For me it is the Chicago Cubs. No particular reason why, I've just never liked them. They aren't even a rival of my favorite team.
Don't tell my father, but it's the Yankees. I lived in Boston too long. My wife is a die-hard Red Sox fan. My father grew up a Yankees fan. His father took him and his brothers to Yankee Stadium (four hours each way by car). They saw them as "the team with fellow Italians on it" so it could do no wrong. It's like when my parents tell me they love Jay Leno and the entire argument ends with "because he's one of us." Aging baby boomer? Sure. I should mention that both of my parents have degrees in philosophy. However my father has this huge blind spot for anything Italian-American. It's very much a thing in my hometown. Meucci's invention somehow mattered more than Bell's. People hated "us guineas", so we must hate them back -- even though we're now clearly honkies. I was seriously hoping Buffalo would get the expansion NL team back in the late Eighties (what became the frickin' Marlins). I wanted anything that would allow upstate New Yorkers to root for a major-league baseball team not from New York City. Note that I'm much more a Dodgers fan than a Red Sox fan. I spent too much time avoiding Red Sox fans, their ire, and their problems with my commute when I lived there.
From living in the Philadelphia area, I have an irrational dislike of all the Philadelphia sports teams because of their fans (exception being the Philadelphia Union fans: they’re fine). Philadelphia sports fans are the most disloyal, riotous, and disrespectful fans I have ever seen in my life, or could even conceive of in my imagination. People joke about the fans throwing snowballs and D-batteries, fans cheering when opposing players get injured, the fans booing their own players (including at the most inappropriate times, like their draft signing), there being a judge and jail in Veterans Stadium (don’t know if there is one in Lincoln Financial Field or not), and the sports commentators mocking Andy Reid after his son died, but there are many worse incidents that don’t get on ESPN, probably because they are in too bad of taste to even mention on a national program. I stopped even going to live sports when I lived in Philadelphia, because it is such a toxic environment.
Definitely from Eagles and Phillies fans, but I've noticed its a bit of a different crowd at Flyers games (usually)
I don't think that is irrational at all. Your dislike is justified. There is being rowdy and having a good time at a game, which I certainly understand, then there is throwing things onto the field and cheering for serious injuries. People need to be reminded that what they are enjoying is just a game. I have been able to conquer my anger at losing by watching the New York Mets. Since they always lose, I am pleasantly surprised when they win, and perfectly fine when they inevitably implode during the ninth inning.
Yes. Sports are meant to bring us as a culture together, and to be entertaining. It defeats the whole purpose of going to a game for the fans to be miserable and belligerent, and it's a real shame that Philadelphians can't even take their kids to a professional sports game, for fear of what they might be exposed to. I'm a Browns fan. Nine out of the last ten seasons they've won six games or less. I don't even dream about the Superbowl--I'm still eagerly waiting for the day that I see them win a playoff game. It's humbling. Every win is cause for great celebration.
I sympathize with you. At least with the Browns, they don't get any one's hopes up. I went to The Ohio State University for graduate school, and when they went 24 straight wins in 2012/2013, they became a popular team to hate. Not to complain about winning, but as a rule, the teams that are hot are the ones that get talked about. Some other alums even said they were glad when tOSU finally lost, because the nationwide trash-talking would die down. Not with the Browns! No one ever bothers trash-talking the proverbial losers. I just get sympathetic shoulder pats.
Fuck Ohio State! and it's completely rational. -I grew up in Ann Arbor, but honestly I could really care less about the rivalry. I hate OSU because one night 13 years ago, I went to see a band at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor and it happened to be Ohio State v Michigan that night. As I was leaving the venue, an Ohio State fan ran up to me and randomly succor punched me in the nose. I momentarily lost consciousness and fell to the ground. When I got up, he was long gone and there was a circle of people around me. I felt my nose and it seemed to be moved over to the right side of my face. It took several operations to get it back to semi-normal. I hate ohio state. Also... what gives with the "the" Ohio State? Get over yourselves already :)
He was just trying to lend you support while simultaneously creating your time of distress. Not his fault he was too drunk to work it out properly.succor punched
HA!, I wish it would have been a succor punch and not a sucker punch. Auto-correct has a much more extensive vocabulary than I. I just learned a new a word. Thanks. -I'll keep the mistake for continuity.
I'm so sorry to hear that! What an awful person. I went to a couple tOSU football games, and I always liked the fact that there were opposing team's fans right there in the student sections, and we all joined arms together and it was a lighthearted, convivial atmosphere. Granted, we usually won the game, so maybe that was why the tOSU fans we're happy to entertain opposing team's fans. I'm so sorry to hear of your experience! That's horrible! The Ohio State University is such a big university, and it has all kinds of people. That's a real outrage. I don't know why everyone calls it The Ohio State University, I just learned real quick from attending there that people there will correct you, so now it has become a force of habit.
Thanks, I'll take your sympathy on behalf of all OSU fans and I'll squash my disdain for that university. emcadwaladr, I found a group of individuals that I didn't like. -I stand corrected. That said, LeonardCohen seems to have enlightened me to the fact that not all OSU alumni are evil. I'm a changed man :)
I'm not a football guy either which made it all the more unusual of an experience. I wasn't wearing any team colors, I was minding my own business talking to the band that had just finished playing as they were loading up their gear. Be careful emcadwaladr, they can strike at any time.