Growing up in SL in the 70s, I needed to pick a baseball team to follow. At the time, there were not many games on TV so there were only a limited number of teams that I knew anything about. Ultimately, the choice came down to the Red Sox, Reds, As and Dodgers. I don't know why, but I chose to become a fan of the Dodgers. And I really became a fan, not just of the current team, but also of the history and culture of the Dodgers. To this date, I still hate the Giants and the Yankees, at least as much as my current team's rivals. I lived and died with the Dodgers. I loved the penguin, I tried to be Davey Lopes, Steve Yeager always seemed to come through when I needed him to and I truly idolized Steve Garvey (I learned a lot about idol worshiping after I chose to idolize Steve Garvey and Pete Rose and they both disappointed me later on in life). I grew into adulthood with Raoul Mondesi and Mike Piazza and learned about pitching from watching Fernando and Orel.

Fast forward 30 years. I now live and work in the DC area. When the Nationals came to town, I made the switch and it wasn't really that hard. I finally had a hometown team and I could finally go see some games live (as a side note, watching baseball at RFK was not a pleasure . . . I wasn't able to fully enjoy going to games until Nationals Park was finished). Some of my fondest memories came from the year that I bought season tickets for my sons and I was able to watch them become fans . . . and that was when the Nationals were terrible; like 100 losses a year terrible. Even though I loved the Dodgers as a kid (and for many years as an adult), and I will always enjoy the 3 World Series titles that they brought me, and thinking about the Gibson home run still gives me chills, I quickly learned to dislike and hate the Dodgers as much as I dislike the Phillies and Mets and hate the Giants and Yankees.

I am also a Caps fan, but I wasn't a real fan of any hockey team before moving here, although I followed the Avalanche. Luckily, I still don't have any true feelings about the Redskins. As a lifelong Jazz fan, I have not felt the need to become a fan of the Wizards and I don't think I will ever be able to switch allegiances to them: The Jazz are still my home town basketball team.