's.
I used to listen to Astros games on the radio just to pick up yankees scores. The Astros and Cardinals were about the only ones I could pick up. For a while the local AAA team were a farm team for the Astros, so while I was listening to their games for Yankees scores, I began to follow local players up to the Astros and became a big Astros fan too.
Since I moved to Dallas in '82 I've become a huge Rangers fan (talk about frustrating!)
So now I pretty much root for those 3.
The only time I have a problem is when the Rangers play the Yankees!

I'm a Mariners fan, although I'm also partial to the National League teams of the first decade of the 20th century. I suggested naming my son Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown, but settled for playing Dave Frishberg's song "Matty" to him excessively in utero.

~snip~
(What do you mean, why a Mets fan? You're not implying I should have had anything to do with the Kingdom of Evil, are you?)
~snip~

Nope, not me. Anyway, I hadn't converted to the Red Sox just yet, so it's not as if I could say anything. :D

Heh. Red Sox fans are the best Yankee-haters around: I doff my (official MLB) cap to them! (Sorry about '86, by the way...)

Go Dodgers!!! And yet some of my favorite books have been about the Yankees.. Steinbrenner's Yankees is definitely one of the funniest books I've read!!

I'll take Georgia Tech--been to the tournament every year since '87 and can be counted on for at least 35 wins a year.

This team is always exciting and has a long and glorious tradition of winning.

I've always been a big fan of the college game despite the ping of the bats, the DH, and the 10-run mercy rule in the NCAA Tournament.

I've been a fan of the New York Yankees since I was about 8 years old. That could, possibly, derive from the fact that my parents and the rest of my family were fans.

I still love my Yanks, through thick and thin. I get condemned for it, but all I have to mention is "23" and that shuts people up, most of the time. :D

I'm an Orioles fan through and through even though I'm from CT. Must've picked it up from my grandfather way back when. In the AL East though, I'm lucky to see a pennant before I die--- Always have hope for next year though (or the year after that)!

I was nine years old and living in LA the year the Dodgers won the WS in 1959; the sports pages were bonkers (Jim Murray was still alive and writing his columns at the LA Times), and Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett were doing the games on KFI.

Lo these many years later, I'm still a Dodgers fan and Vin Scully is still doing the games.

I became a LA Dodger fan in the 1960's when I was in Little League. I Remember seeing Drysdale pitch against the hated SF Giants with Juan Marichal & Willie Mays. My first game though was the Dodgers and the Milwaukee Braves with Hank Aaron in 1965... the next year the Braves moved to Atlanta. Still have the programs from those games. Unfortuately all the baseball cards I collected during those days disappeared....
I have read many books on baseball... the most recent one was a biography on Jackie Robinson called Baseball's Great Experiment by Jules Tygiel.
These days I live in Las Vegas with my wife (Cubs Fan) where we have season tickets to the 51's, the Dodger's AAA farm team. Go Dodger Blue!

I grew up outside Baltimore and am a diehard Oriole fan. My family went to Memorial Stadium as Junior Orioles. I followed them during the great years of Brooks and Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer, Boog Powell and the list goes on.

I left Baltimore in the 90's but continued to follow them through all the glory of Cal Ripken. My sister still has season passes so I visit during the summer and take it all in.

I teach third grade and a unit on baseball. Living in SC we have no MLB but I have created some fans for the greatest sport on earth. Right now 2 of my former students are in college on baseball scholarships.

I like the Cincinnati Reds.I did like the Boston Red Sox very much but than they traded Bronson Arroyo so i'm not as obsessed with them as I was b4.But I like them still and I love the Yankees 2.Don't yell at me 4 liking both the Sox and the Yanks becuz thats pretty much what everyone does 2 me.

Go Reds!

I never cared much for baseball until last year. We moved to West Virginia two years ago and last year I discovered that a local radio station carries the Reds' games.

To that add that I've always heard that my granddad would watch the Reds on TV back in the 70s, even though Johnny Bench couldn't hit "the broad side of a barn with a bull fiddle."

And there you have the recipe for a Reds fan.

