In classic PosCast fashion, Joe and Mike recorded minutes before Juan Soto signed with The Mets and Dave Parker and Dick Allen were elected to the Hall of Fame.
Both of my major fandoms came about in a weird way.
I lived in Germany (as a born European) and had no idea what baseball is or why it matters, but the movie Major League was on TV here. I didn't even watch more than 30 seconds of it - again, zero interest in baseball - but it was titled here, translated, The Indians of Cleveland. A few years later we unexpectedly moved to the US to central Tennessee. Someone asked me what my favorite baseball team was, and I said "Cleveland" because that was the only team I thought might exist. I then looked up who these people were (this was the Lofton-Vizquel-Manny-Thome era) and became a legit fan.
That same summer, before going to American high school, I wanted to learn what American football was, because I had not cared at all about it before. I downloaded a demo of Madden 97 for my computer (19 MB, downloaded over dialup) and started playing to get the hang of it.
The demo was the second half of the previous Super Bowl, so the Patriots were trailing the Packers. I ended up playing with the trailing team and thus developed a real fondness for the real Patriots, with whom I had a good run until time converted me into a full-fledged Titans fan. I have not had an equally good run with them.
Mike said something about how a reasonable case can be made for the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox to spend $700+ million over 15 years for Juan Soto.
No. No reasonable case can be made.
An understandable case? Yes.
An emotional case? Yes.
A short-sighted case? Yes.
But a reasonable case? Ah, hell no! Does anyone thing that that the last third of this contract will go well? Does anyone thing that this the last 4 years and $233 million (255, actually) is going to go over well. Soto will be on the other side of 35. This is NOT a reasonable contract, and there is no reasonable case to be made. No case *based* *on* *reason*.
So, am I glad a New York team did this? Very glad. Am I sure that it is better to hurt Yankeess fans and Mets payroll than to cripple Yankees payroll? No, I am not so certain. But I am glad that the Red Sox did not win this one.
I grew up a NY Giants & BoSox fan (raised in upstate NY by a father who idolized Yaz) and moved to England in the middle of my senior year of HS. I realized pretty quickly that I had to find a soccer team since it was rather difficult to follow US sports overseas in 1993.
Manchester United was very obviously the Yankees -- don't think I need to explain that. Arsenal seemed like the Giants -- they were famous for their defense and winning 1-0. And they were ManU's archrivals. The Giants at the time had Parcells & Belicheck. It seemed a perfect fit. I moved back to the US for college and drifted away from soccer for a few years and Arsenal turned into a beautiful, offensive juggernaut. They became The Invincibles. And I didn't watch because I was an ocean away with no way to watch and college going on. I started following again at the tail end of the Wenger era just when they started to fade away. Now, they're 'good' again.
All this time I thought I was choosing a Giants surrogate and it turns out I chose a Red Sox one instead. Well, except for the Sox being even remotely good.
I have nothing interesting about my fandom origins (if you haven’t listened to this episode yet), but assuming you have, I have a nominee for extremely bizarre similarities between my real fandoms and the random examples y’all riffed on… here’s an abridged version…
—Example used: my mom went to Syracuse and I worked for Syracuse basketball.
—My life: My uncle went to SMU and my first real job as a kid was helping their basketball team.
—Example: grandpa took you to Brewers game, now you’re a Brewers fan.
—My life: that reminded me that my first true sports memory was my Dad taking me to see the Stars win the Cup in ’98-’99 (always my hockey team).
—Example: College Sophomore studying abroad in Rome surrounded by annoying AS Roma fans where you saw them lose an international friendly to Bayern Munich and became a Bayern fan.
—My life: (I swear this is verifiably true) College Freshman that’s never been into soccer (me) gets a student studying abroad from Spain (a Barca-stan) as a roommate, who quickly gets me into soccer. The next season, my Sophomore year, I watched Barcelona play Chelsea in a Champions League Seni-final (still known as one of the worst officiated major soccer matches of all time, blatantly favoring Barcalona) with this same friend… His reaction to those no-calls in that game, made me become a Chelsea fan just to shut him up. Unfortunately, as some long time fans my cosign, my local Chelsea fans I’d watch with were so much worse than my old roommate.. Time marched on until the Champions League Final my senior year of college between Chelsea and, you guessed it, Bayern Munich. Chelsea won in PKs in one of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen, but once Chelsea won, I hated how my local Chelsea fans weree known and what they’d come to represent more than I liked Chelsea, and in that moment I only wanted to root against Chelsea, and (in part because I’d yet to meet a Bayern fan out in the wild) gradually flipped into a Bayern super fan (for a time I had folders in my phone with dedicated Bundesliga “fun facts” specifically designed for steering EPL talk outside of England :P. Haven’t talked to any of those people in a decade, but my Bayern fandom definitely stuck
. …I’ve got nothing on the Mike Ryan fandom example, BUT…
--Example: Becoming a Red Sox fan because my cousin is Marty Barrett.
--My life: Becoming a Clemson fan because my uncle is former Clemson qb Steve Fuller (finished 6th in Heisman voting in ’78, 23rd pick in the draft, and Jim McMahon’s backup for the ’85 Bears Super Bowl)
Both of my major fandoms came about in a weird way.
