Bandwagoners: How many do we have now?

[welch]

Anyone who wasn't actively campaigning to bring a team to DC is a bandwagoner.

Bingo!

(Washington is a great baseball town. I'll repeat: the Nats were number one in fanatic devotion until Bob [expletive deleted] moved the team to a jerkwater spot midway between Dallas and Ft Worth. DC became a year-round Redskin town by default.)

[GburgNatsFan]

This is pretty much my opinion.

And it's genetic. My daughter has broken up with two guys because she found out they were Orioles fans, and knew she wouldn't be able to take the static.

Always room for one more

Unless they're Orioles fans

[spidernat]

This is pretty much my opinion.

And it's genetic. My daughter has broken up with two guys because she found out they were Orioles fans, and knew she wouldn't be able to take the static.

This thread is over. Lock it! 

[NatsTheFats]

This is pretty much my opinion.

And it's genetic. My daughter has broken up with two guys because she found out they were Orioles fans, and knew she wouldn't be able to take the static.

Haha.

I became a fan in 2006/7.  I moved here in the fall of 2006 and attended my first game during opening week 2007. 

I grew up cheering for the Dodgers (Dad and brother still do) but I never "connected" with them.  The Nats drew me in from the opening pitch and solidified me as a fan after a 13inning affair (later in the season) during 2007 (there was something about cheering for an underdog that I connected with).  I slowly moved my way to better and better seats.  I started in the red outfield seats and watched the last pitch from behind the 3rd plate dugout.  I still remember talking up and making friends with the usher.

I once told someone that I am a "big" Nats fan (circa 2009) and he responded by saying, "I didn't know those existed."  He was and always will be considered an ASS. 

I hope my late adoption of the Nats (screw the Dodgers/west coast Yankees) does not make me a bandwagoner!!!

[NatsTheFats]

This thread is over. Lock it! 

Yep.  Definition of Awesome = "this"

[DPMOmaha]

Bingo!

(Washington is a great baseball town. I'll repeat: the Nats were number one in fanatic devotion until Bob [expletive deleted] moved the team to a jerkwater spot midway between Dallas and Ft Worth. DC became a year-round Redskin town by default.)

That's not true.  There are fans that were so back in Montreal as well and followed the team to DC.  We've been on one helluva a ride, too.

[Nathan]

Error on my part. I forgot that I joined in July of '09, which is before my birthday, so I was actually fifteen at the time. Do I count now?
  Yeah. Kids these days, man...

Having now been in a supervisory role, I've on more than on occasion caught myself saying "damn kids these days."

Also, I now have 2 gray hairs...

[Smithian]

You all called bullcrap (or freaking stupid in MDS's case) but even in 2010 I said were moving towards a national fan base. Today I realize I was understating it.

Washington DC is a transient city and is home of one particular breed of mobile people; summer interns. Capitol Hill is flooded with interns. Even back in 2010 when we sucked lots of kids made it to games with the college discounts (brilliant move by Nats) and developed a taste for this team. This past summer interns got a dose of the Nationals skull crushing people and loved it.

Lots of kids nationwide now follow the team at least casually (even here in God's country) and I even know kids who have made a point to catch road games in their region and wear a Nats hat while they're there. Hope the Nats continue catering to college age kids as a way of building a national following of people who have spent time in DC before heading to their homes.

We're a franchise in a transient city and we're a team with massive star power in Harper/Strasburg. We'll pick up fan support quickly. This is just another reason why this franchise's potential is limitless. Long term we need to compare ourselves to power franchises like the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cardinals. Nothing less. This team represents the most powerful city on Earth. Let's act like it.

I am so happy I picked up Nats early on. Even in the darkest days of 2008 and 2009 I knew this franchise was headed to the top. Just didn't know it would be this fast.

Bring on the bandwagoners. I hope they buy jerseys and other merchandise and buy in to the Nats. More fans the better!!!!!

[welch]

This is pretty much my opinion.

And it's genetic. My daughter has broken up with two guys because she found out they were Orioles fans, and knew she wouldn't be able to take the static.

Bravo!!! (Around 1959 or 1960, there were big arguments between "us" and people who turned their TV antennas to get Baltimore TV so they could root for the Colts. Same with Baltimore Oriole fans. We called them "traitors")

**

Additionally: DC is not particularly more transient than any other big city. Kids grow up, go to college, and get a job someplace else. My son and daughter-in-law, and two grandsons, live in St Louis...son is a fanatic Redskin fan, and older grandson's first coherent sentence was "Goal Ovie!" Son is a Nats fan -- gave me "The Wrecking Crew of '33" -- but daughter-in-law is a Cardinals fan.

