To Live and Cry in L.A.

It's never easy being fanatical about a sports team that originates on the other side of the country, but living in Los Angeles has really soured me to sports conversations in general.  Southern California offers a multitude of ways to enrich your lifestyle, but finding knowledgeable, level-headed, die-hard sports fans is definitely not one of them.  I, certainly, am not generalizing everyone into this class as I have met some very cognizant fans, but the majority of the fan base that I converse with are, for the most part, ignorant to anything but their own point of view.

I was born and raised in New Jersey, where everyone is a Yankee fan and the Knicks have such a stronghold that nobody bothers to endorse New Jersey's own Nets.  People live and die with these teams.  How pleasant of a day they have is directly contributed to how well these teams played the night before.  To say that East Coasters are opinionated about sports is like saying that Michael Jordan was a decent player.  Fuggetaboudit.  East coast children are born with ten fingers(hopefully), ten toes(hopefully), a sarcastic attitude, and a deep-rooted love and comprehension of sports.  Sometimes I think people actually like to critique the teams more than just watching them. 

This brings me to the major difference between the East and West coast fans: The ability to discern information and put your feelings aside in order to make a judicious assessment of a situation.  We all love our teams, but for the past 10 years I haven't been talking up the Knicks like they are the best thing since sliced bread.  I know exactly what they've been and, although I wished better for them, I was able to own the fact that they weren't very good good at all.  Let me be very blunt with my next statement.  LA fans have to realize that the Lakers and Dodgers are NOT the best teams EVERY year.  You can root/hope that they will be champions, but have the capability to engage in a conversation where you can concede that sometimes they won't.  When you envelop a conversation with such a blind obtuseness it doesn't come off that you are a true, die-hard fan, you come off as a dense, imbecilic, homer that I, for one, will never talk sports with again.  What makes matters even worse is that when they fail to win most of these "fans" jump ship quicker than if the Titanic were going down. 

I hope that I'm wrong here and that I have just been unlucky while meeting these fans, but managing a restaurant I talk to a ton of people a day and it seems they are a dime a dozen.  Let me hear from some knowledgeable fans that can take part in conversations about the good AND bad of their teams. Send this to anyone and everyone that may have a view and some motivation to engage me on this subject.  Change my perception of Southern California sports fans............... please!!