Who To Root For?

The other weekend I was part of a big conversation about whether children who speak English as a second language ought to be taught English as their primary language in school. The predominant position was YES, they need to learn English. Some felt this way as a practical matter, that kids need to learn English to be successful in America, even if it was tough and caused initial difficulty in school. Others, like myself, in addition to the practical reasoning, also felt it was important to American culture and sense of community to have a single, shared, national language. In short, we believe in assimilation.

One can take the same principal, however, and apply it to cities and specifically, sports teams. What does it mean to be a resident of a city? What kind of community would exist in a city where everyone rooted for a different team?

Living in LA, I am confronted with this void. I am from the Bay Area and still root for the 49ers and Oakland A's. I cannot imagine doing otherwise. I'd rather slit my wrists than root for the Dodgers (Kirk Gibson's game 1 home run is the single worst moment of my fan life). Most of my friends are LA transplants and still root for their hometown teams and their college alma maters. Cable channels with every imaginable game and ESPN's 24/7 sports coverage affords this possibility.

But I live in LA and am not leaving. I am not moving back to the Bay Area. LA is my home, now. And yet, this doesn't square up with how I value assimilation as important to a community. How dare I suggest the Balkanization of fan-dom in a city? Could you imagine Boston split with Yankee fans, Mets fans, Red Sox fans, and Giant fans? It sounds awful to me.

LA fits this description perfectly. LA is an incredibly disloyal place. Everyone is out for themselves. This is the deal you make when you live in LA. You aren't going to change it. You want solidarity, go to New York, Green Bay, Dallas, or Chicago. You ain't getting it here.

So my opponents, those who'd like to teach Spanish as a primary language in Los Angeles schools, might have a point. They might just say to me...I'll learn English when you start rooting for the Dodgers.

Oh man.