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I’ll warn you at the outset, this one is lengthy. Skip it if you want, but I just had to write it. I feel like I’ve got a lot to get out of my head after skipping last week. (Nothing up last week, just one of those annoying weeks at work and in life when I when couldn’t find the time. I missed it though. Hope someone else out there did, too).
One piece of league business, I want to clarify first thing. Last year’s SPFL Champion, Beauty and the Beasts, have completely gone off the radar. We’ve made attempts to contact her, to no avail. She paid her dues and then hasn’t done anything since for her team. (Except beat the Moops …) I genuinely hope she’s okay and is just in the witness protection program or is too wrapped up in this season of Survivor or something, but in the meantime, we have to protect the integrity of the mighty SPFL. Especially when I raised the league fees!
So … I have taken over ownership of her roster. (Wish it was the Moops roster TBH. She would have beaten me last week again. With two inactive starters. Go ahead, you can laugh. It’s funny). I’m not going to spend much time on it, but I will try to keep a full lineup out there, based on Yahoo projections and such. I think she’s far enough out of it to not be a factor in the playoff race outside of keeping the rest of you on your toes. I don’t think I’ve ever seized ownership mid season before (have I?), but there have been a few owners not invited back and that will be the case for next year. So, if you know anyone clamoring for a chance to beat up on the Mayberry Moops next year, let me know!
My other non SPFL thought I have to talk about this week is, living the life of a true fan.
Fan is an overused sports term in the world. There’s lots of “fans” by the definition of the casual observer. But “fan” is short for fanatic and if you are a real, true fan of a team … it’s different. I want to try and explain. Because I am one. I don’t know many of us, to be perfectly honest.
A true fan, lives and dies with his team. Take that with a grain of salt because, believe me, I know real life trumps it all. My faith, my family, my friends, my health, real life — all of that matters more than “my team” and always will. My perspective is not THAT off kilter! But I do revel in the joy when my team wins a championship (or even contends). But I also acutely experience the pain of being a true fan. In my mind, true fans experience that pain much, much, much more than they do those fleeting moments of joy. If you have more joy than pain as a fan, you’re not a true fan. Bob Sturm, a Dallas area sports scribe who I pay to follow on Substack, wrote this years ago and it is so accurate. I’ve likely quoted it before, but it bears repeating:
As I was leaving a frigid Texas Stadium after the game, I was walking right behind a Dad and his boy. The boy must have been 7 or 8 years old and was crying about the result. Some people might roll their eyes, but I knew how the boy felt. When you are young, and you love a sports team, you believe the games and the seasons will all have the happy endings of the Disney movies that you watch. Guess what, son, if you are going to pledge allegiance to a team as it appears you have with the Dallas Cowboys, I want to welcome you to the fellowship of the die-hards. Understand, that once you do, you are not allowed out of this commitment, and you should also understand that most seasons are going to end in tears. A favorite team is the only thing a male human feels the same about when he is 5 and when he is 45 and when he is 75. You will change your mind on everything else. Girls, money, hobbies. But, you will always still feel the adrenaline rush of a win, and the gutting sadness of a horrible loss. I didn’t say anything to the boy, as his Dad was handling it (and he might not have welcomed my advice) but I felt for him. Welcome to sports, young man. Someday, you may live to see a championship or five, but most years will end with your guts spilling onto the floor
That is my life as a true fan. The question is, what teams do this to me? It’s easy to say the Dallas Cowboys. They are the biggest gut spiller in my life. It’s a long shot, but if they ever make it to a Super Bowl again, you may want do a wellness check on ye old commish. For real. For most of my life, when I tell people that the Cowboys are my team, I get an eye roll (or worse). They’re America’s Team. Everyone hates them. I’m assumed to be a bandwagon fan. (If that’s even possible with the Cowboys in the last 30 years).
No. Maybe I picked the Cowboys in a bandwagon-y way. I was a mere tyke, just getting into football and they were on TV every week. I heard about Roger Staubach. They had cool stars on their helmets. I chose them. And promptly suffered through three straight NFC Championship Game losses with Danny White at QB. Cried for the first time at a sports outcome with “The Catch” in San Francisco. Some terrible years in the mid and late 80s. Some glorious years in the early 90s. And mostly miserable mediocrity ever since. But I’ve never left their side. Loyalty is not a problem for me.
So, that’s the easy answer, who else makes my cry or cuss or jump? In the 80s and 90s it was the Los Angeles Lakers. That, too, was bandwagon-y, but it was a stark choice that you had to make back then — Magic Johnson or Larry Bird? I went with Magic. The smile. The passes. Showtime. God, I loved the NBA in those days. But I found out a difference between the Lakers and the Cowboys. I loved the Cowboys. I didn’t love the Lakers. I loved Magic. And when he retired for the final time, I couldn’t make myself continue to follow the Lakers. I tried adopting the Charlotte Hornets because now I loved Alonzo Mourning (a couple of you may remember me trying to copy his routine at the free throw line!). But then he went to Miami … and I just couldn’t stick with the Hornets. Lesson learned? True fans don’t follow names. They follow jerseys. I didn’t turn into a Cardinals fan when Emmitt Smith went there. I didn’t become a Broncos fan when Tony Dorsett went to Denver. I had to check myself.
