My good friend Tanner -- who was an A's fan while we were in college from 2001-2005 -- posted the following on my Fantasy Baseball league's message board shortly before our draft this week. The gist is that he's an A's fan who is prepared to sidestep to the Giants during these bleak years. Here's a snippet of his post:
What the F! Manny... ended up on the A's. And then... the San Jose [move]. The Dodgers are definitely going through their b.s., but I could only imagine a day in the life of Billy Beane. I will be attending the second game of Giants season, honestly...
I'm cutting him off early, because the rest doesn't matter. Note that the years I mentioned above coincide with a good chunk of the Moneyball years. The A's were awesome and the Giants were essentially mascotted by Barry Bonds -- a.k.a the lamest dude in sports. It should also be noted that I'm a Dodgers fan who grew up in Southern California. The A's offered me the ability to routinely watch baseball after my family moved to Northern California without having to care about the Giants.
When the Giants went to the World Series in 2010, I lived in San Francisco. I remember chatting up Tanner and my friend Anthony, who had also lived with me during those college years. I expected them both to join me in rooting against the Giants, because they had trashed the team so badly in the early aughts.
They both blew my mind by informing me that they were actually pulling for the Giants, and then they tried to sell me some garbage about how they had been doing so since they were little kids and how they thought it was right to support a local team.
If those reasons were legit, then they must have taken a very long leave of absence from their Giants fandom while we were in college, which just so happened to be while the A's were awesome and the Giants were easy to hate.
I'm of the opinion that a fan should pick one team and ride that train from birth until death. One team per league (American and National) is fine, but there should be one team that trumps all, without question. And both teams can't be in the same region like the A's and Giants. It would be like me pulling for the Angels, which I'll tell you right now is inconceivable. For that reason, this was the most miserable World Series for me, ever.
I should first note that I love Tanner and Anthony. Now, here's my response to Tanner's message (which in my opinion was his way of stepping over to the Giants in case the A's suck again, which they probably will):
You know how I feel about this. I think it's unforgivable. When you, Anthony and so many others rallied behind Giants a few years ago, it made me ill. I never heard about any Giants fandom from either of you boys while we lived in Monterey. If anything, I only heard criticism of the team. I'm of the belief that this never changes, from birth to grave, regardless of any dysfunction or [expletive] performance.