The Spiritual Supremacy of Fair Weather Fandom
San Diego has long been described as fair weather when it comes to supporting our sports teams. We often hear the cliché line about how when our teams are losing, as they often do, we’d rather just go to the beach than give a fuck about a losing club.
That’s probably true to some degree. No doubt when the Padres are out of contention our attendance dwindles. To what extent I’m not sure because I’m not about to waste my fucking time looking up attendance stats (fuck you FanGraphs). Anyways, I’m not here to argue about whether the fair weather moniker is true or not. I’m going to assume it is.
What I am here to argue for is the motherfucking moral and spiritual value of being a fair weather fan.
To make my point, I simply ask you to think about the alternative. Look at those assholes in Philadelphia . Those dickheads aren’t fair weather. They have “passion” and “support their teams through thick and thin.” (I’m not saying we Padres fans don’t, I’m just using some lame-ass clichés to bolster my argument). Do you want to be like them? Do you want to boo your players when they under perform despite the fact they are trying their god-damned hardest? I say fuck that bullshit.
In some sweet-ass book I read “Baseball as a Road to God” by John Sexton, that slick-ass motherfucker talks about the spiritual value in finding enjoyment in the game in and of itself. He speaks about the quality of character it takes to smile at a losing team and say “we’ll get ‘em next year.” I guess there’s a slight difference between what I’ve just described and a ‘fair weather’ fan, but the two dynamics are certainly a lot closer than Phillies fan and Sexton’s Buddha-like devotee.
So that’s my point. Is it really that bad to tune into a few less games when your team sucks? I don’t think so. Bitch-ass motherfuckers act like Padre fans don’t deserve championships because of our perceived nonchalance. Fuck that noise.
As I’ve tried to argue above, we may even be on a higher-spiritual plane than many cities in the country. While other fans brood and bitch when they dip below .500, we’ve been forced to enjoy baseball for what it is regardless of win-loss records.
That being said, we’ve got Kemp, Myers and Upton and, if we don’t win it all this year, I’m gonna be fucking pissed.