Another “team” that I have always been a true fan of was the Virginia Cavaliers. I, too, picked them out as a tyke when I didn’t know any better. I liked their colors and I lived in Virginia — isn’t that who I should root for on Saturdays? Apparently not, according to friends and family. But I’ve been loyal to them. The Ralph Sampson years on the hard court. The Shawn and Herman Moore years on the gridiron. My only taste of true fan ecstasy since the Cowboy years of the 90s was when Tony Bennett led the Cavs to an ultimate redemption in winning the NCAA Tournament in 2019! Honorable mention to the O’Connell-led Cavaliers winning the College World Series a decade ago.
The final team of which I’m a true fan and is responsible for all this verbiage: the Toronto Blue Jays. I wrote a couple of poignant articles centered around the Blue Jays over the years, but they’ve taken me to a new level this week. People will assume I’m a bandwagon fan of the Jays when I pull out my Toronto gear this next week or so, but oh no, I’m a diehard for decades. My dad (a Yankees fan) died in 1982 yet I still have a vivid memory of him lovingly scoffing at me when I told him Toronto was my team. (I didn’t know Toronto was in Canada! …. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!) I loved their logo. They were pitiful, people made fun of them as an expansion team. They had some weird player names. But they were my team. I had pledged my allegiance and baseball was America’s sport back then! I was in a friend’s dorm room at ETSU watching on tiny little TV when Joe Carter hit the walk off 3 run HR to clinch the Series in 1993. The elation I felt was indescribable. (By the way — a couple of good years for me as a true fan. In the words of Andy Bernard, I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days, before you leave them.)
Since then, the Jays have mostly been an afterthought, aside from a couple of years around 2016/2017 with Jose Bautista, Troy Tulowitzki, etc., I wrote about those times and how my daughters and I bonded in a special way those autumns. But since then? Very little to get excited about it. People may accuse me of being a bandwagon fan of the Jays, but that is not accurate. Being a bandwagon baseball fan? Maybe. My baseball fandom consists of tracking the standings during the summer, bookmarking Blue Jays articles on my Athletic subscription, and following a few Jays insiders on X. I just can’t get into a regular season of 162 games.
But the last week of this season and virtually every inning of the Jays playoff games? I was glued. The NFL fell to the wayside. Now I know all of Toronto’s players beyond Vladdy and Springer. Game 7 against the Mariners? I truly feel like I pulled a hammy coming out of the recliner when Springer hit that Dinger in the 7th. In the 9th, when Rodriguez was up, the Big Dumper was on deck, I was on my feet, rocking back and forth. Mrs. Commish paused her crocheting to watch the game (or more likely just my shenanigans. I’m a reserved person if you didn’t know). I’m not sure exactly what happened, but when the Jays closer threw a 3-2 pitch that would have been ball four, but Rodriguez reached for it and missed? I somehow found myself on the living room floor, looking up at the ceiling, with a splinter in my thumb and bruise on my knee cap, and me feeling an emotion that only a true fan can understand. Man, what fun it’s been. That payoff is so rare and so appreciated. Yes, they’ll probably lose. Ohtani is amazing. The Dodgers are loaded with an unlimited budget. But these days leading up to the Series have been cloud nine-like. Right now, it’s there for the taking. And if you’re not a Dodgers fan or a Canadian-hater, root for the Jays this week! Root for Vladdy. Root for Donnie Baseball. Root for ye old Commish. (I think that’s another characteristic of a true fan. We’re rarely obnoxious. People hate Cowboy fans… but I’m not like that. I accept the ridicule. I envy other’s joy when their team wins. I get it. I’m happy for you or I feel your pain. Different team, same emotions) My guts are ready to be spilled this next week. God help me if the Cowboys ever do it again.
I’ve had so much fun with this Jays run, that I’m thinking I may need to adopt an NBA team to monitor the standings and get invested if they ever make a run? Any suggestions? I don’t want a player. I want a team. Maybe the Mavericks? Stick with the city and the blue? I’ll ponder it after the glow of this World Series fades….
Oh yeah. The SPFL. LOL. It’s shaping up to be a barnburner of a season. For the rest of you…
If the season ended today, Yesterday’s Corn and the Bright 1s (6-1) would be division winners and playoff bye recipients. The Thunder Monkeys and Higgins and the Ladds would be the runner up wild cards, hosting the total points qualifiers, Heath’s Heroes and the Piranha Brothers. Greased Lightning, the Turf Turtles, and the Midgets linger, ready to grab a spot, if available. Megatron, at 2-5, looks to be teetering on the edge of elimination, but still holds a candle. Then there’s the AWOL Beasts and the winless, hapless Moops of Mayberry. Any of you feel guilty of elder abuse this season?
Heroes 126 — Moops 106: The Heroes looked to be in a little trouble for a while until Caleb Williams (6) once again, let the Moops down, while my man Jaxon Dart’s 33 points languished on the bench. Cleveland’s D (37) led Mayberry’s scoring, while the Heroes relied on Patrick Mahomes (26) and CeeDee Lamb (24).
