Who Am I?

This probably should've been my first blog, but I thought the Tampa Bay Lightning's uniform situation was a little more important. Anybody that knows me personally will agree with that immediately. I've always been interested in sports and the uniforms that go along with those sports. That is one of the reasons I collect jerseys. If something is rare, unique, or just an absolute throwback, it usually catches my eye. As a collector though, I still have my boundaries, I will not own a jersey of a team that is a rival of my team. With all of that said, here's a little bit about me and who I am as a fan.

There are a lot of people who choose their loyalties based on proximity. For example, if you live in Illinois, you are a Chicago fan all of the way. I live in Illinois, and I am an exception to that rule. My favorite teams are scattered throughout the United States. I follow most of the major sports and have a favorite team in each. Those teams include (listed in alphabetical order) the Carolina Panthers (NFL), Dallas Mavericks (NBA), Detroit Red Wings (NHL), Florida Marlins (MLB), and Manchester City Football (soccer) Club (EPL).

When I was growing up, I was raised by my father to be a Detroit Lions fan. I have no idea why he likes the Detroit Lions but he's always been a fan of them. So when I was growing up, I had a Barry Sanders jersey (may have been my first jersey, but I can't confirm that), a Lions winter coat, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. I can just sum that up by saying that I had a lot of Lions stuff. Back in 1996, I'm not really sure why, but I decided that I was going to be a Carolina Panthers fan. I've been that way ever since. I've seen them blow a Super Bowl, which stung a little bit. I've also seen them complete seasons with one and two wins respectfully. The most recent bad season just so happened to be the 2010 NFL season in which they went 2-14 and were rewarded with the first pick in the 2011 NFL Draft (aka they were the worst team in football). I'm content with that though. Like with many things, it has to get worse before it can get better.

As I mentioned earlier, I live in Illinois and grew up at the height of the Chicago Bulls championship runs. So naturally, I grew up following the Chicago Bulls. I still follow them quite closely, but don't consider them to by "my" team. A lot of that has to do with Dirk Nowitzki, who happens to be my favorite basketball player, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Nowitzki is a special player, I'm not sure anybody will deny that. He's a matchup nightmare for opposing teams. It's very rare when you have a seven footer who has the outside game of a guard, who can also play down on the blocks. If you put a big man on him, he'll take him outside, creating a mis-match on defense. If you put a smaller player on him, he'll take him down low and create another mis-match on defense. If you double team him, that leaves somebody on the court open, which again isn't a good thing for the opposing team. On the flip side, you have owner Mark Cuban, who is sort of a controversial figure in sports. He's said and done a lot (emphasis added) of stupid things which have landed him fines from the NBA. At the end of the day though, he is just a passionate fan who is willing to do whatever necessary to help his team win. In past years he's tried unsuccessfully on a couple of attempts to buy Major League Baseball teams, most notably the Cubs. The sad thing is that the "Old Boys Club" known as the baseball owners won't approve Cuban as an owner. I really think he'd be good for the game of baseball but it doesn't look like he'll ever get the chance to prove it.

The Detroit Red Wings are probably the team that I am most passionate about. I've always been a hockey fan, even when it wasn't "cool" in the mid-90s. I can't say that it was never not cool to be a hockey fan, but there were never really any followers of the game where I live back in the day. As I said before, I was raised by my father to be a Detroit Lions fan. I also happened to play for the Tigers at the same time back when I was in Little League. So I always kind of had that Detroit connection, even though I've never been to Detroit, or Michigan, for that matter. When I became interested in the game of hockey, naturally I became a fan of the Red Wings thanks to that Detroit connection. During my time as a Wings fan, I've been spoiled a little bit. I've been there for four Stanley Cups and they've never missed the playoffs since I've been following them. I'd like to think that I'm their good luck charm, but that probably isn't the case. My luck as a Wings fan, as much as I hate to say it, is probably on borrowed time, not that I'm complaining. 

