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When is it OK to have a "2nd team"


Cristobal

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So, this came up in the baseball thread when the talk briefly turned to our resident racist bandwagoneer sabremike.

Obviously being a fan of 31 MLB teams like he is is too many, and just as obviously, the ideal number of teams to support in a given professional sport is one, but when is a second team valid, and under what circumstances?

Full disclosure, I do have one of these myself. I grew up in Chicago, blocks from Wrigley, so I grew up a Cubs fan. This of course explains my bitter and depressive nature.

Later in life, living in the Bay Area, I lucked-slash-conned my way to a bunch of free A's tickets at the start of the Mulder/Hudson/Zito era, and adopted Oakland as my "2nd team". Notably, this is the only California team I adopted. Otherwise my loyalties remain with Chicago (Bears/Bulls/Blackhawks.)

What say ye? Never ok? Ok under limited circumstances? Or are you one of those "why does it matter? It's just sports" types that misses the point entirely

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It's only strange to me when people support teams that are clear rivals.  I know people who are both Yankees and Mets fans. I don't see how that works. I don't think it's weird at all to have an NL team and an AL team. It's a little different now because of interleague play but still..

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Oh, it's acceptable any time, so long as the team nearest and dearest to your heart comes first.

 

For instance, I fucking love the Detroit Pistons. The Bad Boys made me a basketball fan for life. I've been through all the highs and lows of that team ever since. Those godawful turquoise jerseys, the Ben Gordon era, Allen Iverson's cup of coffee, both championship runs, Scott Hastings, etc. Basically, I watch them when they suck, I watch them when they're just okay, and I flip my shit every game when they're good.

 

But if they're not playing or they get bounced out of the playoffs, San Antonio is the team I hang my hat on and root. Followed by the OKC Thunder and Golden State. I like teams that play good, sound, fundamental, aesthetically pleasing basketball. I'm into great passing and great defense. I like teams that are teams in the truest sense of the word. There's an artistry to basketball, and when a team plays the right way and plays like a team, there are few things cooler in the world. So if it ain't the Pistons, it's team of that ilk.

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New York City is one of those weird sports areas, I say this having grew up there. It usually breaks down by boro

 

Example:

Queens tends to support the Mets, Jets and Islanders. Basketball is a toss up

The Bronx goes for The Yankees, Rangers and Knicks with either football team being fair game

Brooklyn - They can go Mets or Yankees and used to be solely Rangers for hockey and Knicks for Basketball BUT that was before the Barclay's Center came into play.

Manhattan - Both Mets and Yankees, any team that plays in MSG and football is a toss up (I know people that root for both the Jets and Giants). NEVER the Islanders. No self-respecting Manhattan kid roots for the Islanders

Staten Island -- I have no fuckin clue!

 

Mind you this when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s. A lot has changed. The Jets left Shea in the early 80s but people in Queens still love the Jets. Barclay's Center has really xchanged the NBA support, The Nets in Brooklyn had to have hurt the Knicks fanbase somewhat because they used ot be the only NBA team in NYC 

 

James

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2nd teams are ok in the following circumstances:

 

Expansion teams- the Dolphins were my first team as a kid.  Then the Panthers came along.

 

The first team does something so moronic so long that you give up on them.  Even then, you can't pick a rival.

 

Moving

 

 

 

For College- you can never change your team unless you graduate from another school.  Even then it can't be a rival.   I shake my head at State folks who cheer for either of the blues.  That's just wrong.

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It's only strange to me when people support teams that are clear rivals.  I know people who are both Yankees and Mets fans. I don't see how that works. I don't think it's weird at all to have an NL team and an AL team. It's a little different now because of interleague play but still..

 

I know a guy who I met in early '09 as a Mets fan. By the end of '09 he was rooting for the Yankees because New York. A year later he was a Giants fan because they originated in New York and they were his dad;s team back then. I just chalked it up to him being a typical obnoxious New Yawker...

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Never! Unless your team's on a drought of sheer sucking; then, by all means try and find another one for any plausible reason to give you happiness however fleeting. The Yankees, Lakers, Cowboys and some random hockey and soccer teams are exempt from this clause. They're eternally evil.

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And their playing each other should be a rare scenario.  Baseball is fine since the NL and AL are ostensibly separate leagues (or at least they used to be) and having 1 NL and 1 AL team would only be an issue in a world series scenario.  Football is acceptable since an NFC and an AFC team only match up once every four years, and you may well have inherited a fandom from a parent who started watching pre-merger and had a favorite AFL team as well as a favorite NFL team (who never crossed paths).

 

Basketball and Hockey?  No, not really, everyone plays each other at least twice a year and the conferences were always conferences, not separate leagues.  You get one and you can't cite "regional loyalty" like the football or baseball bigamist because both your "local teams" are probably going to be divisional rivals (i.e. Rangers and Islanders).  Division rivals is a definite no-no.

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To me you should never stop rooting for your childhood team unless they have given you a damn good reason to.   For example I grew up a Pirates fans cause they were the team I followed all the time.  Then the Pirates went through a 16 year period when it felt like they not only were losing but didn't care about it as long as they saved money.  

