I had been going through a lot of fellowship applications and looking at students' dissertation titles. Aside from the econ department which tended to have boring titles ("Essays on Trade"), many were quite imaginative. I had thought of a perfect title for this post weeks ago when I first thought about writing this. But of course I've waited to write it and thus half the original title was lost.As baseball season is almost upon us (does it ever really end in Boston?), I was mulling over the idea of fans one morning. Specifically, the idea that there exist different categories of fans—our own version of a caste system. How many years you've been a fan is worn like a badge of honor. "True" fans are defined by how long they’ve been loyal, how well they know the history of the players, the stats from past seasons, and predictions for the upcoming season. Among fans, you never want to labeled as the dreaded "b" word: bandwagon. Bandwagon fans are not true fans, and are the lowest members of the system. Non-sports fans rank higher than bandwagon fans.
For some reason, this concept of distinguishing bandwagon fans has always sat ill with me. Maybe it's partly because I could easily be labeled as one. But on that particular morning, I felt like I was able to piece together another possible reason. Following a team drew parallels, in my mind, to following God. And this made me look at the idea of “fans” differently.
Decisions to follow can often be influenced by environmental factors such as geographic location or family members. And while you can more easily chose your geographic location (and perhaps your family—at least their influence) as you get older, when you’re born you have no choice. So someone born in San Francisco will be more likely to follow the Giants than if they had been born in Boston. If later in life they see the light and decide to start following the Red Sox, why is there resistance from the Red Sox fans who were born in the area? I think Jesus welcomes everyone from every geographic location and every family background. I think baseball could benefit from this all-inclusive attitude.
People often keep track of how long they’ve been following. Someone who had followed a team for 20 years may be quite proud of this fact and may often be seen as a more valuable fan than someone who has only been following the team for 2 years. Unless of course the person following for 2 years is also 2 years-old. Then that’s accepted. But I don’t think Jesus makes these distinctions with followers (although notably some of His followers might). He welcomes everyone, at any age, and the person who has followed him for 2 months is just as valued and welcomed as the person who has followed for 80 years. What a great feeling of being accepted. Maybe accepting a new fan can help share this feeling.
I've heard how people like to believe in things bigger than themselves, and cheering for a sports team can be one of these experiences. So if people want to believe in something—have hope in something—and that thing is a baseball team that isn't in their city—who am I to stop them from experiencing that? Why should they not be allowed to join in? I feel like we should joyfully receive fans as they come, and bless them as they go. At least for the moment we can all cheer for the same team together.
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