I’ll be perfectly honest; I am by no means a Giants fan. In fact, I routinely find myself siding against the orange and black due to the obnoxious flow of Giants-related statuses that flood every social media outlet. While bandwagon fan statuses agitate me as much as the next guy, what truly grinds my gears is the faulty notion that nearly all Giants fans have recently drilled into their skulls. This notion being that Giants baseball is torture.
Really? Come on now Giants fans. Being a fan of your team is now torturous just because you went to game five in a divisional series against a mediocre team from Ohio? No, I don’t think so. Take it from a Bills fan; torture is developed over a long period of time. After losing four straight Super Bowls and failing to make the playoffs in the entire 21st century, the Buffalo faithful have earned their rightful spot in the pantheon of tortured fans.
In my case, the torture of being a Bills fan is exacerbated by simple geographic circumstances. Due to the fact that Buffalo natives seldom meander out to the west coast, my misery has no company. I watch as the Niners drub the Bills and find no one to share in my sorrow with. At times I feel starkly similar to Sid the Sloth from Ice Age: alone and abandoned.
However, torture is what makes being a fan worthwhile. While the stinging pain of a blown call in overtime may hurt (I’m looking at you South Bend referees), the subsequent victories are all the sweeter for it. And those fans that wait and endure the torture of these defeats will have the sweetest victories.
Look at Manchester City and the Boston Red Sox. After 44 and 86 years of championship droughts respectively, each team broke their curses and exorcised ancient demons by winning the EPL and World Series respectively. The fans that stuck through the years of pain and suffering are those who fully experienced the near metaphysical and tearful high of winning a title, and deservedly so.
While it is commonplace to criticize bandwagon fans, the fact remains that they will not experience the same joys of those who hang with their teams. The torture of years of mediocrity makes the eventual victories a euphoric experience. Simply put, if one can’t endure the darkness, they will not know the light.
As the Giants closed out their dominant sweep of the Detroit Tigers, the irritating flood of Giants-related statuses have hit facebook harder than Hurricane Sandy has hit the East Coast. While many of those who are the perpetrators of these facebook faux pas were conspicuously lacking any support for the Giants in 2011, I know that there are a few Giants fans that have sat it out since the call of the Rally Monkey and not simply picked up rooting for the Giants in 2010 and 2012. And to those fans, I salute you. You are the fans that the Bay Area deserves.
