Sports Geek I

First of all, I apologize for the delay with entries. I've been dealing with a lot of work outside of the blog, and didn't particularly enjoy the idea of publishing bad work. So there it is. In the meantime, I've been working on an idea that I'll roll out in a series of articles entitled "Sports Geek." Today is #1.

In Will Leitch's book God Save the Fan, Leitch argues that fans have remained constant over the years. Fans care about their team, and any other drama that surfaces is unnecessary. I would argue that over the last twenty years a new class of fan has evolved; the middle of the road fan, or Sports Geek. Just as the Industrial Revolution brought upon the European Middle Class, the technological boom has brought upon the Sports Geek. Armed with fantasy sports, the blog, and the ability to watch whatever sporting event they wish via the internet and digital TV, the Sports Geek enjoys sports on a slight more involved level that most fans, but less so than the media and industry. This new fandom isn't any better or worse than others, but at present is blooming into an unfamiliar world--and the sports industry must learn to embrace it.
Before the technological boom, fans were restricted to enjoying only the games that were presented with; limiting them to being hometown fans by necessity. Before Curt Flood challenged the contract system, players mostly played games within one organization. This was good in many ways for fans--if they liked Lou Gehrig, they could follow the Yankees for years and get Gehrig updates every day. Now though, with the exception of the occasional Craig Biggio, players rarely play their entire careers within one organization. Teams such as the A's and Twins frequently are forced to let their best players go due to financial concerns. This has created frustration for many fans. It's pretty common for teams to come into a season with as many as six new starters, having either acquired better or younger players from other teams, or having lost their formerly best to free agency. Fans can deal with this constant shuffle in College sports because there's often a personal tie to college, and there's no avoiding the shuffle there. I believe the average fan feels betrayed by this new process. Reading mailbags sent in to beat writers, the most common letters are either "Why did we trade Horace, he was the heart and soul!" or "Bring back Edwin, he fills every need we have!" We'll come back to these two knuckleheads later, but for now my point is that fans become attached to these players, and feel like the team is somehow hurting its fans by getting rid of them. While its true that most baseball owners could greatly increase their chances of winning by opening up the check book more, the harsh reality is that teams will/can only spend so much, and free agency will cause players to move. The average fan accepts it but feels betrayed--the Sports Geek goes deeper.

That's all for now. Mull over this, and I'll continue at some point on Wednesday.