It may surprise people to know, or rather surprise almost no one, that most cities or regions with multiple sports teams in a given sport end up with serious sports rivalries.
Usually the underdog team--the one with less prestige, less money, less star power, less wins, less glory--dislikes the top dog team, while top dog finds the underdog nonthreatening and endearingly irrelevant.
This seems natural. Natural enough to be a common phenomenon.
Take Manchester City and Manchester United. Real Madrid and Barcelona. Take the New York Mets and the New York Yankees or the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs.
But what these rivalries often also represent is a difference that extends beyond the sports teams themselves and mirror deeper societal cleavages.
Take Glasgow football/soccer, for example. The rivalry between two teams, Rangers and Celtics, is often traced to historical religious tensions between the city's Protestants and Catholics. It is a conflict that extends beyond the ninety minutes of play, and is exacerbated when the two teams meet on the field.
In cities like New York and Chicago, while it may not have originated as a class rivalry, over time the cities stratified with elite members of society often rooting for teams in safer, more prosperous parts of town, as well as teams with the money to win championships. Again, this seems natural enough.
For these reasons alone it should come as no surprise that A's fans generally are not rooting for the Giants in the 2014 World Series. But many seem to be asking why are so many A's fans actively rooting against the Giants?
Is there jealousy? Of course! Fans want to win, that's why people are fans in the first place. No one follows sports only to be neutral about winning and losing.
Yet A's fans are unlikely to root against the Giants due to jealousy alone. For example, A's fans were not known for rooting against the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993.
There is more to A's fans rooting against the Giants than jealousy.
It could be that there does seem to be a theme with teams who win multiple years in close proximity these days. The Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and potentially now the San Francisco Giants are loaded teams with payrolls in the top third of the MLB and double the payroll of many of the lowest third of teams, including the A's.
Moreover, it seems people who are loaded tend to like Giants more and those who aren't tend to like the A's. Why is that? Partly it's that ticket prices for teams with high payrolls exceed ticket prices for teams with low payrolls. Partly it's because nothing brings more new fans to a team than winning championships and new San Franciscans are often loaded.
And new fans can be tedious.
New Giants fans--the ones who didn't pay attention until 2010, who suddenly read the sports section but rarely go to games, who didn't bother with Candelstick Park, and who have no understanding of baseball strategy or history--are tough.
The A's fans have their fare share of bandwagoners, too. Those vocal, opinionated, yet rarely-know-what-they-are-talking-about-but-are-covered-head-to-tail-in-gear folks. It's what happens when you win. You attract the bad with the good.
I must say though, that I've never experienced such poor sportsmanship from winners as I have from Giants fans this year, and all while they were winning! I thought no one could top Red Sox fans in that capacity. It almost makes me wish for the good ol' days when the Yankees won everything. Uh... almost.
There is the economic reason A's fans don't root for the Giants. With each Oakland bar that invites Giants fans to watch the world series, with each San Franciscan transplant who still roots for the SF team, with every new convert to the Giants, there is another hammer drawn down on the coffin of the A's life in the Bay Area. Is this certain? No. Is it likely? Yes. So yes, rooting for the Giants to win might just be rooting for Oakland to lose.
These things are all reason enough to root against a team. Valid reasons, even. But I think there's another reason that A's fans have a hard time rooting for the Giants despite the fact that so many Giants fans plead for them to change their mind. "Bay Area pride," they say! And that therein lies the problem.
What is this Bay Area pride you speak of?
The A's and Oakland rarely get love or notice from San Francisco fans except when a sports team makes the playoffs. Giants fans find the A's 70s concrete stadium gross, our drummers obnoxious, and our basic beers and burgers pedestrian. It's unclear if they visit Oakland neighborhoods except perhaps Rockridge, or the newly hip Uptown district, or maybe for Giants v. A's games when the Coliseum is overrun.
In fact, I would venture to guess that A's fans can likely name 90% or more of San Francisco neighborhoods and have been to many, if not most. Can Giants fans claim the same for the hometown of their Bay Bridge brethren?
The truth is that A's fans don't dislike the Giants.
Sure, there is most definitely bitterness over beloved team members being bought by the richer team to our west--Zito, Hudson, and Marco... Scutaro! But all the teams with money grab our players. We don't much like them either, but we're used to it. And, yes, we all know we have a misers for owners.
No. We don't have anything against Pence, or Bumgarner, or the beloved Panda. If we're not indifferent, we may actually think they're pretty good.
Nope. We don't dislike the Giants. We are against something much bigger and we're not likely to be convinced otherwise during a couple of weeks in October.
I do think Giants fans should realize that no other teams fans has more legitimate reason to root against them than A's fans. What are the Dodgers fans reasons? The Division title? Pffffffssssh.
Luckily there's a quick fix to all our regional sports troubles!
See fans of the Oakland A's, and Oakland in general, are used to being ignored and underappreciated. All we ask now is that Giants fans continue that tradition for a little while longer.
That's right, just pretend we don't exist! Then we can all enjoy watching baseball. Rooting for our respective teams of choice.
