Love To Hate: The Dark Side of MLB Fandom

Obi-Wan once warned Luke Skywalker by saying, "Don't give into hate. That leads to the Dark Side!". Obi-Wan's words still ring true to this day and if only his warning could be heard by current baseball fans. It seems as though the line between disliking a team and obsessive hate has been blurred. There is a dark side to baseball fandom, and I'm not talking about bandwagon fans.

A perfect example of this blurred line is the rivalry between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's. I've noticed that quite a few A's fans are more happy when the Giants lose than when the A's are win. And it's hard for me to view them as real A's fans when they seem to be so obsessed with hating the Giants that they ignore their own team's success. 

AJ Griffin could've pitched a perfect game, but the cliche haters have to tweet about how much they hate the Gnats (a term as clever as a Ke$ha lyric) and how much they hate the fact that the Giants are trending and the A's aren't (Really? You're team won and you're more concerned with trending topics?) or that the Giants get more exposure or have bandwagon fans (with memes that are as old and tired as Madonna's career).

Giants fans do it, too. I don't like the Dodgers, but I don't tweet "#BeatLA" daily when the Giants aren't even playing them. I'm more concerned with the game and seeing my team play, then letting my disliking of the Dodgers take over. I don't brag about how we won two World Series championships in three years. That was then, this is now. You can brag about how many titles your team has won but as Babe Ruth once said, "Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games". 

Newsflash: Any sports team that gains success, especially championships, will gain bandwagon fans. Whether it's the Giants, Angels, White Sox, ect…if they're winning, the bandwagon gets bigger. I'm all for civil trash talk, but there are some fans that have given into the "dark side", here's how:

1. Daily bashing of a rival team and/or their fans. If you tweet daily about how much you hate a certain team or player, it shows immaturity and that you're one dimensional. It's especially pathetic if the rival team that has earned your social media hatred isn't even playing your team (or playing at all). If you complain about a team and their fans everyday, it shows that you're a person who thrives on negativity. Your status updates, your tweets, memes, ect…we get it. You're the Taylor Swift of your team's fanbase.

2. A loss means more than a win. If a team's loss is your focus more than your team's win, how can you call yourself a fan? 

3. "All their fans are the same". This is seriously one of the stupidest thing I've read or heard people say about any team's fans. That's like saying all baseball players take steroids/PEDs. Every team (keyword EVERY) team has fans that represent the team well and fans that don't. If you had bad experiences with a team's fanbase, that sucks. Bringing it up every chance you get just makes you sound bitter. Move on with your life.
4. Celebrating injuries. If you get genuinely happy when a player gets injured, you're a whole new level of low and have no class. I don't care how much you hate a team, these guys are out there living their dream. An injury is serious and has the possibility to take their dream away and you're happy about that? 

I don't' expect Giants and A's fans to hold hands and sing "Give Peace A Chance". I don't expect Yankees and Red Sox fans to have a BBQ together. However, it would be nice to see more civility between rival teams and their fans.

Thanks For Reading,

Jordan