Future Spey

As I alluded in the previous post, this matter is of minor consequence to Ms Wendy, it is, however, of major importance to someone like myself. John, I gather, is for the most part nonplussed by the whole debate. Although he did place no less than two sports team bumper stickers on his car. That's pretty hardcore when you think about it. It's the next step below getting a tattoo of your team's logo. These sports bumper stickers have since been replaced by Dungeons & Dragons bumpers stickers, but I digress.

Regardless of whether or not Future Spey's parents give a flying firetruck if thier son pays attention to professional athletics or not, we're going to discuss it on this blog now anyway.

Assuming, for simplicity's sake, the Future Spey grows up in the Takoma Park. That would mean his future playdates would most likely be little Redskin, National, Wizard and Capital fans. There may be a few Orioles or MAYBE a Raven or two, but based on demographic reality, those are the teams he would naturally follow.

Fighting these natural inclinations, would be his father's historical rooting interests. Growing up in North Jersey afforded John and his brothers several options per North American major sports leagues. We all ended up Giants(football), Mets(baseball), Devils(hockey) and Nets(basketball) fans, to varying degrees.

Now it gets tricky. First, some back story. Our father grew up outside Salty Baltymore, and thus was a Colts fan (before they moved to Indianapolis) and an Oriole fan. He thus hated the Yankees and the Jets. This played no small part in us growing up Giants and Mets fans, that and them both winning championships in our own formative years. The Devils were a New Jersey team that also won, so it became easy to root for them over, say, the Rangers. The Nets were also a New Jersey team (that proclaimed it loud and proud), but no one every really cared about them. They're moving to Brooklyn anyway, so no big lose.

So, where does that leave us?

First, the easy one. The NBA. Future Spey is welcome to the Wizards. As I said, no one really cares about the Wizards.

The Devils will be tough to give up, but I will concede ground and let the Speys handle it. I'm guessing Future Spey won't be much of an NHL fan in general, and truthfully, neither am I, so no big deal. The Capitals are fine by me.

The NFL and MLB could be a bit of a problem. For football, the Redskins are king in DC. The absolutely dominate, and it would be tough to expect young mr spey to put up with all the grief he would get by being a Giant fan in DC. He would literally be behind enemy lines. As much as it pains me to say so, he would be better off rootin for the hated Deadskins. Football season is short tho, and altho the Redskins and Giants are bitter divisional rivals, I can easily re-direct more hatred to the Eagles and Cowboys. The two games a year they play will be tough, but for the greater good, I'll let my nephew root for the Redskins. That was not fun to type.

So, with that sacrifice in mind, lets tackle Major League baseball. To start with, if there is a fractured market in DC, it is baseball. The O's have the history, the World Series, the lack of not being formerly the Expos of Montreal. The Nats will have a new stadium by 2008, but they just wont have the huge fanbase or inertia to make being a Met fan unpopular in DC. Plus he can always root for the O's, who are in the American league and play in a wonderful stadium with an hour's drive up I-95.

So here's what I'm asking. I'm giving you the NBA and the NHL. I'm being totally selfless with the NFL. Heck I'll even throw in Major League Soccer (Go United!), but please, John and Wendy, do your best to nudge your son toward the Mets and allow me to peddle my fandom. With the way the internet works these days, he'll be able to follow them as well as any fan.

Any objections?