A Team Is Only as Good as Its Fans

As is the norm around the MLB when a home run is hit, the fans from the opposing team stick out like sore thumbs as they stand up and obnoxiously clap for their team to the aggravation of the home fans. Last summer that was me, rooting for my Chicago White Sox in Detroit, and I was understandably being as obnoxious as I could.

But when the White Sox scored, I noticed something different than fans simply high-fiving each other in the Sox bleachers. Following their home runs, Chicago fans, mimicking the now-famous home run call of longtime Sox television broadcaster Ken “The Hawk” Harrelson, could be heard from all corners of the stadium. I turned in all directions to see Sox fans yelling, “You can put it on the board ... yes!” I even heard Sox fans chanting, “Paulie, Paulie” across the stadium when first baseman Paul Konerko stepped up to the plate. As a visitor, Comerica Park seemed to be an abnormally quiet place to watch a ball game.

I asked a local Tigers fan sitting behind me if Comerica Park was always this quiet, and he assured me that it was simply a quiet crowd in the midst of a losing homestand. But as I attended my second ball game at Comerica the following evening, the Sox fans got louder and louder while the 42,000 fans that caused the stadium to be sold out yet again barely made a peep.

I asked myself how fans of a team that won the American League pennant and played in the World Series the previous year could render themselves mostly inaudible. It was interesting that a city like Detroit, which finally had a solid baseball team to support, could let a small contingent of fans from a then-fourth place team be heard so loudly. After two games, I finally figured out what was missing at Comerica. Aside from assigning each fan a mandatory Red Bull-per-inning quota, the Tigers fans lacked a slogan or chant that usually becomes a team’s signature. They were without a tradition or common spirit to electrify the crowd, and thus the game was purely ordinary.
The Atlanta Braves have the famous “chop” and the Yankees have, “Hip, Hip, Jorge!” Hell, the Toronto Blue Jays even have a song—albeit a strange one—that gets all (15 of) the fans going.

Chants that are specific to teams or stadiums provide many benefits for their fans, players and organizations. Most importantly, fans feel a sense of belonging and connection to one another and to the team that they are supporting. Ken Harrelson’s coined phrases, such as the famed nickname “The Big Hurt” that he bestowed upon future Hall-of-Famer Frank Thomas, become part of the legend and history surrounding the game. In Thomas’ case, the nickname became part of his persona and is found on merchandise all over the sporting world.

But beyond chants and synchronized crowd movements, all popular teams have a distinct tradition that transcends winning or losing seasons and envelopes the true personality of the specific organization. It is this emotional sentiment that can become nearly magical and transforms the game into more than a simple sporting event.

Here at Columbia, an athletic tradition (one that has been quite prominent in the past) must be re-established in order to take Columbia sports to a new level. While the athletic program does not boast a high spectator turnout in general, last year’s basketball games saw the stands packed on multiple occasions. For a school and program as historic as Columbia’s, more could be done than simply playing the school song at each and every break in the action.

While it is certainly hard to artificially create flavor and enthusiasm—and the Athletic Department certainly cannot be held solely accountable for producing it—there should be a greater emphasis placed on attempting to harvest more support from Columbia’s student body. There should be more incentives for attending games and more opportunities to meet and become familiar with the teams. A creative and successful marketing campaign may not hurt either.

It is difficult to define how our teams might go about creating a real following, but it is imperative that some steps be taken. Students also need to make an increased effort to give Columbia sports a try.

Although my team was out of playoff contention while I sat in the Comerica Park bleachers last year, I was still immersed in the action because of my connection to the Sox. At Columbia, there are players on the field, but it is the greater athletic tradition that needs to be crystallized. Only then can the students begin to internalize it and own it for themselves.

See you at the games, and, oh yeah, let’s try to come up with something better than “Let’s Go Lions.”