 

I think you should also root for your local team unless there is a rivalry issue or you just can't stand the team.  Like living in DC I have no problems rooting for Capitals or Nationals or Wizards but I can't stand the Skins as a team.  So I started following the Nationals while keeping a side eyes on my childhood team.  Most of the games I went to were Pirates vs Nationals.  Then around 2011 it looked like the Pirates finally showed some commitment and for lack of better term got back on bandwagon.  So now I root for Nationals until they play Pirates because to me childhood loyality is always first

 

Although I am kind of hypocrite because I like the Penguins and even supported them when I moved to DC area but then became a full time Capitals fan because I hated Sydney Crosby  for some irrational reason

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There are players I like more than the teams. I was a big Timberwolves fan because of Garnett. When it was Garnett, Sprewell, and Casell...things looked good. As soon as that fell apart and Garnett went to the Celtics with Pierce and Allen...The Celtics became my favorite team. I don't follow non-combat sports heavy enough to really care about the local teams, etc. But if there are players I really like- then I hope they do well wherever they go and I will be rooting for those players/the new team.

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Like who you want to like. I'm a Cubs fan before anything else, but I also like the Indians because of seeing Major League as a kid. When the Indians win the WS someday, it's going to have 1/1,000,000th of the impact of the Cubs winning it, but it would be cool.

 

I'm a Colts and Bears fan too. Colts because my brother liked them a ton, and Bears because others in my family were fans. I grew up with both, but the Colts are closer to my heart. It made that one Super Bowl pretty weird to watch.

 

I love Notre Dame since I grew up with the team and have always lived right near campus, but I also like IU because they're my alma mater. It helps that IUs football program is always dogshit, but it's fun whenever the basketball team is doing well.

 

Only a Bulls fan, only a Blackhawks fan. I didn't grow up on any other NBA, NHL or college team, so that's about it. So for me, it had a lot to do with what I grew up with.

 

As long as you're not going to be a douchebag bandwagon fan, be a fan of whoever.

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I love Notre Dame since I grew up with the team and have always lived right near campus, but I also like IU because they're my alma mater. It helps that IUs football program is always dogshit, but it's fun whenever the basketball team is doing well.

I didnt really appreciate at the time that the Bill Mallory/Anthony Thompson era of going to the Liberty Bowl level bowl games was the best it was ever going to get. :)

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Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie

I think the comments about if there isn't much of a chance that the teams will play each other regularly (NFC vs. AFC, NL vs. AL, et cetera) are pretty on point. I also don't think there's an issue with admitting that you can watch a team out of respect or because you really like the way you play. For example, I'm a Lakers fan, but I can respect how consistently great the Spurs are.

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I really only have one 'second' team, and they're a really distant second, the As to the Dodgers. Other than that, it's pretty much right down the line with Los Angeles teams, or, at least, teams that were in Los Angeles when I was a kid (Raiders, UCLA, Dodgers, Lakers, Kings, Galaxy). I hesitate to call the A's a 'second team', because I'm not even sure I'd be happy if they won a World Series, because it means the Dodgers didn't.

 

As far as NCAA football goes, it's UCLA all day every day, but it's cool when schools like San Jose State and Navy do well...

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Football is the only sport where  I (kinda) have a second team, the Pats are #1 all the time no matter what, across all sports really they are my fav. That said I have a soft spot for the Lions, as a Michigander I'd like to see them succeed at least a little bit, but if they are playing the Pats I want them crushed like any other team, basically the Lions are love-able losers who I root for because after all these years their fans deserve something (and they are not the Packers).

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This thread amuses me. Despite the rep I somehow got I have pretty well defined favorites. In MLB I'm a Mets fan and in the NFL I am a Bengals fan (and if ever there was a team that would give you a pass for having another fave they are it). In the NBA it's the Knicks. I have season tickets to the Sixers and Nets because it's affordable enough that I can see live NBA games. I generally want to see them do well but when they play the Knicks you'll see me at the games with my Knicks gear. For NHL it's Sabres (who replaced my beloved Whalers). I have a soft spot in my heart for the Flyers (I love the atmosphere at their games and they are one of the few NHL teams who don't bore me to tears) and the Islanders (John Tavares is my favorite player). I wore Sabres gear to Philly. Enough said about that.

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I'll have temporary rooting interests in the playoffs, just to make following the games more interesting, but nothing serious, like whoever is going against the Pats, for instance. When I was first starting to get into sports, I liked a team in every baseball division, but narrowed within a couple of years to the Red Sox.  I have extended family in Georgia, so I'll always have good memories of those Braves teams, but I haven't cared as much since Ted Turner sold them and they were always a very distant second.

 

Mainly though, I'd say sports teams are like quarterbacks, in that if you truly have two of them, you have none. . . .

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I think you can only do the two team deal if neither of them are: the Yankees, Seahawks, Patriots, Cavaliers, Red Sox, Heat. I don't know what the hockey analog to those are.

If you have backups to any of those you're definitely not a real fan.

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