[GTDawg]

lol

Take a breath there, Champ. There's no need to be a pretentious asshole.

I'm impressed that you are such a diehard fan that you get depressed when your team loses. Everybody does that to some extent if they are a live and die fan.

I'm not sure where you got the comparison of the Braves to the Cubs. But, whatever. There's no need to flip out because I made a one sentence comparison.

However, fandom is still one part of investing something in to a team.

In the middle of January when everybody is getting ready for spring training and the players are taking extra hitting. You're there packing stuff up. You're sorting uniforms. Carrying equipment to the trucks. Working a few hours every day just getting ready for the season.

During spring training? At the stadium setting things up. Moving all sorts of equipment around the clubhouse. Cleaning everything under the sun. Getting the clubhouse, visitors clubhouse, training rooms, offices, bullpens, everything ready. When the team comes back after spring training? Best day of the year. And, before they got there, I was already there for 4-5 hours cleaning shit and getting it ready.

At the stadium 14 hours a day 81 times for 6 months. This is on top of watching every single road game. And, at 2am at the end of the roadtrip, you're at the stadium working when they come back.

When the team loses, you get to be upset and go get ready for tomorrow's game. Try standing in the clubhouse doing your job while everybody around you is pissed off. Just wait til it gets towards the end of the season and everybody realizes that their work is going to be worthless since the season is ending early.

Try becoming friends with some of these people and then watching their careers end. Tell me what it's like when you watch someone break his arm during a game and end his career. You can turn off the TV and go do something else and feel sad about it. I have to help him pack up his stuff when he realizes he's not ever going to play baseball again.

It sucks when a player you like gets traded or released. You get attached to them. You enjoy watching them and following them. When they leave, you're sad and you move on because you love your team. I was friends with them. I hung out with them at the bar and at the golf course. I met their wives and their kids and their parents. For most of the year, you spend more time with them than their families. I'm there packing up their stuff and driving them to the airport.

You're watching the last playoff game with a tight chest hoping for things to change so you get that one last chance to win? Yeah, me too. I'm sitting there in the clubhouse watching the last pitch as your team is bounced from the playoffs. There's no option to turn off the TV and call in to work sad, though.

I'm not comparing the Braves to the Cubs. The Braves won't ever have the fanbase that the Cubs do and that's for a whole host of reasons.

But, it's damn arrogant to think you're the only one that can understand what it's like to invest your entire life in to a team.