David, I'm curious. Is there anything about being "committed to one team" that you miss? I love the game for its inherent qualities, but it is my own commitment to a particular team, in my case the Phillies, that adds passion and depth to that love. Not to mention a fair amount of heartbreak, of course.

No, not really. I tend now to root for good organizations and good players, so I can enjoy the success of both the Yankees and Red Sox, for example. I don't like the Brewers because of Bud, but if the sale brings in new ownership that's committed to winning, I'll be happy to root for Milwaukee. I actually like it a lot more than being a partisan.

It's not the four losses so much as the x raised to the nth degree men left on base that has me quoting Mrs. Hughs. :)

Wait a second, I said I wasn't going to read any general baseball blogs until the streak was snapped. Dagnabbit!

its fun to be commited to one team, i am commited to the dodgers myself, and when they lose, i come to work kicking trashcans, and in a generally pissed off mood. it really doesnt help that all my co-workers are padres fans. but they know not to mess with me the day after.

this was especially true last year in september when the dodgers were eliminated. i went to all 4 games at the HATED quallcom, they lost 2, and i was extremely un approachable for the two days after those games. but at the same time, i love it when they win and i am a happy person

its good to live and die (base mood for the day on the team)

I grew up a Yankee fan in the 80's and 90's, living and dying with their successes (late 90's) and failures (everything before that). Then when I went to school in New Hampshire, I did the unthinkable - I started rooting for the Red Sox, too. It didn't hurt that Theo Epstein took over last year.

Now I consider myself a baseball fan first, and a Yanks/Red Sox fan second. I find myself rooting for other random teams for various reason over varying periods of time.

I don't miss pulling for one team. Having my happiness rely on the success of some random group of people doesn't appeal to me. I'd rather enjoy/be disappointed by the events in my own life.

In my eye, the marketing and enjoyment of major sports relies too heavily on the dramatic aspects. Too few people really understand Bill Belichek's defensive schemes, or why Jamie Moyer's successful, but Chan Ho Park isn't. But everyone knows the rags to riches story of the 2003 Marlins and Kurt Warner.

I think that's also the reason so many people resist these new-fangled sabrmetric ideas. It takes the drama out of things, they think. "What do you mean small ball isn't a good thing?!? Of course it is - it's how baseball's always been played." Tradition is more important that intelligence.

Which came first, the drama-happy fan or the drama-happy announcer?

"I don't miss pulling for one team. Having my happiness rely on the success of some random group of people doesn't appeal to me. I'd rather enjoy/be disappointed by the events in my own life."

So extending your logic, you don't enjoy opera, films, novels, poetry and all the myriad forms of entertainment that can introduce agony and ecstasy into your own life?

To me, all those things above AND rooting for the Boston Red Sox are an enrichment to my life. Indeed, I've learned so much about myself from following the ups and downs of the Red Sox; it's a mirror of man's eternal struggle against the fates.

I also did a little breakdown and posted about it on my blog. 4 game losing streaks shouldn't happen to teams of this calibur...

"So extending your logic, you don't enjoy opera, films, novels, poetry and all the myriad forms of entertainment that can introduce agony and ecstasy into your own life?"

Do I root for baseball teams? Yes. Almost every game I watch, I find myself rooting at least a little bit. Same as when I watch a good movie, or read a good book.

Do I hinge my mood on the fate of one baseball team for an entire 6 month season? Nope. That's a little too large for my taste. I've got stuff to do, you know.

I didn't mean to come across as a mindless Vulcan, either. I was just trying to say that I prefer being a fan of baseball because of the potential for analysis and appreciation of amazing talent more than the drama.

Coincidentally, it was poetry that cured me of the habit of cheering for one team (or poet), instead of for success in the sport or art as a whole. I used to celebrate each new Plath poem, and cheer it as a victory against the other poets -- Lowell, say, or especially her husband Hughes. But then when she was at last defeated by her own hand, like the Red Sox done in by Buckner, I too was forever defeated. No longer do I metaphorically live or die as the partisan of one poet, or one team. Not when non-metaphorical death is at hand. Now I appreciate each new poem by, say, Ashberry for as its own accomplishment, undimished by a clever piece of doggerel by some unknown grad student, and each baseball victory by, say, Minnesota, is not diminshed by a fluke victory by the Twins' opponents' Detroit.

Capybara,

Excellent. LOL.