The other night I had a fun Padres dream. Part of the context involves a confession (surely appropriate for a Friars blog), a request for penance and a question as well. So I'll take a detour, but I promise I'll get to the gruntling dream in a moment.
So, I'm applying for a major grant that would give me the money and teaching leave to look at the development of fan culture in the late 1800s to early 1900s around Aussie Rules football, soccer in the UK, and of course baseball in the US. And I need to choose a city for each. While I wish I could choose SD, the city needs to be on the East Coast cause baseball got big there first (this is the confession part, please forgive me seeking to study them!) - the options are NY, Boston and Chicago, and I'd chosen NY, but a Bostonian colleague reviewing my draft application said Boston was closer in character to Melbourne and considered more sports mad than NY. So I told him that I hated the Red Sox slightly less than the Yankees, and I am now leaning a bit towards Boston cause it seems a decent fit and the term "kranks" was developed their to describe obsessed fans. So my question is which East coast city should I choose and why?
Anyway, my colleague was speechless when I noted my antipathy to the thieving Sox, which might be why, in a later email, he told me that he didn't think he'd ever met a Padres fan in his life! This snooty revelation helped spark the dream, along with the imminence of spring training and the glorious promises that this entails.
So in the dream our wonderful Padres are in another game 163 and victory will take them into the playoffs.Exactly who we were playing was unclear, but I hate all our opponents anyway.
I'm watching the game on MLB TV, and after a tense first few innings when the Friars fritter away opportunities, the suddenly start dominating. And I'm not just using the D word to excite Drama. The details of the game passed me by in a dreamy, delirious blur, though I do remember that I was constantly replaying hits, home-runs and enemies flailing helplessly at pitches (I guess young Josh Spence must have been throwing some flames). By the time the 9th inning begin, the Pads are up by a mere 26-3.
You know who I spotted playing second base? A spry David Eckstein himself, back with all his scrappy panache! Just as I enjoying seeing him do his little-man strut of his stuff, he catches the final out. And the dream ends with the announcer (Matt Vasgersian?) yelling out that you might not know any Padres fans, but they're in the playoffs, and they're gunning for your team!
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2 recs | 17 comments
Ummm....
So you’re applying for a major grant to help you build a time machine? Nice.
Friar Fever - February 19, 2012
Haven't you heard about the time machines historians have access to
I’d describe them in further detail but then I’d have to go back in time and wipe your memory…
Aussie fan - February 19, 2012
Or maybe you already did...
Wonko - February 20, 2012
I can neither confirm nor deny this
Aussie fan - February 20, 2012
I always suspected Connie Willis's books were nonfiction.
Darklighter - February 20, 2012
You're forgiven because there wasn't any west coast major league baseball at that time.
But you might want to rethink New York. Boston might be more obsessed with its sports right now, but I’m not so sure that was the case at the turn of the 20th century. You don’t become home to three major league teams at once without being at least a little obsessed with the sport.
Darklighter - February 20, 2012
Thanks - I'm still open to choosing either of them
Aussie fan - February 20, 2012
As I'm sure your research has found though,
1903, the year of the first modern world series, there were 3 New York Teams (Highlanders , who eventually became the Yankees, the Giants, and the Brooklyn Superbas) 2 Boston Teams (Beaneaters and Americans, who defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series 5 gms to 3) as well as 2 Chicago teams and 2 St. Louis teams.
Consider, also, that Boston had a much smaller fan base support 2 teams than New York did to support 3. The population of the two cities in 1900 was 3.4 million for New York, 560,000 for Boston.
However, the case could be made for New York as the more obsessed sport— It was after all in 1904 that the NL New York Giants refused to take place in the World Series against the AL Champion New York Highlanders. The public outcry after this move led to the world series becoming permanent. I can only imagine that the fact that New Yorkers wanted to see a cross town series was a part of this outcry.
Nater Tater - February 20, 2012
Yes, I do find that smaller population a good argument
And perhaps it works well with Melbourne and Manchester being overshadowed by other cities (Sydney and London). I’m still working my way all around this, so it’s very helpful to have the arguments laid out for me.
Aussie fan - February 21, 2012
If you're talking football mate
(My football, not yours or American) then there’s a good case that Manchester has been overshadowed by Merseyside (Liverpool and Everton) as much, if not more, than London historically. At least in terms of success.
I mean, Man Utd have now won more championships than Liverpool FC, but it’s taken a long time to turn that around. In London it’s only really ever been Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea that have enjoyed success, but they tend to be streaky and separated by long spells of mediocrity.
Spurs were great in the 60s and early-80s and been good the last 2/3 years. Arsenal had a great spell in the 30s, few good years in the 70s, couple end of the 80s and then 97-04 were great. Chelsea won the title in 55 and not again for 50 years.
Happy to help out in any way if you like mate!
london_balling - February 22, 2012
Ta muchly
My interest is mainly 1860 (or maybe a little earlier with baseball) to around 1920 – I’m not looking for markers of success, so much as the intense fan culture. I’ve chosen Manchester cause it is a bit like Melbourne (a big but still secondary city), and also because of the National Football Museum (I actually hate Man U, but both it and City were drawing big crowds from at least the 1890s [they had different names early on, but still passionate fans]).
Aussie fan - February 22, 2012
Boston's population hasn't changed much since 1850, but the metro area keeps growing.
That’s when Boston, New York and Philly all had about a half million population.
Boston stopped absorbing surrounding towns and still has only about 620,000
people, but the suburbs add up to about 4.4 million now, about 2 million in 1903.
They all had access to games because Boston built the first metro area subway
system in North America in 1870.
wegotballsley - February 22, 2012
Didn't know about the subway
Thanks for that, I’ll add it to the mix :)
Aussie fan - February 23, 2012
I see, ok mate, serves me...
right for not reading everything twice! ;)
Can’t disagree with your reasoning there. Good luck. United began as Newton Heath iirc… they played in green and gold. It’s come back to relevance because current supporters wear green and gold scarves to games as a protest against the Glazer family who currently own them, but got them into huge debt.
london_balling - February 22, 2012
Thanks
I knew about the different earlier names (and Man City was founded by a woman which is pretty amazing), but the current green and gold scarf protests is fascinating. I teach a subject on all the major football codes, possibly the only one of its kind, and I’ll definitely be getting students to look into that!
Aussie fan - February 23, 2012
Seriously
your classes sound awesome. I would attend every last second of those. I minored in history and have a huge interest in sports and especially football so you have my dreamjob, enjoy it!
sixpakfrombelgium - February 23, 2012
To get you started...
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2010/01/22/1756386/manchester-united-supporters-scarf-protest-to-put-squeeze-on-the-
london_balling - February 23, 2012
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