A Longiloquent Farewell to Arizona Sports

I have lived in the Bay Area for 10 years. When I moved from Arizona, I was a fan of the Arizona State Sun Devils, Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Suns. The Diamondbacks did not exist and since I never was a fan of hockey, the Coyotes did not strike my fancy (though the old IHL Roadrunners were fun).

After I moved out here, it was easy to immediately become a fan of the Giants. The Phoenix I lived in had no team, the Giants AAA team was the Phoenix Firebirds and the Giants spring training was in Scottsdale. We essentially grew up following them. It did not hurt that at the time I moved here they were good and that one of their most memorable games in the past 20 years happened to be on my 13th birthday - October 17, 1989. So, when I was an assistant media planner being entertained at these games, it was natural that I would start to root for them.

For most of my formative years watching sports (ages 10-18), the Suns were really good. They had a good core of players in the late 80's and early 90's that could contend with the best in the West. Then when they traded for Sir Charles, they took it to the next level and lost a heartbreaker finals to none other than Michael Jordan. A few years after those finals, the team was completely different and I started to lose interest in the NBA. I don't remember if the Suns were any good during the late 90''s, but I expect that they were not as good and it made it easier to ignore them. I did attend some games (most memorably Sir Charles first trip back to Phoenix as a Houston Rocket -- he had 18 points and 33 rebounds; the crowd gave him an ovation when we was announced and then playfully booed him throughout the game.) Anyway, fast forward to 2009 and I still don't love the NBA like I did in the late 80's and early 90's... But as I watch the Warriors and attend their games I'm coming around.

I attended Arizona State and had season tickets each year I was there. One year, we were seconds away from winning the National Championship until David Boston of Ohio State (and future Arizona Cardinal flameout) caught a last second TD to take the game and championship away. But what a season! Growing up in Arizona, I had flip-flopped between UofA and ASU until I finally decided that because I lived in Phoenix (and ended up attending ASU), the Sun Devils would be my team (though I never really followed any other sports including basketball which they weren't good at and baseball which they were good at - and on which team Barry Bonds played college ball). I have followed Arizona State football pretty closely for a long time and there have been several great seasons and many not so great seasons. I try to attend games in the Bay Area and in Arizona when visiting family and watch Saturday nights when I am home (paying the extra $2/month to Comcast for the Pac10 sports package). Readers of this blog know that college football is a sport I enjoy watching and Arizona State has been an entertaining team for quite some time, but...

The Arizona Cardinals are a whole other story. They moved to Arizona in 1988. I met Neil Lomax, Bob Clasby, Ron Wolfley and Al del Greco just by walking down the street in our area and knocking on their doors. Every single one let us in, hung out with us for a few minutes and gave us an autographed picture. That was super cool and I was a signed and sealed fan ever since. I will say that before 1988 I rooted for the Giants and Bears. The Giants because I had moved from New York only a few years earlier (though my grandfather wanted me to be a Bills fan) and the Bears for the '85 super bowl because Jim McMahon and I have the same last name (I was 9, ok?).. anyway, with the Giants and Cardinals in the same division it became difficult to have dual loyalties (though they rarely were close in the standings) and I eventually moved my fandom to the Cardinals. In college, I had seasons tickets and went to every game I could. When I graduated and moved to the Bay Area, friends and family would make fun of me when I would talk about how the Cardinals were an up and coming team. Around that time, they beat the Cowboys in the playoffs and I was feeling pretty confident that they were on the rise. So confident that I predicted they would be in the Super Bowl withing 10 years... always to an audience of jeers and laughing. Soon thereafter, the Cardinals fell back on their typical losing ways and the bet/prediction was forgotten -- until this year. You know that story so I won't belabor it. However, before we reached this point, I almost had dropped the Cardinals from being one of my teams because being in the NFC East, I never saw there games and I did not want to pay for the NFL package (fall Sundays in Marin are too nice to stay inside)... then the NFL realigned and the Cardinals were playing the 49ers 2x per year and the Raiders 1x either in the pre-season or regular season. And the NFL and Cardinals lured me back in.... until now.

Today, I am announcing, to no one in particular, that I am officially resigning from the fanbase of the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State Sun Devils (and all other Arizona sports for that matter). From this point forward, I will root for the San Francisco 49ers and Cal Bears. I have been here 10 years and am not returning to Arizona. I have many fond memories of rooting for Arizona sports, but what is the point of being a fan of a team that you can not easily follow and to who's games are difficult to attend? So, with regret but great anticipation, I say, "Go Giants! Go Warriors! Go Niners! and Go Bears!"

3/9/09 UPDATE: I changed my mind about Arizona State University football. I could not step aside so easily. Though I still stand by my declaration to root for the Cal Bears, I do not want to ditch out on the Sun Devils. That said, I have had absolutely ZERO regrets about moving on from the Cardinals. I've been following the Niner's exploits in free agency over the past few weeks and have found myself rooting for them and not caring about the news coming from Arizona. So, my gut told me to stay with the Sun Devils and move to the Niners. OK, that's settled.