Maybe there isn't a reason for my madness

Thank you to all those who responded and voted for your favorite professional sports teams. There weren’t as many votes as I would have liked, but I appreciate all those who did respond.

In Carlsbad we have a pretty good mix from the small sample of people who voted. There’s love for the Boston Red Sox, Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Reds in Carlsbad. Also, there’s a family of Dallas Cowboys lovers here as well.

New Mexico is a place where there isn’t a state pro sports team to support, so I was interested to see how diverse the list was going to be. Back home it was easy: If it was basketball season, then everyone supported the Utah Jazz. But I imagine it’s a little different here.

Back at

Dixie St

ate College in St. George, Utah, I had this friend who was on the school newspaper with me, McKoye. She had the belief that if you live in the state where there was pro sports team, then you were obligated to support that team. I completely disagreed with her on this topic, but I may be changing my tune.

I have to hand it to her; she is the biggest Jazz fan I’ve ever met in my life. She watches every game on TV and tries to go to at least a handful of games each year. And she doesn’t buy the cheap seats on StubHub like I do. No, she always buys lower bowl seats and makes a sign to hold up each time she journeys to Energy Solutions Arena.

As I was sitting here thinking about favorite professional sports teams, I realized that I was inconsistent when selecting my favorite teams as a kid.

Living in Utah the Jazz were not my favorite team. My family moved to Utah when I was 10, but I didn’t stop supporting the Los Angeles Lakers. They were the team I grew up with. They were the team that I would sneak out of bed to watch on TV because they were on past my bedtime.

Selecting my favorite baseball team was a completely different process.

As most of you know by now I am a fan of the Chicago Cubs. At age 5 my parents took me and my brothers to see “Rookie of the Year,” the baseball movie about the kid who breaks his arm and then can throw more than 100 mph. The kid then goes to play for the Cubs. As a little kid I loved the movie and remembered it.

When I first started watching sports at age 7, I had the Cubs at the back of my mind. My parents introduced me to WGN and its national broadcasts of Cubs baseball. Here I was as a little kid in central California, and I became a Cubs fan. The Los Angeles Dodgers were right in my backyard, and they were televised on the same channel as the Lakers. But I didn’t choose the Dodgers.

I was so sporadic in picking my teams. The Carolina Panthers are my favorite NFL team for the small fact that their first year of existence was the same year I started watching sports. I picked them for that reason alone … well … and the black and turquoise color scheme was kind of cool.

I now see how bad it would be for pro sports if every sports fan was exactly like me. Pro teams need a strong local fan base. The Utah Jazz need local fans, and if Albuquerque ever got an NBA team, then it would need strong local fans.

At what point is it just ridiculous?

For this particular topic I'll turn to one of my favorite "Friends" moments that came from season 5. Monica and Chandler were keeping their romantic relationship a secret until Phoebe and Rachel found out about it. Hilarity ensued, but it became ridiculous at one point. Phoebe said, "They don't know we know they know we know."

Yeah, ridiculous, but hilarious.

Though I love the NBA Playoffs it finally occurred to me what's happening with the broadcasts of those games. It made me think I wish I could see every game live and do my own color commentary.

Each year, ESPN and TNT pick a team or teams they cling on to. In the broadcasts the praise of those teams gets rather crazy. I'm a Lakers fan, so I'm used to having my team praised on ESPN and TNT. But when it's not your team being praised I can finally see how annoying it is.

It's to the point where I can predict how a broadcast is going to play out:

"Welcome to (insert famous basketball arena here), where it's Game 2 of the Playoffs. We have the (irregular visitor to the playoffs here) in the building to challenge the (ESPN's and TNT's favorite team here). The (irregular visitor) comes in to Game 2 looking to rebound from the loss in Game 1, but they'll have to face (Favorite team's superstar here). It looks like there is no hope for (irregular visitor) to win ever no matter what the year is and even if this team got a No. 2 or No. 3 seed. Heck unless this team had LeBron James, Kobe Bryan, Kevin Durant, or Jeremy Lin on their roster I don't see any reason why we should talk about them."

I feel for those other teams. The Utah Jazz were written off before the playoffs even started. Yes, they haven't given the media any reason to talk about them yet, but it's still an interesting team that is built symmetrically.

Those teams that get praised on ESPN and TNT have earned the right, I suppose, but the broadcasts shouldn't feel like I'm watching the local station that covers the Spurs, Lakers or Heat. On the flip side, teams like the Jazz, Hawks and Grizzlies need to give those stations a reason to keep it balanced.