While some of the DC work-force changes with politics, most people are civil service, and the area developed a pair of computer concentrations along I-270 and I-66.

I find it pleasant that many New Yorkers wish me well when they see the curly-W hat. Maybe not Met fans, but there aren't so many Met fans. Yankee fans often say things like, "I'm really impressed with the Nats...fine team...they've been built the right way".

[welch]

That's not true.  There are fans that were so back in Montreal as well and followed the team to DC.  We've been on one helluva a ride, too.

That's great! I'm delighted: MLB knifed both cities -- twice to DC -- and I'm happy to think of Rusty Staub, Frank Howard, and Roy Sievers as having a common history.

[HalfSmokes]

This is just another reason why this franchise's potential is limitless. Long term we need to compare ourselves to power franchises like the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cardinals. Nothing less. This team represents the most powerful city on Earth. Let's act like it.

this team represents a city most of the country despises

[Gleason2]

this team represents a city most of the country despises

That's true.  I actually despise the city, as it is the face of the federal government, myself, so it always feels ironic to be such a fan of DC sports teams.  But this is where I grew up.  I can't help it.

[Smithian]

this team represents a city most of the country despises

I find 90% of the kids I intern with love the place and want to come back. It's certainly the case with me.

[Gleason2]

I find 90% of the kids I intern with love the place and want to come back. It's certainly the case with me.

Of course they love DC.  Most of them probably want to go into government and/or politics and become part of what the rest of us despise about the city.

[Baseball is Life]

That's true.  I actually despise the city, as it is the face of the federal government, myself, so it always feels ironic to be such a fan of DC sports teams.  But this is where I grew up.  I can't help it.

Love this city or GTFO.

[Gleason2]

Love this city or GTFO.

F.U.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

freak those peasants

this team represents a city most of the country despises

[tomterp]

Of course they love DC.  Most of them probably want to go into government and/or politics and become part of what the rest of us despise about the city.

They love their own senators and congressmen, but the rest of the country sends such idiots!

[Gleason2]

They love their own senators and congressmen, but the rest of the country sends such idiots!

I can't stand my Representative in the House or either of my state's Senators, but what you're saying is generally true.

[grizzly]

"Bandwagon" has an negative connotation in the world of sports but it's how many diehard fans start out.

The 'Skins for example, those "bandwagoners" in the 80's laid the foundation for the massive fan base this team has today.

[Ray D]

The 'Skins for example, those "bandwagoners" in the 80's laid the foundation for the massive fan base this team has today.

I don't think it was the 80s.  Skins popularity grew steadily from 1962 through the 60s and reached a frenzy level in George Allens first year, 1971, which it has not exceeded since, despite perception to the contrary.  Believe me it was just as crazy in 1971 as now, except then it was more sincere.

[HalfSmokes]

Wasn't the skins original bandwagon because of their refusal to integrate and their television territory extending south (also the origin of African American Cowboys fans in dc)

[Ray D]

Wasn't the skins original bandwagon because of their refusal to integrate and their television territory extending south

Well, yes, in the early 60s and earlier, the Redskins were the favorite among the south, but that was in part due to the fact that they were the southernmost team.   It could also have been in part due to their refusal to integrate, but that ended in 1962, at which point they begin to draw black fans in great numbers.  And in 1966, the Falcons came about, and the Skins were no longer the only Southern team.   Even so, may North Carolina folks continued to root for the Skins, until the Panthers came about.

[tomterp]

I don't think it was the 80s.  Skins popularity grew steadily from 1962 through the 60s and reached a frenzy level in George Allens first year, 1971, which it has not exceeded since, despite perception to the contrary.  Believe me it was just as crazy in 1971 as now, except then it was more sincere.

Allen led the charge, but Lombardi broke new ground in leading the Skins to a winning record in 1969, breaking a streak of 14 consecutive losing seasons.

Note that Ted Williams came to manage the Senators, and Lefty to the Terps in the same year. 

 

[BH34Natural]

Who cares. They don't hand out true fan cards anywhere unless I'm mistaken.

The more fans, the better for the organization, sport, etc.

Yankees have bandwagon fans too. Every fan base does.!