[.ca] True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sportsfans (ISBN 1559278951)

From Amazon.com:
"To me, the Phillies and Eagles are exactly like nicotine:," writes Joe Queenan in his painful and deeply funny book True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans, "a preposterously noxious semi-hallucinogenic substance capable of giving great pleasure for brief periods of time, but that will ultimately destroy your health." Targets of Queenan's blowtorch mockery in previous books have included Hollywood, chain restaurants, and baby boomers. But here, he shines the spotlight on himself in an extended examination on what it means to join in the unique self-flagellation that is sports fandom. That flagellation is made more painful when, as in Queenan's case, the fan has sacrificed their time, emotional well-being, and regard among family members to following teams that often suck real bad. But True Believers is less a work of psychological research than a ruminative and passionate explanation of the rules of conduct by which the author believes fans should live. These same rules, of course, are discussed all the time by fans on bleacher seats, bar stools, and living room couches around the world as they desperately hope that this will finally be the year the Cubs or Cardinals or Clippers finally get it together. But rarely have the rules been codified in one bound volume. Queenan shines when attacking the dreaded "bandwagon" fan and when describing his decision not to stop the young son of a family friend from ruining his life by rooting for the Mets. And he's poignant and refreshingly void of cynicism in relating the last days of his father and how they overlapped with a pivotal Eagles-Falcons game. This is a lively and entertaining read that should appeal to any sports fan except those incomprehensible jerks that root for the Lakers and Yankees. --John Moe

What do you do when you're team's 50 games back?:
Joe Queenan has written the ultimate sports fan book. True Believers is dedicated to the real sports fan. Not fans of the Los Angeles Lakers or the New York Yankees, but the fans of downtrodden teams like the Phillies, the Blackhawks, and the Eagles. Fans who know what it's like to suffer through years of torment, wondering if your team was ever going to be good enough to win it all. Queenan grew up in Philadelphia, and he has a life-long commitment to all of his hometown teams. He says that fan support must be based either on where you grew up, or who your father rooted for. No other form of fandom is acceptable to him. Thus, he has had to live through the Phillies blowing a 6.5 game lead with 12 games to go in 1964, the Flyers blowing a 3-1 lead in the playoffs to the New Jersey Devils (with two of the last three games at home), and other heartbreaks. Loving Philadelphia teams is the epitome of heartbreak, the ultimate love-hate relationship. Why should this matter to the rest of us? I will tell you right now that, if you have never followed any sports and think that to do so is the ultimate waste of time, then this book is not for you. First, you will not understand it. Secondly, what little you do understand will only reinforce your already formed beliefs. Unless you have experienced the common bond of watching your team blow the big game, or the big series, or just stink up the league in general, you will not get a lot out of this book. (Ok, maybe if you're a Yankee fan, you'll be able to laugh at these idiots he's talking about). What does this book consist of? Queenan discusses the psychology behind rooting for a team of also-rans. He explores what makes the true sports fan tick. He does this among chapters discussing fair weather fans (those fans who only follow a team when they are good), sports movies (and how most of them are horrible and don't even come close to reflecting reality), sports announcers (both the good and the bad), and misbehaving fans (those idiots in the stands who do the stupidest things and generally annoy the people around them). Some of these chapters are universal, even to Yankees fans, and thus may be enjoyed by everybody. Some (like an entire chapter on the sorry-looking New York Jets) will only mean something to the fan who has been through something similar. All of these chapters, however, share Queenan's sarcastic wit and his extreme commentary. I love the language that Queenan uses and the way he writes, even if sometimes it seems he's using words just to see whether people understand them or not. At times he sounds pompous, but even then he's entertaining. The fair-weather fan chapter is probably the best, as he itemizes all the different types of front-runners there are, from celebrities who must be seen at courtside of Lakers games, to the mainstream folk who just can't bear to suffer along with the true fan, and thus change their favourite team on the drop of a quarter. As he says, suffering is what makes success taste so sweet. If you haven't been through the dark times, then when they finally do win a championship, you can't truly appreciate it. He loathes front-runners with a passion, and he's not afraid to say it. He certainly takes no prisoners in this chapter, heaping scorn on every type of front-runner there is. If there is any fault in the book, it is the fact that some of the references are very obscure (though as Queenan would say, if you don't know it, you're probably not a true fan). I love sports and follow a lot of them, but some of the references are so old that even I didn't get them. You could figure them out from the context, but I think some of the humour value is lost there. Sometimes he explains them, or at least gives a year that it happened, but other times he goes on like we should be able to keep up with him. I had no trouble skipping the reference, assuming that it was supposed to illustrate some point, and moving on. However, it is a strike against the book. One other thing I would like to know is what he thinks of fans like me. I grew up in Iowa, where there are no professional sports teams, and my father was not a huge fan of anything either. I have my allegiances that have never died since childhood, but they certainly don't seem to fit his criteria. What does that make me? Unfortunately, Queenan doesn't address that, so it feels like something's missing. Even so, this book is definitely a winner. At times it's hilarious, at times it's touching (like when he talks about when his father's last days and how they affected Queenan's spectatorship). You may see yourself reflected in it. You may just find other fans to ridicule. Maybe you're not a sports fan but you're trying to understand a husband (or wife???) who is. If so, get this book. You will either laugh at or along with Queenan as he continues his odyssey. And you might even learn something along the way. Yes, even you Yankees fans. David Roy

