"Future Shoes"

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Fair Weather Fans Go High Tech

by Michael Finley
Copyright (c) 1995 bu michael Finley

For the bulk of my adult life I have been a Minnesota Twins fan. In years of predigital yore I loved going out to the Met and cheering on Bobby Randall and Glenn Adams and Hosken Powell. I remember once yelling to Jose Morales, "Come on, Jose!" and everyone in the park, including Jose, turning to look at me. I hear crowds that sparse are making a comeback in downtown Minneapolis.

But I can never forget that I was raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Indians were the team I cheered on as a lad. My dad was an important bigshot for General Motors and was able to get restricted view seats at a discount. Many happy times he would arrange to meet with another dad, and they would sit in the box seats, while us kids would sit behind some mammoth girder and catch fleeting glimpses of Jimmy Piersall, Tito Francona, and Larry Doby in our peripheral vision.

If Twins fans think their life is hard, they can't imagine being an Indians fan. The last time they won a pennant was when I was four, in 1954. In my sentient life, they have done nothing but lose.

Which is why 1995, a year of baseball disgrace, is also a year of baseball redemption, if you hail from the shores of Lake Erie. And also, in the age of techno liberation, it is a unique opportunity for fair weather fans to jump ship.

In normal times, fans are captives of their local teams. The TV, newspapers, and radio make a regional cult of that team. Never mind that the players have nothing to do with the area. The stadium is here, and the owner may or may not live here, and we definitely live here. Thus the local team is "our" team.

Technology frees us from bondage to the local team, makes even retractable-roof stadiums instantly obsolete. It allows fans to fully enter the era of free agency.

The fan of tomorrow can watch the team of his or her choice play every game, on the famous 500-channel infotainment network. Displaced persons can watch the team they grew up with, playing on their beloved home fields. Fans who are dismayed at the home team's prospects -- perhaps the old general manager took his lucky monkey's paw with him when he moved to another team -- can switch temporarily to a different home team. Fans in the deepest sort of bondage, to maniacal shipbuilders, can shop around till they find a gang of ballplayers, perhaps in the midwest, that has rekindled the amateur, pastoral spirit.

This year, I pick the Cleveland Indians, their stalwart hurlers Jose Mesa, Dennis Martinez, and Orel Hershiser, master blasters Manny Ramirez and Paul Sorrento, hitting aces Kenny Lofton and Carlos Baerga, and past blasters Eddy Murray and Dave Winfield.

No, I can't watch them on TV yet. But I can tune in via the Internet. On Usenet, the Indians are available 24 hours a day on the alt.sports.baseball.cleve-indians newsgroup. Where a comparable Twins newsgroup currently boasts about a dozen messages from the dreamy, the deflated, and the declawed, the Indians newsgroup is brimming with 150 chest-thumping posts.

What strikes me is that the Indians, by moving to a new field, have simply waved goodbye to their history. No more Bob Feller, Satchel Paige, Rocky Colavito. They are here and now, blessedly ignorant of all that, and it seems to work. As I type this, they stand atop the American League Central with a .700 winning percentage, 15 games ahead of the Twins and 11 ahead of the hated Pale Hose of Chicago.

Not everyone is in favor of this situation. Hear the Usenet thoughts of this Sox/Bears fan, who calls herself Mary:

Subject: WHY ARE YOU GUYS HAPPY???

I DON'T GET IT. I THOUGHT THE WHOLE POINT OF THE TRIBE'S PATHETIC FAN FOLLOWING WAS THAT YOU GUYS LIKED THE FACT THAT THEY WERE LOSERS!!! BAHAHAHA!!! I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE WHOLE CHARM OF THE INDIANS -- THAT THEY HAD ONE OF THE MOST SHAMEFUL AND SORRY HISTORIES IN THE HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS!!! BAHAHAHA!! ISN'T IT DISAPPOINTING FOR YOU GUYS TO FINALLY HAVE A SLIGHTLY ABOVE-AVERAGE TEAM TO ROOT FOR??? US FANS OF PERENNIAL WINNERS LIKE THE WHITE SOX AND BEARS EXPECT WINNING AS A RESULT OF OUR LoNG AND GLORIOUS PAST. BUT FOR YOU GUYS, WINNING GOES AGAINST EVERYTHING THE TRIBE STANDS FOR!!!! BAHAHAHA!!!

OK, the Algonquin Roundtable it ain't, but give it points for enthusiasm. If you prefer lower-voltage engagements, you can hop onto the The Nando X Indians Page, at http://www.apk.net/sports/Cle-web/Indians/index.html This is like the home dugout. From this location you can jump to the ESPNet SportsZone baseball page for a complete wrap-up of major league news; you can regale yourself with Athens, Ohio superfan Brad Decker's reports from spring training. Pore over the 40-man roster. See a list of all your favorite players' salaries. View cool .GIF pix of uniformed Indians. All-time team leaders. A Cleveland hall of fame. See who's on the disabled list, and for how long. Study the layout of Jacobs Field and decide where you want to sit next time you're at the Gateway.

There's much more, besides, including numerous home pages put up by fans where they share their future hopes and gossamer memories.

Now this may seem treacherous, a longtime Twins fans rooting for a divisional opponent. But I remind you that baseball is a business, and loyalty is a two-way street. With the Internet in one hand, and the 500-channel-changer in the other, this is one fan who won't be signing any multi-year deals soon.

Meanwhile, someone tell me, what does Mary have against the Indians?

Michael Finley's book THE NEW WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK, co-authored with Harvey Robbins, was published this spring. You can contact Mike via e-mail at mfinley@mfinley.com.

"A masterpiece of explanatory journalism!" - New Orleans Picayune "Fast, funny, and highly stimulating!" -Business Book Review Get your signed copy of The NEW Why Teams Don't Work by Mike & Harvey Robbins from Berrett-Koehler Publishers Just click on the book cover!