Why?
by El Person on Aug 24, 2009 11:11 PM PDT
17 comments
This is the most soul-crushing defeat I've ever faced. For three straight days, my heart's been broken. This is worse than the second-to-last game of 2004. It's almost as bad as that dream I had about the 2002 World Series not being cancelled.
It's at times like these that I ask, "Why?" Why am I emotionally entangled with the doings of 25 men I will never meet and have no connection to? This is especially pertinent, given that I have a lot of more important things (school), and I spent the evening in bed sick. Stress is the last thing I need.
Right now, I want to stop being a Giants fan more than anything, even more than for the Giants to win every game the rest of the way, including the playoffs. For we will meet disappointment eventually. Or, at the very least, I should like to be an idiot frontrunner who has no real attachment to any team. But this is out of my power.
Why? Because fandom is like life. Both can be pleasurable, but both are in the end suffering. nd if we understand this, we can end the suffering of fandom and reach enlightenment.
If only...
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Why?
EP I couldn’t agree with you more. I have felt so many times the way you’ve expressed in your post. It’s as if I were a jilted lover, all she has to do is wink and smile and I keep coming back.
I want to blow up the fucking Rockie Mountains
NOW
"I suddenly hate Canada with a passion = BASTARDS!!!!!! " -Mr K, Upon hearing Moyes filing Chapter 11
It doesn't go away.
My great uncle has been watching the giants since he was a kid. He is 97 years old, and games like tonights age him even more. He takes tonights loss, as much as he took losses in the days of Mel Ott. So you are doomed to care about whatever 25 men wear the giants uni, from now until eternity.
No disrespect to your great uncle
but I think needs to be said that caring is one thing, pain is another. Not that this is the case for anyone in particular, but if there’s no joy in it — and I recognize that for a lot of us, maybe even most of us, changing any set pattern of behavior is difficult — it’s possible to choose to do other things.
I found the folllowing in another city’s sports pages recently. Not goundbreaking, but worthwhile to consider: go out and fail at something yourself for a week or so, and then decide whether you want to watch a few more games.
"It’s like any addiction," says Debbie Mandel, author of Addicted to Stress. "There’s usually some unhappiness, a loneliness there, a lack of connection. That’s a sign, if you have that kind of agitation, to find something creative that makes your own heart sing. I urge your readers to do something they’re bad at doing, because that means you love doing it."
Michael Morris is a psychology professor at the University of New Haven and has a slightly different approach. He says the first thing to do is to put the baseball team in perspective. This isn’t your job. It’s [Name Redacted] who picked up the ball and then dropped it the other night, not you.
I urge your readers to do something they’re bad at doing, because that means you love doing it.
Well, the Giants have this part covered at least…
Utter frustration and futility.
by Johnny Disaster on Aug 25, 2009 5:33 AM PDT up reply actions
Not to belabor the point
which is, that’s them and you’re you, but that’s them. You can walk away and do something on your own behalf while they play Arizona. Is anyone not clear on the concept?
I realize that hyperbole is the currency of sports, but if you’re fandom is genuinely soul-crushing, get yourself away from the TV. Your soul with thank you.
Humor that needs explanation has obviously fallen short… the implication is that the Giants players must really love what they are doing since they are so bad at it.
Utter frustration and futility.
by Johnny Disaster on Aug 25, 2009 8:33 AM PDT up reply actions
That psychology guy doesn’t help me because as soon as I see his name I think of Matt Morris, and I get angry all over again.
embarrassed father of over the hill Edgardo Renteria
by rxmeister on Aug 25, 2009 7:21 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
I don't know
Giant Dirtbags: John Bowker, Steve Hammond. MIA List: Todd Jennings, Brian Anderson
Wronghanded Affeldt pitches right
by Giant among Angels on Aug 25, 2009 6:50 AM PDT reply actions
Don't be insensitive to the great uncle
I had to call him, long distance after the game. He seemed to be chanelling Chris Russo, but finally he calmed down. He said if he lives a few more years and makes it to 100, this games will still shorten his life.
No offense to the psychologists.
Baseball fandom, if it does not lead to a gambling problem, or serious family problems, is not an addiction, it is a connection to life and society, that binds millions of fans, in to a baseball community and a human commonality. If you have throw a bowling ball through your TV and have broken it, then you have a problem, If you have only thought about, not so much of a problem. Next thing you know they will be saying that eating high-fructose corn syrup is an addiction. Oh wait, never mind.
HFCS for some
Giants for others. I know which one I’ll take!
Still backing Notgardo, wheresoever he may wander. (Don't forget to wriiiite!)
Because of the '94 49-ers and the '08 Jayhawks.
These are the only teams I’ve really cared about that won championships. Kansas, especially, breaks my heart nearly every year in the NCAA Tournament. After the 2002/2003 season, when both the World Series and the NCAA Tourney were cancelled I had to wonder what I’d done to deserve that kind of heaping shitpile.
Even earlier, with the hated Cowboys running over the 49ers every year, I was about ready to find Jerry Jones and maroon him on an iceburg. Then the 9ers beat the Assholes in the NFC Championship game….then in 2008 when Mario Chalmers hit the three to tie the game against Memphis at the buzzer….it was all worthwile. In the next three years the Giants will make a run deep into the playoffs, and this will all fall away, and it will be oh so much sweeter.
Just stop paying attention
After a game like last night and a series we just finished – I just stop following them. IMHO they do not deserve my attention or psychic energy and I refuse to waste my time getting all riled up when they fail to perform. I will check the score at the end of the day, but I refuse to watch or listen to the games – I just find myself getting too pissed off – so it is time to go play some more tennis or go fishing or find a good movie to watch.
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