Tuesday, May 20, 2008

"What do you mean, 'we'? You're not on the team!"

People often seem to think it's witty to criticize a fan for referring to the fan's team as "we" or "us" because the fan isn't on the team. Using "we" or "us" to describe a fan's team is a commonly known figure of speech. Criticizing a fan for using "we" or "us" to describe his/her team is like criticizing someone for saying you drive him/her up the wall because it's gravitationally impossible.

It's not like the fan doesn't know he/she isn't on the team. However, sometimes part of being a fan is deciding what you think is best for a member of your team to do in certain scenarios. Whether a catcher who fields a bunt should go for the force at 2nd or take the easy out at 1st. Whether a manager should hit-and-run. Whether a 3rd base coach should wave in a runner. Whether a GM should trade players X & Y for player Z. Just because you may think about these decisions doesn't mean you actually think you're the guy who's in these scenarios for the Red Sox.

1 comment:

alsodanlowe said...

I used to be annoyed because of the social psychological phenomena of association (and alternately disassocation) involved in the matter: 'We won!' 'They lost...'

Then I heard someone suggest this reason in defense of the expression:

'We' support the team. 'We' buy the tickets and the jerseys and the hot dogs. 'We' decide if the team makes X amount of money or Y, how much they can therefore spend on improving personnel, and thus how likely they are to field a competitive/contending team.

Obviously there are problems with this logic, as well. See: The Florida Marlins. But it's more useful than merely saying, 'Well obviously we're not part of the team.'