SoCal Sports Fans Are Weird

I love living in Southern California.
It’s probably not much of a surprise, but compared to the east coast, SoCal is pretty much the ideal place to live in America.
With one exception: sports.
In my two-plus years in California, I’ve noticed a few things about how things work here. It rains like six days a year, driving up the grade is apparently the same thing as medieval-style torture, and sports… Well, sports are something of anomaly here.
Here’s what I mean.
Southern California is the ideal place to play sports of all kinds (well, maybe not ice hockey, but there are even ways around that). The weather is perfect almost all year, the prevalence of places to play is very high, and it’s so easy to get what you need for whatever sport tickles your fancy.
So in many ways, sports are doing very well here.
But there is still an interesting cultural phenomenon that seems to prevent sports from becoming as deep-rooted in the lives of Southern Californians as they are in other parts of the country.
Part of this is that cities have been established on the east coast of the U.S. for much longer than they have out here. Sports fans in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and even Chicago live in a culture of permanence; a culture of deep connection with the history of their city. This is more and more true the further east you go, and even that’s only scratching the surface of the typical sports fan in Europe. But that’s a topic for another time.
Consider that the Chicago Cubs were formed in 1869, or that the New York Yankees were formed in 1899. The Boston Red Sox were formed in 1901. The Toronto Maple Leafs were formed in 1917. The Chicago Bears were formed in 1920. The Boston Celtics began playing in 1946.
Each of these teams, and those around them, has a history that transcends modern fandom. Think of all that’s happened since 1869; fans of the original Cubs would have just returned from the Civil War. Most fans going to see the Yankees play the Red Sox would have ridden horses, and not just for nostalgia’s sake. The first game between the Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens could have featured news reels of the unrest in Europe before the outbreak of The Great War (or, as we now know it, World War I).
The deep roots of history surrounding these teams have been passed down through the generations, to the point where so many fans today have watched games with their grandparents, and heard them tell stories about the greats who paved the way for today’s stars.
Basically, this connection to a team is so interwoven with a person’s identity that the two become inseparable. This is a good thing in the sense that you rarely see an empty seat at Fenway Park or at Wrigley Field. This can, of course, be a bad thing when fans lose grip on reality. But that’s a topic for another time.
Here in Southern California, I have seen evidence that there are sports fans. Many a Charger flag has been flown from the roof of a passing car, and it’s certainly no strange sight to see a handful of Padres hats on the heads of passers-by.
But when I go to Petco Park, I see some other evidence that points to a more “ho-hum” attitude from those who seem to be so passionate about their beloved Padres. Fans trickle in little by little until the fourth or fifth inning (or even later). They spend most of the game chatting, eating, drinking, or berating fans of other teams while the game goes on behind them, unwatched. They only make noise when the scoreboard tells them to, and then only for as long as the scoreboard says.
My personal theory begins with the things we’ve discussed about history and all that, but it really comes down to the life we live here in California.
Honestly, I think we’re not more dedicated as sports fans because we have so many good things here.
The Padres fans wandering into the stadium in the fourth inning probably came from something else that’s equally as enjoyable. I mean, who’s going to show up to a baseball game at 7 p.m. when the sun sets on the beach at 8:45? Along with the great weather, we have so many things to do here, which means that it’s so easy and fun to do more than just sit and watch a game. That’s very different than life on the east coast.
Thankfully, from what I’ve seen thus far, this doesn’t hinder the local sports fans from getting out to the games. In fact, I’d say that the Jaguars fans are a whole lot more involved with the local teams than the Padres fans out there. But then again, most Padres fans aren’t the parents of the players.
Still, I miss the intricate level of involvement that sports has in the life of the average east coast fan.
And I’m seeing signs that there are more and more fans in SoCal who follow sports with more than just the occasional Sportscenter episode.
Hopefully that continues.
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If you have anything about sports that you want to share with the other sports fans in the area, drop me a line at sports@valleycenter.com. I always look forward to hearing what fans around here have to say about the sports they love.