Some Sox fans are fed up and are saying they're giving up. They don't want to support their team any more. They're done. They join many Cubs fans from 2010 thru 2014, and Hawks fans from well many from the mid 90s straight thru the 2007 season opener.
I was one of them. After being at a total shit storm of a Hawks game in 2002 I swore off the team until the old man died. When he did us that favor in 2007 I began watching games again. Hell... i was finally able to watch games again.
Hawks fans actually booed Wirtz's moment of silence during his tribute before the game. That's cold as hell.

But the question is... does giving up for a season or a decade until the team puts forth a winning effort make you a fair weather fan? Are you not a diehard unless you spend your time and or money on a team that sucks? Or does a real fan send a message to the team by not renewing their season tickets or by helping to leave bare spots in the upper deck?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Fucking Sox are killing me right now but I still watch.
Won't go unless I get freebies from a vendor tho.

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https://www.backroadspubandgrill.com

The Sox are a dead ass team. Rick Hahn has to go HGTV on this roster and do a total reno.

Sale, Rodon, Robertson, and Abreu and start over. This team doesn't do anything well.

Being a realist is not being a worse fan.

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CSFMB: Home of the small minded

No it does not make you less of a fan only a smart one. Mrs. Scooter never got into hockey until around 2007 or so. I told her when the old man Wirtz croaks it will get better. All games will be on TV and so on. She watched and waited. Now she and my 12 yr old daughter are the biggest Blackhawks fans ever. Daughter has Toews fat heads on bedroom walls we have gear so on and so forth.

You mean like all of the Hawks fans here who gave up on the Hawks?

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I don't think you're really "sending a message" by not going. But there's certainly no imperative to attend games. If it's making you miserable, why would you go? It's just entertainment. If you have more fun doing something else, do that instead. But I also think it's silly to argue that you're as much of a fan as the nutjob who spends all his disposable income to watch that bad baseball or hockey or whatever.

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Freedom is our Strength.

i think, too, that there's a difference between saying "i'm not watching this team" and "i'm not a fan anymore". moving around as much as i did growing up, i wasn't able to watch saints games between '94 and '99 (not that i missed much...) but i never said i wasn't a fan anymore. i just didn't get to see them. and even when i didn't want to watch them, i still maintained i was a fan.

my problem with hawks fans is that you can hate management, hate ownership...but you're going to jump on some other team's fanbase and then come back when your team is winning, and then talk shit about it? that's hollow, and gutless. at least admit that you abandoned your team. the players can't help who their owner is. and it's not like the hawks during the 00's were total a-holes of a team. they were under bad ownership. the saints have been under bad ownership for most of their existence, and while the fans that wore bags over their heads would mock their team...they still maintained that they were saints fans throughout.

i think once you abandon your team, if you're a grown adult, you don't get to come back. that's the price you pay. i remember silvy & carmen having this argument. carmen was a cubs fan as a kid but he couldn't take them losing anymore and became a sox fan. he admitted he could never be a cubs fan again, even if they win. silvy agreed and i think they came up with a cut off of like 23 years old or something.

obviously sports are just entertainment or whatever as JORR said...but taking into context what it means to be a fan, i still believe in being genuine. and like JORR mentioned, i knew a blackhawks fan who *paid* for hawkvision, went to games, and knew all the players throughout. admitted he was a glutton for punishment. he was the first guy i thought of when they televised a home game again, and the first guy i thought of when they beat my team for their first cup in decades. because i know that guy was weeping and on his knees with joy. that is a hell of an emotion to experience. that's genuine.

It means that you were never a fan.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Nice Billy Squire this morning...Mac's new theme song....Stroke Man

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This catching lightning in a bottle just proves that it was done in 2005.....and Ozzie was the key to winning that trophy....and since then kenny has done everything in his power to win without Ozzie....the results speak for themselves.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

That's just crazy.

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Freedom is our Strength.

Sort of a vague premise. Give up? One season? Forever? Less of a fan?

Yes you are less of a fan if you give up on your team. That question answers itself. However....I would consider you a "more smart" fan if you did ignore / not invest time or money to "your" team if & when they suck. We all knew what the Cubs were doing. I basically said "fuck them". I still pulled for them and wanted the best for them...but I found plenty of other things to do instead of watching, or going to watch bad baseball. Did I give up on them? For the better part of several seasons, I sure did. I consider myself a great Cubs fan.

My two cents.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

The ballpark experience is only one aspect of the game. They quality of the team also matters. I'm good for a minimum of 1 game a year, but I'm sorry...if the team is bad...it's just not that much fun. To answer the question, I've given up many times...doesn't mean I'm not a fan.

Now....if I chose to attend more games at Wrigley and Miller Park...that says a different story.

