Call Me a Softie, but I Have Sympathy for All Fans

If you were to ask the people who know me best to describe me, none of them would would say that I'm a "softie".  But when it comes to sports fans, I am.

While half of me thinks that some sports fans need to a "get a life" (seeing as how their state of happiness is controlled by whether their team wins or loses), the other half of me wishes that everyone’s favorite team could win the championship every year. 

Unfortunately, due to expansion in professional sports, you can only expect your team to win the championship once every 32 years. That’s only two or three championships in a lifetime, even if you live to be 80 and root every year.

If you are lucky enough to live in a city that has teams in all four major sports (or as long as you have a favorite team in each American league), you can expect just 10 championships in 80 years. That's a lot of disappointment, considering that you rooted for your clubs in a combined 320 seasons.

As you can see, not winning championships is the nature of sports; yet we choose to be sports fans anyhow. Even though we know what we're getting into, we make the choice.

I have sympathy for this sad group, because I'm part of it.

For example, while I have no connection to the city of Chicago, part of me roots for the Cubs to win their first World Series in 100 years. I just feel bad for their fans, especially the geriatric who has cheered for the Cubs since they were a little boy or girl. 

Besides, I can relate—I have lived in Philadelphia since 1994. And until the Phillies won the World Series this past October, the city had not won a championship in 25 years. Even those bad with numbers realize by now (as long as you paid attention to the previous math lesson) that that's 100 seasons of supporting a team. 

To the die-hard sports fans, it's even longer than it sounds. So, even if I didn't live in Philly right now, I'd have sympathy for its fans.

What can I say? I feel perseverance in life should be rewarded. So call me a softie—but just this once.