- Justin

I became a Yankees fan in 1961, at the age of six. Growing up in NJ in the late 60s, it was tough duty being a Yankees fan with all the front-running Mets fans around. :)

I've stuck by the Yanks through everything. When I was a kid I hated the Mets and so picked the Giants of McCovey, Mays and Marichal to root for (plus I liked the orange and black uniforms). So it was nice when I moved to SF in 1986. I also developed an appreciation for the A's.

Number one, though, I'm a Yankees fan (and Red Sox hater).

The first team I remember was the 1960 Pirates of Mazeroski and Clemente, selected because my older brother had already claimed the SF Giants(Mays, McCovey and Marichal) in a sort-of fantasy league -- the best a pack of pre-teen cousins could pull off. I won that year, for the only time, I'm sure.

Switched to the Dodgers because I could get the games on the radio (and for the general principle of going with a winner) around '65 and stuck with them until life's other delights claimed my attention.

When Denver got a team in the '93 expansion I got fired up again, but by then a fan had to learn a new roster every year and I had a hard time finding enough time to pay proper attention -- if I didn't know who was up next without the announcer telling me I felt inadequate, like my rooting for the team without having proper knowledge actually diminished the player's abilities.

I still live in Colorado and I suppose the Rockies are my team, mainly because I listen to most games on the radio, but the truth is that I can't even list the starting line-up and so am an embarrassment, especially to myself.

But man, I do love the game.

Growing up in Montreal in the 50's and 60's I was always an American League fan for some reason. My favorite teams would rotate from Baltimore to New York to Detroit (never Boston!). When Montreal got their Expos my allegiance was to them — and what a roller coaster ride that was!

Moving to New York in the 70's my heart was with the Expos and my head firmly behind the Yankees through lean years and multi-championship eras. My dream, never to happen, would have had the Yankees meet the Expos in a 7 game World Series...won by the Expos!

3rd generation Bosox fan. I had the good fortune to bring my son to a Spring Training game in Fort Myers with my dad not long before he passed away. I remember going to games when I was a boy. We'd go to Pittsfield, Mass. to see Pudge Fisk play. I also remember Fenway and Yaz. At that Spring Training with my dad and son, I asked my father what we were doing (implications being my boy would suffer like he and I had). He smiled and said: "Remembering your Grandfather." Book? Boys of Summer.

I'm a Phillies fan from childhood. Having moved to Western Pennsylvania, I now root for the Pirates, too (when they're not playing against the Phillies!)

I'm married to a Mets fan. One of our first dates was Phillies Vs. Mets at Veterans Stadium.

Braves all the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have three favorite teams: 1. Braves 2. Yankees 3. Cardinals..... GO get them in the world series Cardinals... Yea

Favorites> 1941 -- 1945 and 1953 -- Present Red Sox

1945--1952 Braves (then, of Boston). Their managers of the 40s were: Casey Stengel (who never finished higher than fifth in the National League!) Bob Coleman, Del Bisonette, and (starting in 1946) the great Billy Southworth.

"Braves all the way !!! Yes, but (starting in 1953) they didnʻt!
(Later they deserted Milwaukee, too.) My loyalty didnʻt follow them to Milwaukee, still less to Atlanta. But I was glad they beat the Yankees in the W S of 1957, and sorry they lost in 1958 (when they Yankees came from behind in a 3-1 deficit.
A funny thing about the pitching rotation of that era, was that
Johnny Sain, not future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn was
considered their best pitcher. I remember a Braves fan, about 1947, saying , "Well I admit Sain is their best pitcher. " A Red Sox
fan replied, "Sainʻs not their "best" pitcher; heʻs their ONLY pitcher!"

>26 rolandperkins: So this year you'll be cheering for the Cubs? Seems like the entire Red Sox is there now!

"youʻll be cheering for the Cubs?"

No. There was a time a few years ago when the Los Angeles Dodgers were called the "Red Sox West" --with Grady Little
as manager and several ex-Red Sox, including the great Nomar Garciaparra on the roster. I like the Dodgers, anyway, second only to the Red Sox, but being the "Red Sox West" didnʻt make them replace the Boston Red Sox as "My Team".

