Why Can't We Just Get Along?

I have to write about this topic because the 2009 baseball postseason is a prime example for what I want to talk about. For those who don't know this, I grew up in the borough of Queens in New York City. It's such a large city that there's more than one professional team in the market for each of the four major sports (2 football teams, 2 basketball teams, 3 hockey teams, and 2 baseball teams). Growing up, it's perfectly understandable to pick one team from each sport (assuming you follow all four sports) and stick with that team, no matter how well or poorly the team performs. Most of the time, those choices are determined from your parents (i.e. if your dad's a Mets fan, you're most likely going to be a Mets fan), and that's alright too. Another aspect of being a fan I'm alright with is rooting against the other team during the regular season. For example, as a Met fan, I usually hope that the Yankees don't do well during the regular season.

What I'm not alright with is taking that same attitude into the postseason. At some point, you need to put your personal pride aside and take pride in your city. If both teams make the postseason, not only is it amazing that both teams were good enough for the playoffs, but you can also root for your team in hopes that they win the championship, especially if it comes at the rival team's expense. But it seems selfish that because your team didn't play well enough to make the playoffs that you need to have the rival's team experience some sort of embarassment in the postseason. One thing I enjoyed as a kid was when the Yankees won the World Series a couple of times in the late 90s. You may ask why I enjoyed this when I was a Mets fan, but my answer to that is because Mets fans and Yankees fans were able to enjoy an awesome parade/celebration in Manhattan because NEW YORK won a championship. Even better, New York was guaranteed to have a parade in 2000 because the city fielded teams that were the best in both the American and National League.

So why can't we come back to those times? Is it because people are up in arms about Yankee spending? Didn't they lose the World Series in 2001 and 2003 to small market teams (Arizona and Florida)? Didn't they blow a 3-0 lead in the ALCS to the Red Sox, something that hasn't happened in history until that point? It seems like Yankee fans got their karma the last 8 years, so what's the point in battering them some more? That time period was evidence that spending doesn't correlate strongly with whether you have a World Series ring on your finger or not. An even better question is why are we cheering harder for someone else's demise than for our own success? Believe it or not, baseball is a zero sum game. In zero sum games, there are winners and losers, nothing inbetween. Because of this, you need to take the falls as much as celebrating your successes. For these reasons, I hope many fans think about what they are really rooting for. If they stick to rooting for themselves, then everyone will end up being a winner in some fashion. And if someone else has more success instead of you at one particular moment, then allow them to enjoy their success in their own space and look forward to when your success will come. In essence, why can't we just get along? Why can't we root for NY? LET'S GO NEW YORK!!!