I am not a Seattle Mariners fan because I don't freaking have to be. That's why.
Now there is a sports trend here in Portland, Oregon (where I live) that really needs to be stopped. I will do my best to do my part in putting a stop to this practice.
I have lived in Portland practically my entire life. I was born and bred here and will probably call it home for a long long time. Portland is a great sports town, in my experience. It's just a good place to be a sports fan.
Unfortunately, Portland has only been blessed with one pro sports franchise. The Portland Trail Blazers. Now say what you will about the "Jail Blazers", but I was raised during the time known as the "glory years." The Blazers were really really good. But I digress.
Portland has never had a pro football team or pro baseball team. Over the years, we have been teased a couple of times with pro teams possibly wanting to relocate to Portland (Montreal Expos & Florida Marlins), but never anything solid. The closest pro sports team is 181 miles from my house. The Seattle Mariners. So I don't get it at all, but I guess somewhere in Portland's sports history, some person decided to make a rule that since we live in Portland, then hell, we gotta root for the Mariners. And if you don't like the Mariners, it makes you some kind of bad person.
That person is retarded.
If you ask me, it's totally unreasonable to assume that since you live in the general vicinity (181 miles is hardly considered "vicinity" anyway) of a city with a sports franchise, you must root for that team. I also think that it's totally unreasonable to call that person a traitor for rooting for some other team. I don't think it makes you a bad person to just root for who you like.
Since I was a little boy, I have always based my "favorite team" on individual players. At least most of the time. FYI, the Blazers have always been my favorite NBA team, for obvious reasons. We will leave the NBA out of this conversation. So I can name you every team I like, why I like them and when I started rooting for them. And it's got nothing to do with where I live. Here are the top two favorites:
1. Boston Red Sox: Started rooting for them when Nomar was first on the team. I love Nomar even to this day. (Nomar was a rookie in 1996.)
2. New England Patriots: Started rooting for them the day they drafted Drew Bledsoe. Still love Drew Bledsoe to this day. For the record, that makes it since 1995 that I've been a fan.
There are plenty of other teams that I have various amounts of "love" for too, for different reasons. The Oakland A's, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, and the Atlanta Braves to name just a few. For most of these teams, it's usually a player that played (or plays) for them.
I remember the first baseball game I ever watched in my life. It was a Saturday game between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants at Wrigley Field. I fell in love (so to speak) with Ryne Sandberg and the Cubs from that day forward. He was my favorite baseball player until he retired. No explanation why. I didn't think that I needed one. I was friggin 8 years old, give me a break.
I am a big believer in the "rule" that you can root for whoever you want to, no matter where in the country you live. I don't think that you should have to root for your "home team." But some dude who grows up in LA is more than likely going to like the Dodgers. That makes perfect sense. But if you live in a city where there is no team to "grow up with", I think you can have the right to be a fan of whatever team you wanna be the fan of.
Only exception is front running or jumping on the bandwagon. There is just no excuse in sports for any of that.
That is my rant for the day.
With that said....Go Mariners! (Only because they are going to be the team that beats out the Yankees to get into the playoffs.)