But I didnʻt know about the ex-Red Sox presence on the Cubs, and Iʻm interested. Whom do the Cubs have from the Red Sox.
Terry Francona, if they were smart, but who ever said baseball owners are smart? (I thought the same about the Cardinals
but wasnʻt surprised when they hired someone else.

I depend on the New York Time Online for baseball news. And, as a non-subscriber I c anʻt read much beyond the headlines. This time of year there isnʻt much baseball news in the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

I'm not sure how many players will come from the Red Sox, but the coaching end is packed with folks from the Sox and the Brewers. Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer and Matt Corey come from the Sox and Sveum is bringing staff from the Brewers.

Apparently in the last talks between the Sox and the Cubs re payment for Epstein part of the deal is that the Cubs can't take any more out of the Sox.

My three favorite teams are the Cubs (Cubs fans are hopeful people!), the Nationals (because one of their games a couple of years ago was the most exciting game I have seen (heard really) in a long time) and the Giants (because a friend of mine is one of the VP's there.)

". . . .Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer and Matt Corey" come from the Sox . . . "

Thanks, mysterymax. Iʻve paid little attention to the front office, but I sure will miss Epstein.

Ah well, your loss, our gain. Hope springs eternally for a Cubs fan.

As a youngster, my poppa and brother were HUGE Yankee fans, so I was as well ... until 1962, when the NY Mest first took to th field. Had to have a team of "my own" to root for. 33 years later, living in DC, the Nationals came into being; while they're my fist love now, there'll always be a soft spot forThe Amazin's, one of the most colorful teams in baseball history. Thanks or asking!

I became a mad Blue Jays fan after moving to Toronto in the early 1980's and still remember doing my happy dance after they won the World Series in 92.

I stopped watching after I moved to Australia in 96 but was flipping stations a couple of months ago and stopped on a playoff game. I watched the playoffs and the World Series, rooting enthusiastically for the Cards.

Have any of you read Bottom of the 33rd yet? It was a really good read.

I've seen more than one comment about that book being really good, Max. It's one I definitely want to read.

Texas Rangers.

I've been a fan of the Phillies since the mid-80s when I first started getting into watching pro sports. It was difficult being a Phillies fan for most of that time up until the early 2000s. There were a number of years in there when the Phils lost 90+ games. Things have been much better as of late.

Boston Red Sox --loyal to them for the past few decades (despite their amazing failure to make the playoffs in 2011), although not a lifetime fan (I was a Boston Braves fan
(1946 - 1952) ending with their defection to Milwaukee
(and they later deserted Milwaukee, too.)

Bretzky 1, I wonder if you were a fan of the Phillies during Terry Franconaʻs time as manager? When he became Red Sox manager, I couldnʻt remember* him as a ML player, and
just barely remembered him as an NL manager. (I r emembered his fa ther Tito Francona, a long term Indians outfielder. As Red Sox mgr. he had a perfect record (8-0) in two World Series -- on a franchise that historically got into the WS about once a decade (but sometimes missed a decade). I was curious about his Phillies record -- Was he ever in the
playoffs? -- Who were the players he managed?

*I did hear later that he had been an outfielder on the
winning team of the 1980 NCAA College champiionship

Francona managed the Phils from '97 to '00. Those were some bad teams: 68-94 in 1997; 75-87 in 1998; 77-85 in 1999; and 65-97 in 2000. The 2000 team, even though it had the worst record, was probably the most talented of the four. The Phils had Pat Burrell, Ron Gant, Bobby Abreu, Scott Rolen, Randy Wolf, Curt Schilling, Jeff Brantley. I remember going into that season a lot of people were predicting a .500 season, but they really didn't have much pitching after Schilling, and then they traded him in July. I don't remember if Francona finished the season or not, but most fans were more than happy to see the back of him. Ricky Bottalico, who was a high-ceiling prospect for the Phils, blames Francona for his lost career because of overuse in the bullpen. And Francona used to make some bizarre maneuvers, like he was trying to prove how smart he was.