The team I've been a fan of the longest happens to be the Florida Marlins. I've been a fan of them since they entered the league back in 1993. A year or two before they entered the league, I went on a family vacation to Florida and had an AMAZING time. Of course what 6 or 7 (or somewhere around there) year old isn't going to have a great time at Walt Disney World? So when the state got a professional baseball team a couple of years later, I instantly became a fan. Like with my other teams, I've been around for two World Series championships and some absolutely horrible years where they were not even competitve. For the most part though, the Marlins have always been a middle of the pack team. They've always been a tough matchup and a team others don't like to face, but they usually end up falling just short in the end. I'm fine with that though because they always seem to be competitive every single year, which is all I can ask for as a fan. It'll really be interesting to see what happens next season when they move into their new ballpark in down town Miami. For those who were not aware as well, they are also going through a re-branding process next year as well. Starting with the opening of their new park, they will be known as the Miami Marlins, rather than the Florida Marlins.

I now go from my oldest loyalty, to my newest, and that belongs to Manchester City Football Club. Being in the United States, soccer really isn't a huge thing here. Yeah, we have Major League Soccer, and even though it's getting better every year, it's not exactly top flight football. I really got interested in the game of soccer watching the 2006 World Cup, which was played in Germany. At the conclusion of that World Cup, I made the decision that I was going to start following soccer and that I had to choose a team to follow. Somehow I was always attracted to Manchester City. I knew right away that I wasn't going to jump on the bandwagon of one of the top teams because it's too easy to do it that way. When you think of the "Boys in Blue," they will always be the little brothers in the city of Manchester. Everybody, even if they aren't soccer fans, have atleast heard of Manchester United. Manchester City is to Manchester United what the Los Angeles Clippers are to the Lakers. Or what the New York Mets are to the Yankees. I think you get the point. Up to this point, I haven't seen much of a return on that "investment," but thing are looking up and I see City being championship contenders for the next several years. Hopefully they can live up to those expectations atleast once.

As a sports fan in general, I love to go see live sporting events, no matter who is playing. To make the game more interesting, I like to cheer for somebody in that game, even if I don't have any ties to them as a fan. What's the point in going if you are just going to sit on your hands the entire game and not cheer for anybody? One label I've been given is that I'm an antagonist who likes to always cheer for the away team. Even though it usually ends up that way, that's not necessarily true. Most of the minor league teams close to me happen to be affiliated with rivals of my favorite team. So therefore, I'm not going to cheer for those teams just because of their affiliation. It's not that I'm necessarily trying to be antagonistic, it's that I'm trying to be a fan of my team. If that means cheering against the home team, so be it.

The example I'll use here are the Rockford IceHogs, who happen to be AHL affiliates of the Chicago Blackhawks. I've hated the IceHogs long before their affiliation with the Blackhawks. Back in the day, when they were still members of the United Hockey League, they had a nice rivalry with the Quad City Mallards. The Mallards happened to be my favorite local team growing up and the two teams are located about two hours from each other. When I was roughly 10 years old, I went with my dad to see the Mallards play in Rockford. Around 5 minutes into the game, the Mallards scored to take a 1-0 lead. My teams scored so naturally I stood up and clapped. A few seconds later, I get hit in the middle of the back with a chuck-a-puck. It takes a real classy fan to hit a 10 year old kid in the back with a chuck-a-puck for clapping when his team scored. Since then I've been challenged to a fight by a drunken bachelor party (just for wearing a Mallards jersey) and have had a half empty water bottle fly past my head (for standing up and clapping for a goal). I've also been called an asshole by a fan just for standing up and clapping for a goal. I didn't say a word, I just stood up and clapped. Back in the day, there were some extremely mean spirited fans that went to IceHogs games. It's gotten much better in recent years, but I still will never cheer for them. I've had way too many negative experiences in the past and now they have the whole Chicago Blackhawks affiliation thing going against them as well. Being a Red Wings fan, I can't find it in my heart to cheer for anything related to the Blackhawks.

There you have it. That's a little bit of an insight as to who I am as a fan and where my loyalties lie.