Fandom and Place

This is not an official entry to the Ecotone Wiki, but Numenius and I were reflecting on how sports fans (we were specifically talking about baseball, but this can be applied to many different sports) identify themselves with a place primarily through their devotion to a team.

First, there is the locus of the team’s activity-say, Fenway Park, a place so steeped in baseball, Boston, and memory that Chris O’Donnell goes so far as to call it his ancestral place. Then, there is the “flavor” of the fans (A’s fans, for example, in no way resemble Yankees fans, either in dress, demeanor, or speech), not to mention the “flavor” of the players (a certain player can “look” like a Detroit Tiger. The Yankees’ attempt to transform Jason Giambi from an Oakland A into a Yankee was successful-up to a point. You can shave a goatee but removing tattoos from forearms is more of a proposition).

Much has been written about the diaspora of Boston Red Sox fans (called Red Sox Nation) and how they are identifiable in any ball park by their lack of belief in the possibility that their team might, perhaps, this year, do the unthinkable and win. There are those hunched shoulders, that diffident cheer. We all, no matter how far away from Boston we might live, sigh when we think about the uncomfortable seats at Fenway and the big green wall in left field.