Red Wings and Giants forever

David Brooks writes about trying to become a Washington Nationals fan, but to no avail. He is permanently committed to the NY Mets even though he lives in DC. He says rightly that team loyalty begins with youthful enchantment. That explains how I became a Detroit Red Wings fan even when I lived in soggy Vancouver and didn’t know where Detroit was other than somewhere south of Saskatoon. It might have been the all red uniforms, the Stanley Cups, Lindsey, Abel and Howe or just the team photo on my barber’s wall. By the time I lived in Detroit 20 years later I was running though the snow with my wife Peggy to games at the old Olympia. And speaking of Dame Peggy she is a diehard NY/SF Giants fan probably inspired by one bright shining day in 1955 as she sat in the Polo Grounds and watched Willie Mays pull in fly balls in that massive outfield. She has been in every home park the Giants have played in including Seals Stadium (where she caught a foul ball hit by Hobie Landrith), windy Candlestick, and cozy AT&T park. Teams choose us through some mystical process of identification. Root for the Dodgers? Forget it. Cheer on the Canadiens? Jamais! Till death (or relocation) do us part.