The Excitement of the Games
When you are a child, you are a sponge, as they say. Whether it is in the classroom, hearing things being spoken around you or in the case of what we speak about a lot on this podcast, sports. How do you decide the team that you will root for as you get older? For most, it is passed down from generation to generation following whomever your parents root for. There are some who take their own route and root for opposite teams of their parents, whether they like it or not. The long-asked question is, do you force your child to root for your team, or let them choose their own way?
For me personally, there was never any doubt. I was going to do whatever I could to make sure my children would root for my teams or I will die trying. I was very much against letting my kids root for a rival team. I have been very lucky (whether they like it or not) that my kids have become Mets, Giants, Rangers and Knicks fans. The Mets was the easiest as my kids picked up on my fandom early on and went all the way in. My son is a prime example of rooting for the Mets for better or worse and he is all in. He has been officially a diehard Mets fan for few years and 2024 was the year he went all in, when he was 7.
As far as rooting against teams, I have always been a Met fan even though my father is a lifelong Yankee fan. He is the opposite of me and never pushed to root for the team he rooted for. Sure, I would have seen more championships in my lifetime, but being a fan is a decision you live with and you die by it. The Mets sure do make it hard sometimes but I saw a championship when I was 8 years old. I would have had to wait until I was 18 for a Yankees championship. Although if you want to be technical, I would have been 7 months old when the Yankees won a championship before that.
It almost happened to me when my son was in kindergarten. Living in New Jersey (don’t get me started), my son was friends with a lot of Devils fans and they were doing well. He started to gravitate to the Devils and it was killing me. He rooted for them for the season through the playoffs but thankfully the next season, my team the New York Rangers went on to win the President’s Trophy (most points in the regular season) and he saw me cheering on my team and ended up switching to good side and has been ever since.
Not only is it who to root for, but being able to share experiences with your children. I have been very lucky to go to some great games over the years and when we had children, all I wanted was a kid or two to love sports as much as I do. With that said, I have been lucky to share experiences with both of my children. Moreso my son at this point than my daughter, but I have plans to really share some more moments with her sometime soon.
I have been able to take my kids to a watch party at Madison Square Garden to watch a Knicks playoff game while they were playing the Sixers in the playoffs this past season, as well as taking my son to some great games, such as game four of the NLDS in 2024 and seeing Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam and send the Mets to the NLCS.
It is something I will never take for granted being able to take my kids to events that they love and watching them cheer and the excitements on their faces being at these events, whether a sporting event, concert or something else. Not only do I love to take my kids to events but I also love coaching. It is something I have been doing since my kids were very little, starting with soccer (not a knowing a damn thing) but just letting them run around. After soccer, I have stuck to what I know - coaching baseball, softball and basketball.
The one thing all parents should do, if they are able to, is coach their kids and take them to as many events as possible. It is something they will remember for the rest of their lives and you hope they will pass on to their kids down the line.