The funny thing about love for a team is how it sneaks up on you. Growing up in the Tampa Bay area, I never felt any loyalty to the Buccaneers (and they were truly terrible throughout my childhood there in the ‘80s). There wasn’t a local baseball team until much later, and even then, I had no inclination to root for them. I had no emotional connection, no reason to care.
But everything changed when it was about more than just me. My younger son is a baseball fanatic and plays both Fall and Spring seasons in our local league. The Fall teams are named after minor league teams, and for two years, he was on the Lugnuts. They had a terrific team full of his friends and parents we knew, and while their season didn’t last as long as we’d hoped, we all became fans of the Lansing team by some kind of osmosis. Maybe it was the joy of watching him and his friends jump around after a win. Maybe it was the hilariously off-color ‘Nuts’ jerseys. Maybe it was watching him pitch and learning how practicing really paid off when he struck out his first batter. Whatever it was, we’re on board with this franchise, and we’re even attended a Lugnuts game versus the Ft. Wayne Tin Caps over the 4th of July holiday weekend.