This is THE most unlikeable Sox team I can ever remember. They're bad, they're meatballs, and the organization shows no real direction or identity, which means there's no glimmer of hope that it will get better soon.

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This is 100% true. Was there and maybe the most uncomfortable moments of my life. LOUDLY BOOING


I don't think anyone really 'gives up' on their team. I take that to mean permanent disownership. It's perfectly reasonable for someone to choose to invest less of their time, emotion and energy into a deadass team or organization and then come back when the weather turns.

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Team Cutler.

Agreed. I had the Hawks pretty much on a pay-no-mind list pretty much from 93 til the old man thankfully died for reasons obvious and likely shared by all gathered here.

That's why I particularly enjoyed hearing the comments from whomever it was (John? Rocky?) about them rewarding the fans' allegiance to the team ... because it wasn't the fans that turned their back on the team, the team seemingly couldn't wait to shun as many people as possible from either continuing as an active fan or considering becoming one. People didn't really walk away, so to speak ... Dollar Bill put up as much razor wire as possible around the team, so the marginal value of maintaining an interest in the comings and goings of the laughing stock of professional sports was essentially nil.

In closing, fuck Bill Wirtz, and I can only hope Rocky's last words to him as Bill was about out the barn door was to tell him he was going to put home games on free television.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Rocky was talking a little bit about it in an interview the other day. He seems to be enjoying it but not bitter about it in any way. Just that it wasn't his decision til it was his decision - very matter of factly.

I think you can give up on your team season to season or choose not to support them in some way and still be a fan. It's when you lose interest and stop caring that you stop being one. I don't consider myself much of a Bears fan anymore. I bet in 5 years I don't know almost anybody on the team.

Bill Wirtz's body wasn't even cold before Rocky started changing everything. Rocky can love and respect his Father while disagreeing with his business philosophy.

I would guess it's not about the fans per se with Rocky. it's still about money, but I'm thinking Rocky sees winning as more profitable in the long-term. See NY Yankees...and there's nothing wrong with that.

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i've accepted the fact that i am a fair weathered baseball fan, i am a white sox fan but i no longer engage in stupid cubs-sox arguments. if the cubs are doing well, good for them and their true fans. if the sox are doing well i'll pay attention otherwise i have better things to do than watch mediocre or bad baseball for 3 hours every night.

Some people just are not passionate fans of a team. They simply want to be entertained by a local sports team when possible. And that is fine.

Their are 'tiers' of fandom.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I don't know, it's got to be more than money. Winning or being successful, maybe? Weren't they voted worst sports franchise for years? That's got to be a little embarrassing.

Ozzie was the key? Konerko, Dye, Buehrle, Garland, and the bullpen would like to have a word with you. Winning baseball is never primarily about the manager -- it's always primarily about the players... the Sox just don't have the right players right now.

I can still be a fan, maybe a less interested fan, but still be a fan of the ballclub. I think in these situations, fans tend to migrate from being a fan of their team to a fan of specific players on that team. I'd posit that Konerko's fan base increased partially because there were no other regular players to root for that were worth a hoot for many of the years that he was on the roster. I think you'll see the same sort of thing where people root for Abreu and Sale and then just kind of are like "meh" with the team.

Totally agree there are tiers of fandom aka meatballdom.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

If/when they have a good season you will be right back.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I don't think so. I don't have the time and don't care to make the time for it. Hockey has replaced football. Maybe 10 years from now.

yeah being a Bears fan takes so much time.

You are priceless spaulding. A true treasure around here.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Like I said....many get upset over Ozzie getting credit...including the GM

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

He gets some credit, but he certainly isn't the #1 reason they won a championship. Everyone knows the main reason they won the World Series was because of Field Turf.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

I'm not to this extreme, but my interest in the NFL has been drastically reduced. The Bears being awful does not help, but it's also the NFL as a whole. The game has gotten worse...too complicated and too much dead space. I follow the Bears, but often multi-task with the game on. Doesn't mean I'm not a fan....Bears are bad and I invest less, but would never move on to another team.

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This.

Sports requires an investment of some combination of time, money, and emotion. While I realize the end result is likely disappointment (most years your team does not win its championship) I am not willing to invest as much when the team is bad. I too took 20 years off from the Hawks. I make no apologies for it.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

That's in the inner circle of The Pantheon of Bad Sports Thoughts.

No shortage of others, some moreso than others, that would've done just fine for them that year, such as:

Mike Scioscia
Terry Francona
Ron Gardenhire
Joe Torre
Buck Showalter
Phil Garner
Bobby Cox
Jack McKeon
Bruce Bochy
Art Howe
Charlie Manuel
Tony LaRussa

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George