Time to End the BandWagon Chanting

Alright folks, I'm going to incite some criticism here, but what I have to say needs to be said.

The perception of bandwagon fans needs to end....now!

Dictionary.com shows the definition of Bandwagon as follows:

band•wag•on

-a party, cause, movement, etc., that by its mass appeal or strength readily attracts many followers.

The growing trend among sports fans has been to attack each other by declaring them as being bandwagon fans, trying to belittle them by creating the perception that they are fair-weather fans or carpet baggers who pick up and move to teams that are currently showing any sort of aptitude on the field. But it doesn't end with just the fans and bloggers out there; it has trickled its way into the mainstream media as well.

Well, I've got news for every sports fan out there; we're all bandwagon fans!

How many of us can say we railed against the Red Sox when they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees? How many of us can say we wept the day that the Colts moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis? Can any us remember cheering for the Lakers during their 33-game winning streak? More often than not, I'd venture to guess the overwhelming answers to those questions was no.

Most of us will say that we follow the teams that our fathers followed before us, having tradition passed down from generation to generation. But let me ask you this; isn't following the team your family followed just caving to popularity, even if it is within your own household?

And why is being a bandwagon fan such a bad thing in the first place? Isn't one of the team goals to play well and attract fans? We're quick to lay into teams who won't spend money to field quality teams, saying that's the only way they are going to attract fans to games, but once they show that they can win and fans start coming to parks, we criticize those fans, wondering where they were when the chips were down. How much of a double standard is that? And what are we to tell kids who are growing up and show a sudden interest in the local team; "sorry son, but because you can't tell me who Carlton Fisk hit the home run off of in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, we can't accept you as a fan at this time. Come back when you've researched the entire history of the organization first."

The point here is that a fan is a fan, and the reasons they have for following a team are their own. They don't need to justify them to anyone and they don't need to live up to anyone's expectations of what a fan should be. They found their way here and let's let them enjoy the experience while they're here. Until then, the only bandwagon that's too full is the one with this ridiculous notion that we reserve the right to tell a fan if he or she is real or not.