I have to admit, until I started this blog about 2 and half years ago, I wasn’t a huge hockey fan. I can barely even admit to being a casual fan. Yeah, I knew the big
names. Gretzky, Howe, Orr, Messier, but I could barely even tell you who won the Cup. So I decided to change that. I figured, if I was going to comment on something, I should at least know about it. So I started watching games and asking my friends and family questions about the sport. Not the basic stuff like icing and off sides, or the difference between a minor, double minor and major. I preferred to learn those things on my own by watching the games. I’d ask more about how the minor league system worked. Did it have levels like baseball? Was the salary cap stagnant, or did it increase? And a little bit of history, which I have also acquired through reading various books. (Although I know that my knowledge is filled with large open gaps that you could stick national monuments and walls of China through.) The thing was, the people I were asking these questions to, mainly my family, were huge Ranger fans. Add to that, the fact that when I went to borrow books from the library (which PS the Bergen County Library System is in some serious need of updating its hockey content for anyone interested in donating old books) and from my brother they were usually Ranger books because that’s what they had in stock. So I kind of equate my growing love for hockey with the Rangers.Yes, I see the irony of proudly wearing my New Jersey pride on my sleeve while in effect turning my back on one of the few things New Jersey can truly call their own. I understand why people get upset with my kind. The person from New Jersey who favors the Rangers or the Knicks (which I may add I am not a fan of. I love the Nets, but that’s another post which involves my mom and lots of free tickets). I get very touchy on the subject of New Jersey, especially the heinous stereotypes which are mostly not true. But you also have to understand the importance sports plays in my family’s dynamic. For years and years and years, I’ve talked my dad’s ear off about baseball and he’s tried his best to keep up, although he himself is not a huge fan. But when I started talking about the Rangers, he instantly was able to join in on the conversation. Similarly, I’m pretty sure my brother would disown me if I merely mentioned an inkling of Devil’s support. (Note: My brother was born while the Devils were called the Colorado Rockies) So that is why I've joined the dark side, take my explanation as you will but remember that sports loyalties are kind of irrational. I’m no bandwagon jumper. When I pick a team, I pick them for life. Through their ups and downs, through their poor defense and inability to get anything going during the powerplay, through their wins and mostly through their losses. I think it’s hard to slight people when they stick with a team for life. Now magically becoming a life long Red Sox fan circa 2004 is a completely different story. Slight away kids, slight away!
(photo: sportslogos.net)
2 comments:
So basically, you became a Rangers fan because your brother and father like the Rangers and because your library only had old hockey books. C'mon, that's lame! [giggle]
Did you follow your family's lead in choosing the Red Sox too? [rolls eyes]
You say you wear your Jersey pride on your sleeve and that you get very touchy on the subject of New Jersey, especially the heinous stereotypes which are mostly not true, yet by rooting for the team from NYC, you end up looking like one of those stereotypical New Jerseyans ... a NY wannabe. ... I'm just saying! [whistling]
If you really want to learn a little history, you should do some research on your hometown team -- the Devils! Go to a game again -- this time maybe with a friend instead of your brother and dad -- and ask any of us who were around at the time what it was like going to Devils home games in the team's early days in the '80s when the team sucked. Particularly games against the Rangers. You'll hear some stories, girl! And not just stories about how bad the team was -- I mean stories about perseverance, about being one of the few people supporting Jersey's team when it wasn't fashionable to do so. When most Jerseyans -- like your dad and brother -- did not want to give the hometown team the time of day. But unlike your brother and dad, not everyone born before 1982 rooted against the Devils when they came here. If that had been the case, who would've gone to the games back then? One-year-olds? ... Nevermind what the Devils players must've thought at the time, with over half the crowd rooting against them in their own building. Can you even imagine what that must've been like? [<_<]
Speaking of Jersey pride ... those fans that stuck it out through those bad times ... they are the epitome of Jersey pride! And you won't learn that in any library books! [soap box]
Something tells me if you gave our team a chance, you might start liking them and all that they stand for. I know you said that once you pick a team, you pick them for life. But then in the next breath you talk about becoming a Red Sox fan in 2004 -- all the while you're wearing a Mets T-shirt in your profile photo! [:P ]
Give Jersey's team a chance! They'll appreciate you more than that Manhattan team ever will. You can even wear your Jersey Pride on your sleeve at the Rock. ... Try it. You'll like it! [ ;)] [thumbsup]
Yup it was all family peer pressure. Couldn't dodge peer pressure in High School and I still can't do it in my 20s.
While I appreciate the gesture, I’m not becoming a Devils fan anytime soon. Plus I honestly do not know a single Devils fan besides maybe Kevin Smith and that guy from “Brothers & Sisters” with the drug problem (on the show) but then again we’re not exactly on a first name basis. And I know it’s hard to read, but the Red Sox line was all sarcasm and does not apply to me…AT ALL. (Check my other blog listings; it’s another baseball team that I fancy, although I doubt you’d approve of my choice.) It really applies mostly to one of my friends who is from the same town I grew up in, went to college in Boston and became a Red Sox fan in 2004, because as she says, it was a special time to be in Boston and it reminds her of college. Don’t worry; I make fun of her all the time.
Honestly, until I wrote the Rock post, I had never heard about the NJ stereotype that we all want to be New Yorkers. I’ve heard a lot of them, spiky hair, poor accents, unnatural skin colorations, wanting to be in the mob/being in the mob, but never that in liking a New York team, you wanted to be a New Yorker. I don’t want to be a New Yorker. If I had that desire I would have moved into the City after I graduated college, ditching the NJ lifestyle for something more Sex & the City. I’m feeling sick just thinking about that deviated life path.
And don’t worry, I enjoyed my time at the Rock and will definitely be making another appearance there in the near future, but I am not saying that I’ll be decked out in red and black, red maybe but with lots of blue and some white thrown in. However, if I admit to rooting for the Jersey Rockhoppers, is that like some sort of meeting in the middle, because that’s all I am prepared to do right now.
Thanks for the comment.
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