How much is too much?

By Mike Walsh

How many boneheaded, indefensible, cap-killing moves must your team’s front office make before you throw in the proverbial towel? At what point are you allowed to say as a fan, “You know what? This is ridiculous. This team isn’t even trying to win. I’ve had it. ‘Team X’ is dead to me.”?
My good friend Matt Smith tried to tackle this question after receiving a text from me telling him that Al Davis had asked for Lane Kiffin’s resignation. After just one season at the helm that had the Raiders going 4-12 after finishing 2-14 the previous year with the roster that starred in “The Replacements”, Davis was not satisfied. Apparently being dead for the last ten years has prevented Davis from making rational decisions about his players and his staff. It’s hard to believe that the Raiders were in the Super Bowl five years ago.
After the Raiders, you don’t have to go far to find frustrated fan bases that may want a reason to renounce their allegiances and move on to another franchise. Let’s go through the other bay area teams and see who has a case.

A’s-I know, I know, they’ve won a lot in the last ten years. But did anyone really think they were going to win a championship? You knew they were going to trade away their biggest names for prospects. It’s as predictable as the sun rising, Britney going crazy and Paris Hilton contracting 12 forms of gonorrhea. Most people say that they are winning with a small budget and that when Billy Beane gets a bigger wallet, he’ll dominate. I beg to differ. While I agree that Beane is a great evaluator of talent, I feel like he made most of his moves out of necessity, rather than because he’s so savvy. Think of the biggest names the A’s have had over the last 8-10 years. For me it looks like this: Giambi, Tejada, Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Chavez. A second tier could include Isringhausen or Koch and McGwire If the A’s had a big market payroll, don’t you think they would have paid to keep this nucleus together? Well how many of those players panned out long term? How many of them would you want on your team now? Giambi and Tejada are deflated with inflated contracts, Hudson and Mulder can’t stay healthy, Zito is overwhelmed under the weight of a big contract, Izzy and Koch were never that good and McGwire had 2 years of HRs before he went back to his career averages, which were not good. Beane hasn’t had the money to make the mistakes that other GMs make. If the A’s had a big payroll they would be in the same position as every other team that has had a few bad signings and a few injuries which is unrealized dreams.

Giants-I don’t really want to start this paragraph. There is a significant chance that I will drink a glass full of Drano before I finish this paragraph because that would be less painful than talking about the current state of the Giants. Let’s see, Sabean and McGowan rode the Bonds money train until it flew off the tracks. They surrounded him with talent, made a couple good trades and signed a few key vets for the World Series run. Since then it’s been an abomination; Signing aging veterans at inflated prices instead of trying out their prospects, trading away pitching and signing free agents to crippling contracts. They have some young talent with Frandsen, Freddie Lewis, Raj Davis and Ortmeier. So what are they doing? Starting Roberts, Durham and Aurilia instead of starting Frandsen at second or third and platooning Lewis and Davis. There is no reason for me to believe the Giants will contend in the West anytime soon. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel is bigger and more cavernous than a hooker’s vagina.

49ers-So they have five Super Bowls rings, all achieved in my lifetime. They are the team of the 80’s. I have had the pleasure of watching HoF-ers such as Montana, Rice, Lott and Young. With that said I would like to submit this: If there is ever a season when Trent Dilfer is the best you have to offer at quarterback, something has gone terribly wrong and it may be time to give up on your team. If, when asked what is wrong with the team, your coach says, “I don’t know,” it may be time to move on. Is there a reason for hope with the Niners? They have some pieces and, I suppose the jury is still out on Smith and Nolan. Or maybe I’m just a die hard who doesn’t know when to say uncle.

Warriors-For all the Warriors fans out there, if we could make it through the last 14 years, we can make it through anything. For most of my formidable years the Warriors have been lovable losers. I’ve had to put up with bandwagon Kings fans telling me to just be a Kings fan. Not on your life. Even if the Warriors have no realistic shot at a championship in the insanely loaded West, they are talented, fun to watch and I can see the plan that Nellie and Mullin have.

Ben stated that, “If less is going towards the team then you have basically renounced it.” I would disagree with that because, in the case of the Warriors for me, it was impossible to throw myself into a season with great passion year after year when I knew they had no chance to win. I still read every recap and looked the box scores, but I didn’t drive to a sports bar to watch them get pummeled night after night. It’s not fun to go to a bar knowing your team will probably lose. It’s demoralizing. But it doesn’t mean that you don’t love the team and want to see them succeed.

It seems like a fan comes into the whole thing with a certain level of passion for the sport as whole. Baseball is our favorite sport. We have an intense passion for the game. That’s why Matt and I will always root for the Dodgers and Giants respectively.. We live and breathe baseball. So even though the Giants are one of the five worst teams in baseball I will watch 60-70 games on TV and get mad every time they lose, just like the last four years. And even though the Dodgers haven’t quite met their expectations the last couple seasons, Matt will bleed Dodger Blue forever.
Sometimes you don’t realize you aren’t as passionate about a sport until your team flounders for an extended period or the league heads in the wrong direction as a whole. For baseball, it’s the salaries and the handful of teams that have more money than anyone else. In the NBA it was the late 90’s isolation for the star, no ball movement, no intensity and no discipline (due to the spoiled superstar problem that plagues the NBA more than other sports), and no defense that made casual fans lean towards college basketball. It seems like fans are sort of jaded towards a sport as a whole rather than their team of choice.

I tried to come up with a formula, a set of parameters that would allow for someone to not only renounce a team, but to find a new team. It turned out to be harder than I thought. There are way too many variables. There were however, a couple indisputable reasons to renounce a team.
No. 1: Your teams moves. I know sports are a business and all, but come on. This is like dating a girl for three years and then having her say, “I just need a fresh start somewhere. So I’m moving to Seattle next week. I mean we can still see each other. I just need to see what else is out there.” That’s when you know it’s time to cut a girl, or a team loose.

No. 2: Your owner: seems completely inept, talks about things other than winning and having a plan to win, shows no sign of competitive spirit when asked about his team and losing, shows no signs of dying in the near future.
See Matt? Al Davis’ Weekend-at-Bernie’s-like charade has to be uncovered soon. A new owner could breathe new life into the silver and black. They might not even lead the league in penalties for once!

Picking a new team is fairly simple. Here are some guidelines:

No. 1: You should pick a team according to geography (ex. You are a Raiders fan, you move to Seattle, Al Davis sucks your will to live. You see the passion of fans in Seattle and slowly become a Hawks fan). Unless the area you move to is the home of your old team’s rival.
No. 2: You do not, under any circumstances, pick a team because they are in first place.
No. 3: Your favorite player on your old favorite team gets mistreated and traded or left unsigned by your old favorite team, qualifying you for team renouncement under rule #2 for my reasons to renounce a team, and your allegiance follows him to his new team.

The point of all of this is that, if you really feel comfortable giving up on your team, you probably weren’t as passionate about the sport as you thought you were. Or maybe you aren’t as much of a fan for the team as you thought. Sticking with your team through thick and thin is what being a fan is all about. It’s fine to voice your displeasure, but don’t just give up.
That’s why I know Matt will not give up on the Raiders.
That’s why I know I will always root for the Niners, Giants and Warriors.
That’s why I have the Chinese symbol for loyalty tattooed on my arm.

Or maybe it says beef with broccoli.