Childhood and sports fandom
I wrote about sports the other day and mentioned the Tayshaun Prince block, which is the most ecstatic moment in my life as a Detroit-sports fan. (Even though Tayshaun Prince is not one of the 100 athletes whose careers I followed most closely.)
That prompted me to fill out that list a bit. In almost four decades of conscious sports fandom, here are the times I got most excited about a hometown team:
- 2004: The Tayshaun Prince block.
- 1997: Steve Yzerman, game 7, double OT.
- 1990: Cecil Fielder hits his 50th HR on the last day of the season. (Then gets #51, too.)
- 2006: Magglio Ordonez's ALCS game-4 walk-off.
- 2007: Justin Verlander finishes his first no-hitter.
And here are some conclusions:
- This is a short list, and that's after including two marginal ones. (I didn't even get up from my poker game at the Bellagio to pay better attention to the 9th inning of the Verlander game.)
- Only two of these happened before I was 21 years old.
- Only #1 discernably affected the development or maintenance of my sports fandom.1
Maybe there's a counterfactual world where Detroit teams produced more thrilling moments in the '90s and I became a bigger sports fan, but I doubt it. I often hear that ecstatic moments for the home team are important for making people into fans; this seems false in my case.
I, like many Lions fans, am trying to cultivate some positive energy these days. Please feel free to insert a joke about the Lions' performance since the late '80s, if you like.↩