To this day, I think the Sox could have won at least one more Series if they had someone who was even a decent manager. Those teams won on their talent, not their coaching. In fact, I think they won despite their coaching.

Thanks for the data o Franconaʻs W-L record, and the players of the 2000 team, Bretzky1. I didnʻt follow the NL closely in those years, but I do remember --sadly#- the Philliesʻ losing Curt Schilling. At least, though, they didnʻt surpass the
Pirates as perennial losers of all or nearly all their good players. I remember Franconaʻs Red Sox predecessors as much more risk-takers -- especially with the pitching rotation.

As best I could follow him in this non-ML cityʻs* media, I didnʻt get the idea that Francona made any "bizarre maneuvers"; in fact, I thought that, as managers go, he was on the conservative side.

As for his W-L record, Iʻm old enough to remember Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengelʻs as a National league manager, his record being that he never finished higher than 5th in the old 8-team league with the Boston Braves and later, notoriously managed the worst W-L team ever (1962) with the New York Mets. (The uneviable record, b t w that Stengel "broke" had previously been held by an earlier Braves manager, Bill McKechnie (1935), who went on to be a pennant winner with the Cincinnati Reds.

# Sadly, because I more admire players who play their whole
career with the same team -- as Williams, Feller, Musial, and the 2 DiMaggios did -- and as e.g. Ruth, Cobb, Clemens and Boggs didnʻt.

*1987 was the last year of Hawaiʻiʻs having a pro baseball eam -- the Islanders (AAA).

Tampa Bay Rays all the way. I love my Rays.

I grew up in western Pennsylvania up following the Forbes Field Pirates with Bob Prince on the old KDKA . . . A move to southwest Florida in 1980 meant no radio baseball, but luckily Ted Turner's cable TBS was broadcasting the Braves. I followed them through the woeful '80s (when one season their motto was "How Much Excitement Can You Stand?"), then the great run starting in '91, and now, retired to western North Carolina, am truly at home as a Braves fan in Braves country. . . I watched a lot of spring training and Florida State League baseball from 1980-2004 and gravitated to the Twins as the "poor relations" of Ft. Myers spring baseball. The Twins had (still have) a FSL team in Ft. Myers, the Miracle, and I saw many players get a start there before going on to decent major league careers. Brad Radke, Tori Hunter, LaTroy Hawkins, and Todd Walker were among my favorites there. Gus Gandarillas is another I remember as a promising Miracle closer--he got as far as a cup of coffee with Milwaukee.

My fandom experience is almost the reverse of yours, 42*.
I was a fan of what is now the Atlanta franchise-- the Boston Braves-- from
1946--1952, having been a Red Sox fan as small child.
Then the owners of the past 6 years absconded to Milwaukee, and I realized it
was the Red Sox or nothing
The "nothing" option wasnʻt even thinkable.
I remember Forbes Field as one of the three "Western Division" fields that the Braves had to travel to for road games. The other 3 were
Crosley Field, Sportsmans Park and Wrigley Field, of which the last is the only one I have seen. The NL had divisions, but only for travel-scheduling purposes. There were no playoffs and hence no divisional champions.
I also saw the Pirates lose a doubleheader to the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds (1955) --a game that meant almost nothing in the standings. There are people my age (and younger) who "miss the old pennant races". I donʻt, because there seldom were any! Least of all in the American League. By late August, only
a complete breakdown of the league leader could produce a
race, and that only happened once (1964, I think, when the Phillies were caught up with by the Cardinals. It was also the only time, barring retirement, when a pennant-winning manager
was NOT kept b y the WS- winning team (and in his
case# WAS hired by the losing team!)

* Sorry for calling you by a number: The screen Iʻm getting now
doesnʻt allow for me to read the names of those posting. It writes the "Today (+ the time)" over the name, making it illegible. (Not LTʻs fault, I assume.)

# Johnny Keane

I've been a Yankees fan since 1971 and suffered through the lean years and am a proud member of the evil empire. Two of my best friends are Red Sox fans so its always interesting when the season starts