Behind Enemy Lines

When I moved to Northern California exactly a month ago, I wasn't expecting any backlash over my sports rooting preferences.  After all, Stanford is a very diverse place; there are kids here from countless countries, not to mention states and cities.  I've met Toronto Raptors fans, Houston Texans fans, a Phoenix Coyote fan (yes, really), and my love of the New York Giants, Islanders and Knicks has been met with (mostly) open arms.  While there are a lot of Bay Area natives here, the Sharks, Warriors, 49ers, Raiders and A's don't compete with my teams much.  The San Francisco Giants however, have been a different story.

Just my luck that the Atlanta Braves would get into the playoffs only to face off against the hometown Giants in the first round.  Giants fans are surprisingly passionate right now; it seems the fans want to make a name for themselves in the post-Bonds era, and locals have fallen for the laid-back attitude portrayed by by Tim Lincecum, Pablo "Kung Fu Panda" Sandoval and the rest of the club.  All of a sudden, me and my circa-1974 Braves cap are the enemy, earning dirty looks from strangers and playful heckling from friends.

This isn't my first time rooting for a hated team, of course.  I survived two Braves World Series against the Yankees and several late season battles and playoff showdowns with the Mets, but these were easy to deal with; as a native New Yorker, I know everything there is to know about Yankees and Mets fans and how to deal with them.  For a Yankees fan, just ask him an ever-so-moderately difficult question about his team, wait until he realizes he doesn't know the answer, and walk away.  For a Mets fan, say nothing, wait for the Mets to crumble on their own, and smile.  It's not that difficult.

While living in Southern California, I never ran into any sports rivalries.  The Knicks were too bad to compete with the Lakers and I don't think I met one Clippers fan in three years in L.A.  There's no L.A. football team to compete with Big Blue, and the Islanders-Kings rivalry hasn't really gotten off the ground yet.  My three years in L.A. were easy, and I returned to New York in 2008 to see tons of Knicks, Giants and even Islanders fans everywhere.  Maybe I got a little soft.

Now, while living just a half-four drive from San Francisco, it's time to get nasty once again.  I'll be sporting my Braves gear with pride this week, planning to show these orange-and-black clad fans what real baseball is all about.  Though I wasn't able to hit up either of the first two games of the series at AT&T Park (ticket prices climbed way out of my price range), it's been surprisingly fun to be behind enemy lines once again.