Even if one of those teams moves away.
Usually the underdog team--the one with less prestige, less money, less star power, less wins, less glory--dislikes the top dog team, while top dog finds the underdog nonthreatening and endearingly irrelevant.
This seems natural. Natural enough to be a common phenomenon.
Take Manchester City and Manchester United. Real Madrid and Barcelona. Take the New York Mets and the New York Yankees or the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs.
But what these rivalries often also represent is a difference that extends beyond the sports teams themselves and mirror deeper societal cleavages.
Take Glasgow football/soccer, for example. The rivalry between two teams, Rangers and Celtics, is often traced to historical religious tensions between the city's Protestants and Catholics. It is a conflict that extends beyond the ninety minutes of play, and is exacerbated when the two teams meet on the field.
In cities like New York and Chicago, while it may not have originated as a class rivalry, over time the cities stratified with elite members of society often rooting for teams in safer, more prosperous parts of town, as well as teams with the money to win championships. Again, this seems natural enough.
For these reasons alone it should come as no surprise that A's fans generally are not rooting for the Giants in the 2014 World Series. But many seem to be asking why are so many A's fans actively rooting against the Giants?
Is there jealousy? Of course! Fans want to win, that's why people are fans in the first place. No one follows sports only to be neutral about winning and losing.
Yet A's fans are unlikely to root against the Giants due to jealousy alone. For example, A's fans were not known for rooting against the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993.
There is more to A's fans rooting against the Giants than jealousy.
It could be that there does seem to be a theme with teams who win multiple years in close proximity these days. The Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and potentially now the San Francisco Giants are loaded teams with payrolls in the top third of the MLB and double the payroll of many of the lowest third of teams, including the A's.
Moreover, it seems people who are loaded tend to like Giants more and those who aren't tend to like the A's. Why is that? Partly it's that ticket prices for teams with high payrolls exceed ticket prices for teams with low payrolls. Partly it's because nothing brings more new fans to a team than winning championships and new San Franciscans are often loaded.
And new fans can be tedious.
New Giants fans--the ones who didn't pay attention until 2010, who suddenly read the sports section but rarely go to games, who didn't bother with Candelstick Park, and who have no understanding of baseball strategy or history--are tough.
The A's fans have their fare share of bandwagoners, too. Those vocal, opinionated, yet rarely-know-what-they-are-talking-about-but-are-covered-head-to-tail-in-gear folks. It's what happens when you win. You attract the bad with the good.
I must say though, that I've never experienced such poor sportsmanship from winners as I have from Giants fans this year, and all while they were winning! I thought no one could top Red Sox fans in that capacity. It almost makes me wish for the good ol' days when the Yankees won everything. Uh... almost.
There is the economic reason A's fans don't root for the Giants. With each Oakland bar that invites Giants fans to watch the world series, with each San Franciscan transplant who still roots for the SF team, with every new convert to the Giants, there is another hammer drawn down on the coffin of the A's life in the Bay Area. Is this certain? No. Is it likely? Yes. So yes, rooting for the Giants to win might just be rooting for Oakland to lose.
These things are all reason enough to root against a team. Valid reasons, even. But I think there's another reason that A's fans have a hard time rooting for the Giants despite the fact that so many Giants fans plead for them to change their mind. "Bay Area pride," they say! And that therein lies the problem.
What is this Bay Area pride you speak of?
The A's and Oakland rarely get love or notice from San Francisco fans except when a sports team makes the playoffs. Giants fans find the A's 70s concrete stadium gross, our drummers obnoxious, and our basic beers and burgers pedestrian. It's unclear if they visit Oakland neighborhoods except perhaps Rockridge, or the newly hip Uptown district, or maybe for Giants v. A's games when the Coliseum is overrun.
In fact, I would venture to guess that A's fans can likely name 90% or more of San Francisco neighborhoods and have been to many, if not most. Can Giants fans claim the same for the hometown of their Bay Bridge brethren?
The truth is that A's fans don't dislike the Giants.
Sure, there is most definitely bitterness over beloved team members being bought by the richer team to our west--Zito, Hudson, and Marco... Scutaro! But all the teams with money grab our players. We don't much like them either, but we're used to it. And, yes, we all know we have a misers for owners.
No. We don't have anything against Pence, or Bumgarner, or the beloved Panda. If we're not indifferent, we may actually think they're pretty good.
Nope. We don't dislike the Giants. We are against something much bigger and we're not likely to be convinced otherwise during a couple of weeks in October.
I do think Giants fans should realize that no other teams fans has more legitimate reason to root against them than A's fans. What are the Dodgers fans reasons? The Division title? Pffffffssssh.
Luckily there's a quick fix to all our regional sports troubles!
See fans of the Oakland A's, and Oakland in general, are used to being ignored and underappreciated. All we ask now is that Giants fans continue that tradition for a little while longer.
That's right, just pretend we don't exist! Then we can all enjoy watching baseball. Rooting for our respective teams of choice.
Even if one of those teams moves away.
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