A Blue Jays Fan In Our Midst

I don't think I ever thought I'd end up raising a Toronto Blue Jays fan.

We're New Englanders, which, outside of western Connecticut, means being Red Sox fans.  Ian, in years past, seems to have cultivated a conscious antagonism for the Sox, however, because he felt that supporting them entailed some kind of disloyalty to our own beloved team, The New Hampshire Fisher Cats.  I have tried to explain to him that the two teams play in entirely different leagues - as in major vs. minor - and there is no chance the two teams will ever actually play against each other, which means that there's no reason to oppose the Red Sox based on our own local loyalties.  I also tried to convince him that, at any given time, probably a very solid majority of people in the bleachers at the Fisher Cats' stadium are also died-in-the-red-knit-wool Sox fans.  But he was having none of it.

Then last night, a game came on between the Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays.  Ian asked me which team I was rooting for.  Admittedly, I"m not passionate about sports, but I did quietly admit to having some sympathy for the Red Sox.

This answer turned out to be not just irrelevant, but irreverent.  Ian asserted that he was rooting for the Blue Jays because, after all, the Fisher Cats are affiliated with the Blue Jays.  [Apparently each minor league team in our league have an affiliation with a major league team.]  Of course, the Fisher Cats' stadium is one hour from Boston and probably about 10 hours from Toronto - which, by the way, is in a foreign country.  But no matter:  an affiliation is a bond of mutual dedication, and Ian felt that the correct posture for a Fisher Cats' fan is to support Toronto against those whippersnappers at the far end of Interstate 93.

Our genes are not our destiny.

(August 14, 2013)