I've been thinking about this for some time now and would like to know your opinion. This piece is not to attack Jason Giambi or Barry Bonds, but a little "fact finding" mission.
In Jason's case, he at least tried (not very well) to apologize to the fans and the Yankees for juicing to increase his skill level, while Barry on the other hand up-sized his disdain for the media's coverage of steroid use and put the blame on them for his troubles. Yet the fans in San Francisco will probably cheer him wildly when he eventually passes Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list.
My theory is a simple one. It's called "Team Nationalism." A dedication to the interests of a particular team.
By that I mean we are such fans, such loyalists, that we become so devoted, so faithful in a conscious and unconscious way that we allow certain types of behaviors to become acceptable to us because of the competitiveness and the need to win.
A case in point:
Being a faithful Yankee fan, I could never root for the Mets or any of their players, especially Daryl Strawberry. As his frequent run ins with the police, drugs and women continued, my disdain grew proportionately. Then he came over to the Yanks. He stepped up to the plate and I rooted for him to succeed like I did any other player wearing Pinstrips. Why did I do that? Team Nationalism. At the time I wasn't sure, but if he helped us win that's all I cared about. I gave him a pass on his prior bad behavior and now hoped he would clean himself up if he could get us to the World Series. When he hit a moon shot into the stands the Yankee faithful cheered him wildly in the stands.
What are your views on this topic?
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