As in other sacred subjects -- politics, religion, sex -- sports encompasses a wide range of people who all have different strongly held beliefs and motivations. Some people do follow individual figures in sports. However, when I’m sitting in traffic on 520, surrounded by SUVs with Sodo Mojo stickers and California license plates heading to a game against Cincinnati, I’m guessing most of them are going to see our team; not to see Ken Griffey Jr.
In politics, many people vote for a party name regardless of the actual abilities or actions of the person wearing that party label, but some people do vote for the individual they like best regardless of party affiliation. The same can be said of sports, where many people support their favorite team (local or otherwise) regardless of who is actually wearing the team label, or if their city is in the team name. Doesn’t mean they won’t buy the bobble-heads of course.
And like politics and religion, many people choose their team based on what they know, which is usually what their family, friends, and local community most prominently supports. That makes sense for multiple social, psychological and practical reasons, not the least of which is that it is just easiest. In a time and country where we are faced daily with thousands of choices and bombarded with information, sometimes the less we have to think about something, the better it is (from a time and effort standpoint, at least).
Written by Randy Henderson, a regular contributor to NEXT
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