Sometimes fandom is rational, a matter of geographical circumstance or positive interaction with a franchise. Other times it’s completely irrational, something we can’t explain with logic or facts. More often than not this applies to specific players. For example, growing up in Little League I played catcher and wanted to be a one who was great on offense and defense. In an era that included Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez, I somehow became attached to Charles Johnson. When the career .248/.329/.433 hitter came to the Rockies in 2003 he became my favorite player. Granted, it was the twilight of his career but his 33 home runs, 89 OPS+, and -24 framing runs didn’t exactly inspire the level of devotion he earned from me. In my defense, middle school/high school kids are dumb, even when they’re smart.
This leads me to this week’s FanPost Friday prompt:
Which Rockies player do you most irrationally love?
Everybody loves the big stars like Nolan Arenado and Larry Walker. Most of us find place in our hearts for the good-not-great players like Ellis Burks and Garrett Atkins. But I want to know about the guys you loved even though their production on the field did not warrant devotion. We’re talking Omar Quintanillas, Jonathan Herreras, Scott Elartons, Yohan Flandes, and their ilk. Whether it was because they had a big year, month, or game for the Rockies, or they were nice to you that one time you were looking for an autograph, we want to know what has tied you to said player. This is a judgement free zone (mostly—Felipe Paulino still inspires ire from many of us).
Write up a FanPost and include “FPF” in the title. Next week we’ll recap these and maybe post the best stories on the front page!
(If you’ve never written a FanPost, check out this handy guide from our friends at Pinstripe Alley on how to write a good FanPost.)
Start your FanPost today!