Yeah, Down By The River, Down By The Banks Of The River Charles, That's Where You'll Find Me, Along With Lovers, Fuggers, And Thieves

--"Dirty Water", The Standells

I've lived in the Los Angeles area almost all my life. I've enjoyed living here for the most part and I don't have any shame when I tell people I'm from L.A. However, this hometown pride does not extend to the sports teams here. I have never and will never root for the Angels, Dodgers, Kings, Ducks, Lakers, Celtics, and, whenever they get a football team, the football team here. I have never believed in just rooting for whatever's close by. That makes about as much sense to me as picking up on a woman because she's merely the closest one to you.

As the baseball heads into their playoffs, I will be rooting for the team I've been rooting for for the last twenty years, my beloved Red Sox. I won't be rooting for them because they just happen to be decent this year. Lord knows I've suffered many years when they didn't look so good and their chances of going all the way were slim to none And I won't be rooting for them simply because it's a habit and I've become a dye-in-the-wool old maid, too set in my ways to actually change.

No, I'll be rooting for them because I still believe in my heart of hearts that they are the greatest team on this green earth and that major league baseball is better for them having them in the league.

I'll be rooting for them because every year when I make my trip to Fenway for the week, it still takes my breath away to be in the same ball park where Teddy Baseball played, where my first favorite Red Sox player Wade Boggs played, where history is still being made.

I'll be rooting for them because it still hurts every time they lose.

I see the typical Los Angeles fans here, who only root for the teams when they're winning, and I know I can never be like that. I don't like seeing all the bandwagoners suddenly hopping aboard the ride now that the likes of Manny and Teixeira are here. I don't like being in Angels stadium and hearing people whose only knowledge about the Angels is that "they like their uniforms." I don't like being in Dodgers Stadium and seeing half of the crowd leave before the seventh inning has started just to beat the rush home.

Those aren't fans.

To a lot of people around here, baseball is just another diversion. They don't have a love of the game. They have a love of the spectacle, the excitement. But come during the slow months of baseball, early in the season when it's just a slog to stay on course, a lot of these same people never bother to make it out to any of the games.

People ask me why I never grew up an Angels or Dodgers fan. I tell them, yeah, they're much closer to me in distance. But they'll be my type of fans. They'll never be the diehard kind of fans who travel to see their team play. Next year will be the sixth time in seven years I fly to Boston to go see them play at home. I don't know too many Angels or Dodgers fans who would pony up that kind of money just to watch their team.

Again, I can't like a team just because they're nearby. Loving a team means loving going to their games, loving the crowd you're seeing them with, loving the atmosphere, the camaraderie, all of that. And that, my friends, is a quality that I can only receive in Boston.

That's why I never root for the home team because, truthfully, my heart will always consider Boston my home.


well I love that dirty water
oh, boston, you're my home

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers