(This is an honest article written by someone who honestly
can’t write.)
Dear Reader,
What does it mean to be a fan? By definition, a fan is an
apparatus with rotating blades that creates a current of air for cooling or
ventilation. Wait, that’s not the right one but if you didn’t know what a fan
like that was then there you go. The definition I’m looking for is more like
this: a person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular
sport, art or entertainment form, or famous person. Now what is my role as a
fan of the San Diego Padres? I decided to give myself the task of writing this
article to find the answer to that question and find out how I came to be a
proud member of the Padre fan base. I found that in looking for an answer to my
current question, I had to go back…to the future.
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| Where we're going, we don't need good jokes. |
Just kidding I had to go back to the past. I had to go to
where it all started for me and probably where many of you started as well, the
most dangerous cut-throat sporting fest known to man: little league. My dad really taught me the basics of baseball
but it was with little league that I really got to be involved with the sport
for the first time. I learned how to play baseball before I learned how to
speak English. That’s not true but it really was like learning a new language.
You are taught the basics, you train with what you’re given, and you use what
you know to do the best you can with other players.
The only problem I had as a
kid was that I loved to play but I didn’t give a shizz whether we won or lost.
All I wanted to do was hit the ball, run around in the grass, and have fun.
This didn’t bode well with the coaches. I can remember so vividly being about 8
years old standing in left field, some kid smacked the ball out right in-between
me and the kid playing center (which is actually kind of nuts now that I think
about it, those fields were small but not THAT small and that kid hit it pretty
far) and we didn’t know who was going to get the ball so neither of us did. The
coaches came out to yell at us and all I remember was being way more interested
in the bugs in the grass. I didn’t care that I was doing it wrong, I was just
happy to be there playing a game. The years went by and as my mentality of
having fun became more apparent to myself and to other kids and coaches, I knew
that I wasn’t cut out for a game where winning was everything. I didn’t want that.
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| Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez. The greatest fake player in history. |
I think for me it was a lot like The Sandlot. Aside from
being in my top 10 movies of all time, that movie made me have this fantasy
growing up. I always had this dream that I would have this great group of
friends that played the game with each other and it was never more about
winning than it was about having fun during the summer just playing baseball. I
wanted so bad to be just like Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, better known as
Benny “The Jet” because he was just the coolest and we even had the same last
name. All his friends looked up to him and he was all about playing for fun.
Now a little friendly competition never hurt but again, it was more fun to just
play than to win. A perfect example is when Hamilton “The Babe” Porter smacks a
homer over the fence to The Beast and Benny’s only response is something like, “Now
all it means is that we can’t play no more.” (You’re totally reading that in
Benny’s voice, right?) He just wanted the game to keep going, to never end and
that’s what I wanted, the fun to last. But, I didn’t have those friends growing
up. I didn’t have a sandlot and I definitely wasn’t Benny though I always
wished I was. So further adrift from my love for baseball I went.
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| Wiffle Ball: Emmett's only connection, his last hope |
I stopped being interest in most things baseball because I
felt like I didn’t belong in something that seemed so elite to me. As far as
The Padres went, I knew I was a fan of the Padres but I didn’t fool myself, it
was only because of the territory. “I’m from San Diego, so I like the Padres.”
That was it, no real following but I did occasionally watch a game or two when
I could. So I kind of fell off the baseball map. I did however play wiffle ball
with friends at the park whenever the opportunity came up because that was
still fun for me. For a long time it was the only real connection that I had
with the game anymore.
Now this didn’t mean that baseball was out of my life
entirely. If you love something you can’t let it go completely. Sometimes the
things you love don't let go of you so easily.
I can remember being in highschool wishing I had stayed with
baseball but deep down I still felt that it wasn’t for me but I STILL wished I
had tried out. I’d see the kids on the team all dressed and ready for
practice and inside myself I knew I wanted to be a part of that. So it was
almost like I was haunted by the game because I left it behind and I left the
kid that only wanted to have fun behind as well. The only thing I could do was
dream and for a while that’s all I really had, a distant dream of a love long
abandoned.
Then something amazing happened. An angel came to me in the
guise of a dear friend, one of our other authors, Mr. Drew Tweedie. He offered
a chance to go to a game with him as he would happen to have an unused ticket.
I thought sure why not, I haven’t been to Petco Park yet and the last time I
went to a Padre game was sometime in the late nineties back when Trevor Hoffman
was bringing the closing heat. So we go and something unexpected happens to me.
We walk into the place and I get this overwhelming feeling that I hadn’t felt
since I was a kid back in my winter ball days. There was something so magical
about seeing the field under those bright lights for the first time, hearing
the roar of the crowd, seeing and
smelling what the vendors were selling, all sorts of food and drinks, going to
the team store, traveling up the escalators to our seats while seeing a view
of downtown San Diego that I’d never seen first-hand, and then finally and most
important, witnessing the game being professionally played by these guys in
uniform; The San Diego Padres. I completely fell in love with the game again.
It was like seeing an old friend you haven’t thought about in years and giving
them a big fat hug realizing how much you’ve missed them. It was extraordinary
to say the least.
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| If you build it, it might take a while but I'll be there eventually. | ||
So as time would pass I started going to more and more games
with Drew and other friends when I was able to get an unused ticket and since
then it’s become something more. I no longer wait for a free ticket and I go as
often as I can as long as I can be there with my friends enjoying a game we all
have some kind of history with. I’m getting back in the groove of being a fan
of baseball again and learning about what it means to be a real, genuine fan of
the Padres for the first time. There’s something about seeing players from the
place you grew up taking on others defending the name of your home. You start
to take these guys in as your own and you’ll back them up no matter what. Win
or lose, they become part of you and with the right attitude you either say
something about how you’re stoked because they won or if they lose then
hopefully you find yourself thinking, “We’ll get ‘em next time.” I find that
staying positive is the best thing you can do as a fan. What good does it do
you or anyone else to complain about something you have little to no control
over? The best thing you can do is to cheer your team on because they deserve
that much. On the deepest level for me, it’s not just about seeing people play
a game at a professional level that are representing the place you live but it’s
also about seeing these guys that made it to the big leagues and probably
started out the same way I did, on a field having fun playing a game that
brings them happiness. It’s almost as if I get a second chance and I get to
live out a fantasy through them…and that’s when I really felt that I was a true
fan. I became a piece of the Padres. With that special feeling I really started
to understand that they need us as much as we need them and I truly believe
that.
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| How could you not love Will "The Thrill" Venable? |
By now you might be thinking that this article wasn’t really
about being a fan of the Padres as much as it is about being a fan of baseball
in general, and to be honest with you I don’t totally disagree. I think the
point I wanted to get across was that for all of us that are fans of any team,
any sport, or anything that allows fans basically, we all have our reasons. For
me it’s about a second chance and for you it may be different but the end result
is the same. You are part of something
that means something to you and it’s something you and many others can identify
with. It’s there that you become part of something more…rotating blades and
all.
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| This is a legit fan, though. |
Signed,
-Emmett “The Jet” Rodriguez
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