I am not your typical baseball fan. I'm not as crazy as Jimmy Fallon's character in "Fever Pitch", but I will admit, there are times when I have let an Atlanta Braves loss, actually put me in a bad mood. When I first got married, the Braves lost a close game that meant a lot. I was irritated and ended up being kind of short with my wife about something (I don't remember what it was. Probably something miniscule and mundane) . I had to explain to her, "This is what you signed up for. I'm a fan. I'm sorry I acted like a jerk, but I'm a baseball guy, and being bummed about your team is part of the deal." She said she understood and appreciated how much I love the game. How great is my wife?!?!
So the Braves just traded Javier Vazquez to the Yankees. While I wasn't upset that they traded Vazquez, I was upset because they got Melky Cabrera in the deal. I'm not a fan of Melky. He's an average baseball player. He's not going to win you a division, but he won't lose you one either. Some players you just don't like. He's one of them for me. I have nothing against the guy, I just wish he wasn't a Brave. I've now started to hope that they are just going to turn around and trade Melky for a different outfield bat. It was nice that trading Vazquez freed up about $9 million for Atlanta to go after a free agent hitter. Maybe Jason Bay?
Anyway, back to my original point. When your favorite team acquires a player you don't like, you still gotta love your team. In fact, I would say you even have to start rooting for that guy to play well. The only time you can root against the guy is if he has severely offended the game. Like Alex Rodriguez or Barry Bonds. Those guys have tainted the game and no one should root for them. In my opinion that is. In that case, you can't love your team more than you love the game. But if the guy hasn't cheated by using steroids, and he's just a jerk or something, you gotta hope he plays well and helps your team. I'm sure this will not be my last entry on what it means to be a fan.
