A Tale of Two Airports

I spent the Memorial Day weekend visiting friends and doing some sightseeing down in Los Angeles, so my sports consumption has been pretty limited over the past few days.  By the time I got home last night in time to catch the Monday night SportsCenter, I realized I had missed tons of good weekend baseball action, some intriguing pre-NBA Finals build-up, the Indianapolis 500 and a chunk of the French Open.  Despite my weekend of pleasant distractions, though, I didn't escape the holiday completely void of sports-related observations.

While walking through the Delta terminals at both LAX and SFO last night, the differences between the current states of affairs of the rival Dodgers and Giants couldn't have been more obvious.  The Dodgers' current struggles have been well documented - with the team's owners Frank and Jamie McCourt in the middle of some messy divorce litigation, the Dodgers have been in financial trouble.  As a result, there is little positive buzz around Dodgers baseball, and the scene at LAX reflected that.  Whereas a few years ago you would see dozens of Dodgers hats scattered across the terminal on Memorial Day, yesterday I only spotted a few in the hour before I boarded my flight.  The Dodgers team store in the airport was totally empty, and the one at Universal Citywalk (where I was earlier in the afternoon) wasn't any more crowded. 

On the flip side, you can spot a seemingly-endless sea of black and orange Giants caps wherever you go in San Francisco right now.  Coming off the high of their 2010 World Series victory, Giants fans are wearing their colors more than ever this year, and the scene at SFO was no exception.  Even though I landed at 10 PM and the airport was pretty quiet by then, I still passed by entire families clad in Giants gear, seemingly eager to have returned home to watch some San Francisco baseball.  Whereas LAX was a baseball apparel wasteland, SFO was overflowing with Giants hats, t-shirts and even authentic jerseys.

Giants caps were everywhere at SFO.  Dodgers caps at LAX?  Not so much.

One of the fun parts of traveling (for me, anyway), is checking out the local fan presence - not only at sporting events, but also in more "secular" locations such as airports.  Since I moved to the Bay Area, I've been impressed with the Giants fan base.  San Francisco fans have truly soaked up the defending World Series Champion experience, and are enjoying their title defense as if it might be their last for quite some time (and, with Buster Posey potentially out for the season, it might be).  While in LA for the weekend, it was clear that the current incarnation of the Dodgers is only a shell of what was recently a strong, proud franchise.  Hopefully the Los Angeles situation gets resolved soon, so that baseball fans can once again enjoy one of MLB's greatest rivalries to its fullest extent.