FANatics, in the connotative meaning of the word, are fans. They feel FANtastic about this team, this job, this family, this community, this diet, this or that factor of high attention, of participation. As a lad I was a fan of the Cleveland Indians, thirty miles away. My all-time favorite big leaguer is Bob Feller, the Rapid Robert pitcher in Cleveland beginning in the mid-1930s. When I went to New York, I dampened my ardor for the Indians and became a fan of the Yankees. I saw DiMaggio and Berra play their game. Games with Cleveland and the Yankees were marvelous, especially in one run wins. Living in Illinois I took up with the White Sox, and the great hitting (and walking) of Luke Appling. I felt strongly for the minor league team, the Millers, in Minneapolis, and was enormously disappointed when a fellow named Willie Mays was a member of the team only to be moved to the New York Giants before he could play a game in Minneapolis. One of the best fan centers I ever enjoyed was in Spokane, Washington when the fleet Morey Wills was on his way up to play in the big leagues in Los Angeles. Living in San Francisco, I was taken with the fortunes of the Giants. They were in New York when I was there during the early ‘40s, when they didn’t get the time of day from a Yankee fan. Moved to San Francisco before I moved there, they were quickly adopted in my fan base. Finally I got to see Willie Mays play, even though at the end of his Hall of Fame career. The Mays I missed in the 1950s was middle-aged in 1970. He wasn’t catching balls over his shoulder while running in the opposite direction or hitting quite as well as earlier, but he was the incomparable Mays. I now suffer with the Minneapolis Twins, who won the World Series the first year I returned in semi-retirement, to the great State of Minnesota in 1987, and they did it again in 1991, but have avoided the World Series since. But, they have Mauer and Morneau in this new millennium as catcher and first baseman. It is possible Mauer might win the batting title for the American League again this year.
I dare not move away, or the Twins will win the World Series, likely in rebuke over any shift of my fan loyalties. The team is in last place in their division, but I remain loyal. I could repeat the above for other sports, in their season, in each of my resident locations. The Minnesota Vikings will win, someday, the Super Bowl in football, but I suppose I will have been a long time in heaven. Too late for me.
To be a true fan, with self-control, is a marvelous elixir for life if rightly moderated. It has, when proper, a reality that accepts the poor of the context with the good of it. (The Apostle Paul was aware of Olympics.) It doesn’t have all the answers that would justify the loyalty, but it still feels good. It has acceptance, accenting the better part and leaving the negatives to care for themselves – with firm fan suggestions. The fair weather fans drop away when the losses are too many. The real fans suffer with their team, and there is always next year. More can be said on this philosophy of fans, but we must get to the point.
Fanaticism has a bad denotation, and rightly so. It is over-response, the over-reaction, to this or that feature we find in our lives. (It is the loss of balance or moderation in life from too much or too little.) But there is something implied in the preoccupation that is good when in balance with whole life. It retains something of our childhood fandom with our parents, with a preoccupation that may not seem important to adults who have their own fandom. I am a fan of my family, of my community and country, of my church. When someone talks to me about changing from this church to another, I often ask them if they are changing because of failure in the beliefs and practices of this church or because they do not warm to the pastor, or have some other personal objection. I remind them that this or that person will move on and they will continue in a church in which to share faith and fellowship. Fans know something of loyalty, when the fandom is genuine. Some institutions need a rebirth of loyalty today, a stronger fan relationship that attracts others to the party. We need to find glory. True loyalty is different and deeper than even honest fandom, but to be a fan announces to those around us what are the joys, the interests, and the sense of caring about large and small matters in our lives. If more persons gained a fan perception, in proper balance, of the things that really count, even in spiritual context, we would generate greater interest in the joys of life – spiritual and natural. Clap your hands for all that is homage for life and the divine. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020