Alright, I’ve made a decision. I’m going to adopt Chicago as my Second City. Did you get the pun there? For three reasons:

First, I became introduced to the Chi-Town sports scene with the 1985 Bears. Their Super Bowl Rap destroyed the Patriots crap. Then I religiously watched Jordan for nearly his entire career. So I feel somewhat vested in the sports history of the city, despite the fact that neither the Bears or the Bulls are going to be my team.

Second, my grandfather (Vern) of whom I am partially named after lived in Chicago. My late grandmother told me that he loved the city.

Third, part of my adopted black family lives there. They live in South Chicago (of course).

And I’ll even add a fourth BONUS reason. I went to Marquette for a year and most of the students there were from Chicago. And they were way less annoying than the native cheese heads cheering for the Packers.

So with that in mind, here is my fan roster:

College – OSU (b-ball, football, wrestling!)
NFL – Buffalo Bills #1, Dallas Cowboys #2
NBA – Boston Celtics #1, Dallas Mavericks #2
NHL – Colorado Avalanche #1, Chicago Blackhawks #2
MLS – wherever Landon Donovan plays
MLB – The Chicago Cubs
WNBA – still gouging out my eye sockets with a prison shank
AFL – my wife’s family lives in Carlton … they have a great history and are now starting to get good again. Good time to jump on the band wagon.
Cricket – Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
Rugby – Kiwi! Kiwi! Kiwi! The All Blacks rule.
EPL – Liverpool
Tennis – Andy Roddick
Golf – Tiger Eldrick Woods
Fencing – my brother by default
Women’s Soccer – my heart died with Mia Hamm retired. Can I dare to love again?
Boxing – Manny the Filo, Bernard Hopkins
UFC – Frank Shamrock, Chieck Kongo, etc etc

Cheers!

You need teams that have experienced glory, aren’t experiencing it now, but have a strong chance to in the relative near term. Basically, a good pedigree that is down on it’s luck. To wit:

Baseball: New York Metropolitans. Yankees suck and they have the worst kind of fans. The Amazin’s have two World Series under their belts, a massive recent collapse (to commiserate with other Mets fans about), and are looking up. Way up. Reyes and Wright are future HOFers, and they will bring a title back to Shea, er, Citifield, within 5 years.

Basketball: Thunder, yes. However, get on the New York Knickerbocker bandwagon. Here’s why………

LeBron James will be a Knick within 3 years. Championship to follow immediately afterwards.

Hockey: Sucks.

Soccer: See Hockey.

Football: Hard to argue with 8′. Though, they’ve always sucked, and changing that inertia seems unlikely.

The OSU Cowboys are the perfect team(s) to pull for. Conversely, the dirt burglars in Norman are the worst. Here’s why:

A victory for the Pokes elicits unbridled joy. We’re not expecting it, so when it happens, we appreciate it. When we lose, we accept it sanguinely. With ou, a win is expected, so relief is the only emtion after a win. On the other hand, a loss produces despair and ravings of “we got cheated!”. Seriously, think about football for the last, say, 10 years. Yes, ou has a title. But I would argue OSU fans actually enjoyed this time period more than sooners. I have a close friend who is an ou fan, and grad (which is pertinent, as 97% of ou fans did NOT graduate from ou……..or high school for that matter.). He is more anxious before games, upset during them, and either pissed or feels nothing after them. The “ups” don’t even begin to make up for the “downs”. I am thrilled with any win, Bowl games are a treat, and losses don’t sting. Expectations are lower, and so is the stress. Plus, swine flu came from norman. So does herpes.

Now for my picks and my suggestion for Baseball. All of my picks are OSU related so I leave Hockey out of the mix until Driggers makes a lineup.

Basketball – Thunder. I know they lose and I’ve read your post [INSERT LINK HERE], but Desmond is our guy. He was good there with the Hornets.

Football – Lions. It’s hard to beat Barry and now you’ve got Brandon Pettigrew. Plus, I know I’m going to get a lot of press on Matthew Stafford down here in Dallas too. As a bonus, you always get to watch them on Thanksgiving.

Soccer – Fiji B or LA Galaxy because I think Landon Donovan looks like somebody I could hang out with.

Baseball – Go with the Chicago. Get on the wagon now. The Cubs will have their day and you can always say you’ve been a fan for a long time because WGN played every game. Mention Ryne Sandberg, Shawon Dunston, and Andre Dawson and you’ve got some credibility. On top of that, they’ve had their share of OSU players like Jeromy Burnitz and Doug Dascenzo. Or, you could go with the other Chicago team because of Robin Ventura greatness and current 3rd baseman (and fellow Stillwater High grad), Josh Fields. Just like the Stones or the Beatles[INSERT LINK HERE], you have to choose one or the other. Point of interest…the A’s are worth watching because they currently have two Stillwater graduates in their starting lineup.

Also, if Barry David Sanders ran behind the offensive line that Emmitt Smith had, he would have 34,000 career rushing yards. No, wait … 42,000.

Where Barry goes, so goes Lucky.

As for AC Milan, its a really bad time to pick an Italian team to cheer for … because the entire Serie A has been plagued with match fixing, referee bribes, and other scandals for the last two years. So bad that FIFA canceled some teams seasons essentially.

If you like the Italians, then you’ll like the Spaniards. May I suggest Barcelona (Champion League finalist) or Vallencia (see David Villa below)