After moving to the Bay Area, I noticed something almost immediately— people love the professional teams.
The Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants are in full swing in the Major League Baseball season, both sit in second place in their respected divisions.
The San Jose Sharks in the National Hockey League are currently in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Golden State Warriors were just eliminated in the National Basketball Association’s playoffs.
The Giants are by far the most popular baseball team in the Bay, probably because they’ve been so successful, but they have the stellar fan base there every game. AT&T Park has a sell out streak dating back to this past season and it doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon.
I came at a great time in Bay Area sports because the Golden State Warriors were making their NBA playoff run. Everybody in Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose were watching the games against the San Antonio Spurs especially for the games later in these series.
Every day that there was a game, you’d see half of the train decked out in blue and gold Warriors garb, even the old grandmas were decked out, ready for the game at six in the morning.
One morning, I walked into Subway to get a sub for lunch and I had a Raiders hat on for work, and I had a Berkeley police officer come up to me and ask me how the team was going to do this year. He did not know I was working for them, but he saw me as just another fan.
It was a real change to see this kind of passion for sports teams. Coming from Columbus, the only fandom I’ve really experienced is Ohio State football. Now, I’m not saying that Ohio State fandom is bad— it’s just not the same as the fandom in the Bay Area.
Rather than being the team that represents a school or university, these teams represent an entire city and an entire metropolitan area. No matter who you are, what race you are or who you love, everybody can get together and go to the games together in the Bay Area.