Ladds 134 — Lightning 129: This one was a roller coaster ride all through Monday night, when Jahmyr Gibbs (40) clinched it for Higgins. The Lightning were led by Bo Nix (40).
Turtles 137 — AWOL 110: The Turtles cruised, thanks to twin 20 point outings from Justin Herbert and the Patriots D. Despite two inactive starters, the Beasts made it a game, thanks to AJ Brown (28) and Javonte Williams (20).
Corn 133 — Midgets 111: When you can get a W and 133 points but your starting QB puts up NEGATIVE one point (Tua), you might … have a good team. Jamarr Chase (38) and Quinshon Judkins (30) did the most damage while the Midgets got 26 each from Jalen Hurts and Davante Adams.
Bright 1s 162 — Megatron 96: This one had a running clock in the second half as the 1s triumphed with a full double figure scoring lineup, led by JSN (26) and Bijan Robinson (22). Megatron was led by Travis Hunter (24) and Amon Ra St Brown (20).
Monkeys 195 — Brothers 156: The scoreboard overheated in this one, but the Monkeys piled up more points in the end, thanks to Jonathan Taylor and Devonta Smith both contributing 35. The Brothers put up some critical wild card points, led by CMac (41) and the Dak (25).
Next Week
- Moops/Corn
- Ladds/1s
- AWOL Beasts/Lightning
- Midgets/Monkeys
- Megatron/Turtles
- Heroes/Brothers
Sorry for all the boring words. I just needed to share how rare and how special weeks like this are … to a true fan.
The Commish
Trav, great words! I often get asked about my affiliations and how I came to have them as “my teams.”
I, like you, am a baseball fan. When Springer hit that home run, it was magic. I actually reposted it to my Facebook page, which takes something special — I hate that app. As magical as it was, though, it ticked me off in that irrational, loyal-fan kind of way because I’m a “true” Yankees fan, and I’ll NEVER forget 2017. 💀
I’ve been one since Derek Jeter rose from Rookie of the Year in my 7th-grade year to the ranks of captain — bringing me more happiness than I probably deserved through high school, college, and early adulthood with five championships from ‘96 to ‘09. That three-peat was unreal. And 2009? That one was special.
For the last 30 years, I’ve lived and breathed Yankees baseball — catching Jeter’s last spring training in Tampa, taking a trip with my dad and brother to see “our team” (well, dad never really picked a side), and making Becca endure as many of the 162 games as I can stream on my MLB.tv account. I’ve had some unforgettable moments — Judge breaking Maris’ home run record, Stanton’s unreal postseason last year, fights with the Red Sox, and countless summer nights with a game on in the background.
But man, there have been some brutal ones too. Boston coming all the way back in ‘04 to crush our hopes of another World Series title still hurts. The lean years, the “rebuild” seasons that never quite felt like rebuilds, and the endless debates about analytics, lineups, Soto, and pitching rotations… it’s been a roller coaster.
Still, no matter how many times they frustrate me, I can’t quit them. Being a Yankees fan isn’t just about winning — it’s about tradition, pride, and loyalty. It’s sticking with your team even when everyone else says the dynasty’s dead. It’s Jeter diving into the stands. It’s Mo jogging in from the bullpen to Metallica. It’s history, heartbreak, and hope — all wrapped up in pinstripes.
So when Springer hit that home run, even as a Yankees guy, I felt it. That’s the beauty of baseball — it can make you cheer for a moment even when it’s not your team. The game has this way of connecting us across rivalries, reminding us why we fell in love with it in the first place. Because every once in a while, under the lights, with a full count and everything on the line, somebody swings — and for a split second, the world feels absolutely perfect.
P.S. I also want Donnie Baseball to get his ring. 💍
I had to continue. As for football, I started following the Steelers when Heath Miller was drafted. Growing up, I liked players more than teams — guys like Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin. But when Heath got to the league, that changed. He was a Southwest Virginia boy like me, and we actually played sports against each other — baseball, of all things. I followed him to UVA when he played with my future brother-in-law, Jon, and from there, my Steelers fandom took root and never let go.
And speaking of UVA — I’m right there with you, Trav. I honestly don’t remember a time when I wasn’t a Wahoo. From the heartbreaks to the miracles, I’ve seen it all: the football team’s highs and lows since the mid-’90s, the long years of “next year’s our year,” the UMBC gut-punch, and then the redemption — that magical 2019 national championship. The joy, the agony, the eternal hope of “this might finally be the year.” It’s all part of it.
As for NBA basketball? I’ll admit it — I just follow LeBron wherever he goes. There’s too much trading and player movement these days to have a true team. I just appreciate greatness when I see it, and he’s given us plenty of that for two decades.
Thanks for sharing, Michael. It’s good to know someone else out there gets it. Very interesting about you and the Steelers — I have a new respect for your fandom after reading that. Tracing it back to Honaker’s Own, Heath, (and Wahoo Super TE) is completely justifiable. Go Blue Jays!!