I lived in Germany (as a born European) and had no idea what baseball is or why it matters, but the movie Major League was on TV here. I didn't even watch more than 30 seconds of it - again, zero interest in baseball - but it was titled here, translated, The Indians of Cleveland. A few years later we unexpectedly moved to the US to central Tennessee. Someone asked me what my favorite baseball team was, and I said "Cleveland" because that was the only team I thought might exist. I then looked up who these people were (this was the Lofton-Vizquel-Manny-Thome era) and became a legit fan.
That same summer, before going to American high school, I wanted to learn what American football was, because I had not cared at all about it before. I downloaded a demo of Madden 97 for my computer (19 MB, downloaded over dialup) and started playing to get the hang of it.
The demo was the second half of the previous Super Bowl, so the Patriots were trailing the Packers. I ended up playing with the trailing team and thus developed a real fondness for the real Patriots, with whom I had a good run until time converted me into a full-fledged Titans fan. I have not had an equally good run with them.
Mike said something about how a reasonable case can be made for the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox to spend $700+ million over 15 years for Juan Soto.
No. No reasonable case can be made.
An understandable case? Yes.
An emotional case? Yes.
A short-sighted case? Yes.
But a reasonable case? Ah, hell no! Does anyone thing that that the last third of this contract will go well? Does anyone thing that this the last 4 years and $233 million (255, actually) is going to go over well. Soto will be on the other side of 35. This is NOT a reasonable contract, and there is no reasonable case to be made. No case *based* *on* *reason*.
So, am I glad a New York team did this? Very glad. Am I sure that it is better to hurt Yankeess fans and Mets payroll than to cripple Yankees payroll? No, I am not so certain. But I am glad that the Red Sox did not win this one.
I grew up a NY Giants & BoSox fan (raised in upstate NY by a father who idolized Yaz) and moved to England in the middle of my senior year of HS. I realized pretty quickly that I had to find a soccer team since it was rather difficult to follow US sports overseas in 1993.
Manchester United was very obviously the Yankees -- don't think I need to explain that. Arsenal seemed like the Giants -- they were famous for their defense and winning 1-0. And they were ManU's archrivals. The Giants at the time had Parcells & Belicheck. It seemed a perfect fit. I moved back to the US for college and drifted away from soccer for a few years and Arsenal turned into a beautiful, offensive juggernaut. They became The Invincibles. And I didn't watch because I was an ocean away with no way to watch and college going on. I started following again at the tail end of the Wenger era just when they started to fade away. Now, they're 'good' again.
All this time I thought I was choosing a Giants surrogate and it turns out I chose a Red Sox one instead. Well, except for the Sox being even remotely good.
Prediction: Joe is completing the trilogy and writing “Why We Love Sports”
I have nothing interesting about my fandom origins (if you haven’t listened to this episode yet), but assuming you have, I have a nominee for extremely bizarre similarities between my real fandoms and the random examples y’all riffed on… here’s an abridged version…
—Example used: my mom went to Syracuse and I worked for Syracuse basketball.
—My life: My uncle went to SMU and my first real job as a kid was helping their basketball team.
—Example: grandpa took you to Brewers game, now you’re a Brewers fan.
—My life: that reminded me that my first true sports memory was my Dad taking me to see the Stars win the Cup in ’98-’99 (always my hockey team).
—Example: College Sophomore studying abroad in Rome surrounded by annoying AS Roma fans where you saw them lose an international friendly to Bayern Munich and became a Bayern fan.
—My life: (I swear this is verifiably true) College Freshman that’s never been into soccer (me) gets a student studying abroad from Spain (a Barca-stan) as a roommate, who quickly gets me into soccer. The next season, my Sophomore year, I watched Barcelona play Chelsea in a Champions League Seni-final (still known as one of the worst officiated major soccer matches of all time, blatantly favoring Barcalona) with this same friend… His reaction to those no-calls in that game, made me become a Chelsea fan just to shut him up. Unfortunately, as some long time fans my cosign, my local Chelsea fans I’d watch with were so much worse than my old roommate.. Time marched on until the Champions League Final my senior year of college between Chelsea and, you guessed it, Bayern Munich. Chelsea won in PKs in one of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen, but once Chelsea won, I hated how my local Chelsea fans weree known and what they’d come to represent more than I liked Chelsea, and in that moment I only wanted to root against Chelsea, and (in part because I’d yet to meet a Bayern fan out in the wild) gradually flipped into a Bayern super fan (for a time I had folders in my phone with dedicated Bundesliga “fun facts” specifically designed for steering EPL talk outside of England :P. Haven’t talked to any of those people in a decade, but my Bayern fandom definitely stuck
. …I’ve got nothing on the Mike Ryan fandom example, BUT…
--Example: Becoming a Red Sox fan because my cousin is Marty Barrett.
--My life: Becoming a Clemson fan because my uncle is former Clemson qb Steve Fuller (finished 6th in Heisman voting in ’78, 23rd pick in the draft, and Jim McMahon’s backup for the ’85 Bears Super Bowl)