Whom To Root For

After watching the last world cup I became fascinated with watching sports.  I didn't know anything about soccer but it doesn't take much to see that the team that controlled the middle of the field was able to produce potential scoring opportunities.  Watching the way teams attempted to control the middle was wonderful.

I'm to the point now where I'd rather watch a baseball game than a movie, assuming I have any spare time.  After all, I pretty much know how a movie is going to turn out after the first couple of minutes.  That's not the case with sporting events.

For a number of reasons I'm not much of a fan of college sports.  My favorite sports to watch are baseball, hockey, soccer and basketball.  I really only watch football if I have to.

So which teams to root for?  I try to choose a team or two since I like to have a dog in as many races as possible.  I try to get a nice mix of good and bad teams.  I pick some for their history and some for their club nickname.  I prioritize the west over the east.  Most importantly I root for the Arizona club.  Arizona is the best state in the union, after all.

The following are teams I root for and why.  I've ranked them from favorite to least favorite.  If a team isn't on the list I don't care about them.  Some teams I root against.

Baseball:

1. Arizona Diamondbacks.  They are from Arizona.  They've even won a World Series.  The only Arizona team to go all the way.


2. L.A. Dodgers.  Normally I root against California teams but the Dodgers are an exception.  When I was a kid my favorite color was blue.  Somehow I ended up with a Dodgers t-shirt -- Dodger blue is the best shade of blue -- and would wear it to school.  This was in Texas where they take their sports seriously.  I wasn't allowed to just wear the shirt because I liked the color, people don't like sports in Texas for such shallow reasons.  So I pretended to be a fan.  A few years later, 1988 as I recall, my best friend was rooting for the Oakland As in the World Series.  Well, when I heard they were playing the Dodgers I became a real Dodgers fan.  I've rooted for them ever since, though they've recently taken a back seat to the team at number 1.


3. Tampa Bay Rays.  The *Rays*, get it?  Oh, your just jealous no one named a major league baseball team after you.

Hockey:

1. Phoenix Coyotes.  Despite not being very good they made it to the post season this year.  They are unfortunately deeply in debt and may not be in Arizona much longer.  As far as I can tell the NHL only wants them in Arizona so all the snow birds will buy tickets to see Detroit play.
2. Columbus Blue Jackets.  The only people I see celebrating their Civil War heritage are Southerners.  The North fought too, you know.
3. Calgary Flames.  The Canadian teams are sequestered into two divisions.  Got to root for Canada when I can.  This is hockey after all.  Plus the coolest Canadian I ever met was from Southern Alberta.  Rock on Elder Memmott, where ever you may be.  Oh, and the Flames started in Atlanta where their name was chosen because the city was burned down by General Sherman during the Civil war.
4. Toronto Maple Leafs.  First, they are perennial cursed losers just like the Cubs.  Second, I love the blue and white uniforms.
5. Nashville Predators. Their mascot is a Sabre Tooth Tiger.  Not enough extinct prehistorical beasties representing sports clubs.

Soccer:

1. Real Salt Lake.  I went to school in Utah.  They've been doing great.  Their colors are red, yellow and blue.

 And that's it for Major League Soccer.  There's a lot of problems with being an MLS soccer fan.  I should write more about that in another post.  But the biggest problem is the way the teams try to ape European clubs.  Seriously, what's "real" about Salt Lake?  This is the U.S. of A.  There's no royalty here.  Yet the team chooses the "real" moniker so they can sound like they are somehow related to Real Madrid.  I toyed with being fans of the Wizards, but now they are -- and I'm not making this up -- "Sporting Kansas City".  They gave up an L. Frank Baum reference for that?

Basketball:

1. Phoenix Suns.  It's a dry heat.  I was living in Arizona when I watched them lose to the Jordan and the Bulls in the NBA championships.


2. Toronto Raptors.  Do you remember Jurassic Park fever?  I read that book when it first came out.  I watched the movie opening night.  There aren't enough dinosaur mascots.