Saturday, September 10, 2011

Supporting Your Favorite Player

Disclaimer: I am not trying to tell people how to root for their favorite player, or for any player.  I'm just frustrated and writing my thoughts which you may or may not decide to read now.


Every player has good games and every player has bad games.  The beauty of baseball is that those two can come two days in a row, even in a span of less than 24 hours.  That being said, it also means that the same player can go from being praised like nobody's business to being criticized like nobody's business in the blink of an eye.

Every fan should absolutely be behind their favorite player during every game.  It just gets annoying when some fans cannot seem to understand that there are things criticism-worthy done by everyone and even, *gasp!*, their favorite.  Yes, it is natural to defend your favorite.  But, when a player does mess up, repeatedly coming back with, "You'll be sorry when he does something good tomorrow!" gets old fast.

It is more than just being happy for them when they have good games.  Part of being a fan is acknowledging when players don't do well.  And yes, possibly even criticizing them for being part of a loss.  Baseball is a team sport and losses are never just because of one person.  The same way players take responsibility for being part of a loss, it would be wonderful to see fans recognizing when that happens too.

Sticking with a favorite through down times is hard.  It is harder to acknowledge those down times and be realistic about them.

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