We spoke of the Ombudsvenger navigating a path of incomplete information (there are actually six original Avengers...not five) in properly assessing the meaning of what the Tortured San Diego Fan Experience truly is. It is not we who are tortured but our experience of following the Chargers and Padres that is torturing.
Those people who were sitting in Citizen Bank Ballpark tonight in 30 degree weather are tortured on many different levels. Before Brad Lidge recorded the final out this evening the
Phillies had been victorious in ONE WORLD SERIES in the previous 126 YEARS....fucking torture! There was no Indian Summer to carry the Philly Faithful into November but instead a cold biting rain that was a mere precursor to a harsh winter of scrapin' windshields and warmin' up car engines....fucking torture! As they sat on the precipice of greatness did any Philly fan stop to think that all of the devotion might not have been worth it if the Phils went ahead and collapsed during the 9th? Brad Lidge has been known to do it before....fucking torture! Just listen to those Philadelphia accents....fucking torture! That includes yours Cholla!
There was a point....ah yes, those Easterners put in the time and devotion and rightfully would feel tortured to the nth degree had their team blown it.... but even as victors they are still tortured by an unforgiving geography. Whereas the San Diego Fan embraces his geography at season's end.
The Tortured San Diego Fan EXPERIENCE is what we speak of in this domain. It can be a foul taste to invest our time and space in a local game, an out of town series or an entire season that often seems to pass in the geologic conception of time. The EXPERIENCE is also punitive in nature as we purchase tickets and swag and ultimately lament our financial investment gone awry......as we realize that our team JUST WASN'T VERY GOOD!
We were duped by slick front office white collar lawyers who cry "poor Me"....and it only adds to our torture! Torture because we question owners' motives and whether or not our time could be better spent entirely on another venture such as lawn darts. Why? Why not extinguish this suffering.....why not follow the game only when it is pleasurable and victories are a regularity?
Here we feel as though all of life's ventures no matter the level of import should be attacked with passion and anything less would be to cheat the gift.
This unfortunately also includes our devotion to the hometown teams. All too often we see in the city of San Diego a sickening level of bandwagoneering. There is no sports town like San Diego....WHEN WE'RE WINNING! But boy is it cold and quiet when teams are on the down slide....we can here the cries of, "Geronimo!", as San Diegans free fall to the next best thing.
IF.....and it the most monumentally large fucking "IF" you could ever posit....if the Chargers rebound and make a run at it all, "fans" will act like they never left and they'll be waving their flags and puffing out their Powder Blue clad chests and will look back with nostalgia at the Run that was great in '08.
Well we just find that to be disingenuous. If you are to give any of your free time to sport make it a true commitment.....so we have decided to remain loyal in a time where, players, agents, coaches, and owners rarely do....it is an EXPERIENCE that we find a bit like being water boarding, Gitmo style.....which is to say that it is akin to TORTURE.
The juice will be worth the squeeze.... and we'll be rewarded one day. Until that day we'll go ahead and ride out this unusually warm tenth month in the two thousandth and eighth year of our lord.....
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