I've noticed an interesting trend in sports of late that in theory shouldn't include MLB or the Orioles. I've been around sports as a player, coach, or fan since I was about five years old. Many of my spring/summer evenings were spent at Memorial Stadium watching the O's, and I spent many Sunday afternoons in the autumn at RFK Stadium watching the Washington Redskins. Needless to say, I feel right at home in a packed stadium or arena when it's very loud. That aside, when it comes to college sports I've followed the Maryland Terrapins for that same amount of time. I've seen the likes of Stan Gelbaugh, Neil O'Donnell, Walt Williams, Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, and even Nik Caner-Medley (to bring up the derriere). Nevertheless, I've always followed my favorite Maryland players once they've entered the pros.
However nowadays, people seem to take that to a bit of an extreme. A guy that lives in my building is an Indianapolis Colt fan because he loved Peyton Manning in college. I've met numerous Michigan fans who have adopted the New England Patriots as their favorite team due to Tom Brady. Certainly this is a decision that people need to make on their own, but...wouldn't it make more sense for people to pick one team when they're young and stick with them?
College baseball isn't anywhere near as popular as basketball or football, so this rule of thumb really doesn't apply. However with free agency being so big in baseball, we still see this kind of thing. I know many Yankee fans from NY that went to both Washington and Philadelphia when the Dodgers came to town to see Joe Torre. Speaking of the Yankees, Mark Texeira (the non-Marylander) supposedly grew up watching Don Mattingly, which is why he supposedly rooted for the Yankees. Many of my own fellow Italian-Americans root for the Yankees because Joe DiMaggio was Italian. However more and more, it seems that people are rooting for players instead of teams. I doubt that most Baltimore Colt fans started rooting for the Chargers when Johnny Unitas went out there at the end of career. To use a modern example, I'm quite sure that Philadelphia Eagle fans don't now root for the Redskins because of Donovan McNabb.
Having said this, it'll be interesting to see if the Orioles pick up any nationally acclaimed players this off season via free agency. If they do, will the O's have any new fans? Time will tell, but honestly I hope not. My favorite Oriol of all time will always be my hero, the great Cal Ripken Jr. Granted, Cal stayed with the O's his entire career, however he had many chances to go elsewhere. Had that happened, I would have remained an Oriole fan. I would have wished him well and still followed his career, but when he came to Baltimore as a visitor my allegiance would be with the O's. My point is that the Orioles, along with every other franchise in sports, are bigger than any one person. People are free to root for whom they want, but I wish that we could go back to the old way where most people root for the home team just because they're the home team.
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