So I have lived in the Bay Area for over six years. I lived in the city of San Francisco for 5 of those years, and in Berkeley for the past year and change. My boyfriend is a Giants fan. Most of my friends in the area are Giants fans. Even my boss, who is an A’s fan, is a Giants fan.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock with no cable television or access to newspapers and the internet, you’ve heard that the Giants are not only in the world series, but are up 2-0 (I’m watching Game 3 now and it’s not looking good for the gigantes). Everyone is wearing Panda hats and fake beards and shirts that say FREAK on them. There is a fever spreading.
When the Giants were playing the Phillies in the NLCS, one of the games fell on a Sunday. That Sunday, the Redskins were playing the Colts. I went to my favorite neighborhood dive bar, the Kingfish, to watch. There are two TVs in the Kingfish. I figure, this will be easy, one will be baseball and one will be football. I mean, people like football, right? wrong. I was the only one watching the football game, had to fight for the TV and only got possession because I got there early and asked the owner to keep the crappier TV on the NFL game. Since when did San Franciscans care about sports? Most are fair-weather if you ask me. Find a die-hard baseball fan, go east. Find a die-hard football fan, go south.
It was easy cheering for the Giants against the Phillies. Phillies are division rivals of the Mets, and have had recent success. I wanted to see them go down in flames. Now against the Rangers, well, I just think you have to root against Texas on all accounts. But do I want the Giants to win? To have these fair-weather fans get their satisfaction? I’ll have to hear about it forever. But I live here. Shouldn’t I like the home team? Aren’t the A’s my home town now? I’m so confused. I tried cheering for the Giants and it felt so unnatural. I think that when you are meant to be a fan of a team, you just know. It fits. And this doesn’t fit. I’m just not a Giants fan. I’m happy for all my friends who are true fans (and yes, there are some real Giants fans out there and I didn’t mean to offend them by generalizing most of the fans in the area as fair-weather) and I am proud to live in the Bay Area and glad for their success. But I’m never gonna love them like I should. I’ll never be able to go to a sports bar and cheer for them like they’re my one and only team. Apathy is a terrible thing, but I’m just being honest.
Chicks Like Sports Too 