Queenanýs heart in the right place:
"True Believers" is a fairly short book, but it took me a few weeks to get through it. This is not a reflection on the quality of author Joe Queenan's writing but on the subject matter. Sports itself, as Queenan insistently and correctly reminds us, is more than "just a game", contrary to what some anti-sports bluenoses think. "How could you possibly compare the fate of the rain forest to the fate of the Philadelphia 76ers?" Queenan demands of his therapist. "You need to get your priorities straight." And he means it too, and rightly so. But while a proper treatment of the games themselves often requires volumes of material, sports FANDOM is a fairly lightweight topic scarcely worth the 200-plus pages of space that Queenan devotes to it. I got through the book by treating it as a series of disjointed articles, rather than as a number of points comprising an overall theme. And yet Queenan scores so many bulls-eyes through his observations about the art and practice of sports fandom that it's impossible for me to withhold praise for his effort. Foremost among his welcome observations is that it's OK to hate. You can't love a team or a specific athlete without being able to hate the object of your adoration. It's OK to hate the team that you root for, and the players on that team, if you feel that they've betrayed you. In fact, this hatred can be of the most extreme and virulent quality as long as it's never actualized. Queenan deplores fan violence and in the same breath goes on to state, "But to deny that one has ever seriously contemplated killing the place kicker is to deny one's own humanity. A fan who hasn't at least thought about killing the place kicker is really no fan at all." YES! Thank you, Joe Queenan, for giving me the freedom to fantasize about committing mayhem on pig-headed and fastball-stubborn Felix Rodriguez and namby-pamby lisping doughboy Tim Worrell, the two San Francisco Giant relief pitchers who smugly and treacherously snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2002 World Series, ROBBING the Giants and their fans of the first world championship in the team's West Coast history. In fact, Rodriguez and Worrell would both repeat this perfidy in the 2003 Division Championship against the Florida Marlins. Is there an entrance to hell gaping widely enough to admit them? For that matter, one may properly allow one's passion for sports to interfere with his relationship with God, as well. Queenan is frank in acknowledging that he has never forgiven God for allowing the Philadelphia Phillies to choke away the 1964 pennant. Why should I forgive God for the 2002 World Series? I watched it with my 77 year-old father, who will probably never have another chance to see the Giants win a world championship. Queenan's point is that it is the very uniqueness of the skills possessed by the world's best athletes - far more distinctive than those possessed by other professionals - that give the games an epic quality that overshadows that which we call "real life". He estimates that there about 5,000 athletes in the world that are the subject of intense scrutiny - think of how small this number is in comparison to the numbers of doctors, lawyers, teachers, and social workers who are doing the so-called important work. After paying respect to family, money and career, Queenan ruefully observes, "But it's hard to relate to them viscerally. No matter how hard you try, you're never going to find 65,000 complete strangers willing to stand in subzero temperatures cheering for your bank statement." Small wonder that we venerate the athletes as gods and that they look down upon us as subjects. In turn, it's equally small wonder that we curse them when they fail us. Queenan also gives us an interesting chapter on the intensity of the British football fan. And by the time I finished reading his piece on the Notre Dame mystique, a chapter entitled "Fans Who See Green", I wished that I had been born Irish and Catholic. My main criticism of the book, other than its length, is that too much of it reads like an instructional manual. Queenan devotes too much time to explaining how-to and how-NOT-to follow sports. But he's too dogmatic. Both the sports fan's paradise and the sports fan's purgatory have many mansions, and each fan must follow his own path. It's rank Pharisaism for Queenan to insist that his is the only way. But the release of a book on "True Believers", on fans who love too much regardless of how they are rewarded, was timed perfectly, in light of the recent failures of both the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, baseball's perennial also-rans with ever-loyal fan bases, to make it to the World Series. Both teams found a way to blow late-inning leads in the deciding games. How many Red Sox fans; how many Cub fans, Viking fans, Saints fans, Falcons fans, Vancouver Canuck fans etc. will die of old age waiting for the prize that never comes? How many have died already? Queenan pays proper homage both to the fans who stick around for more punishment and to those who break the cycle of hope and letdown, as one would break a drug habit, by giving up on their team. Chapter 9 of this book is entitled "Fans Who Walk Away". And as I finish the book, I am still left wondering which direction I am going to take with the San Francisco Giants.

Discover Your Inner Irrational Fanaticism:
Back in the nineties I read a fascinating, dead-on article in GQ about Jets fans (of whom I am one). That article was entitled "The Worst Sports Fans in History". Joe had Jets fans pegged, and his current work, much more introspective and comprehensive, gives priviledged access into the mind of a certified sports maniac -- and in so doing -- of ALL us sports maniacs. Being a fan of the Mets, Knicks and Jets, I am in regular need a hug. Joe, in this book, gave me a kick in the face instead. In spite of his disgust for things I love so dearly, he's put together one of the most entertaining and disturbingly honest books on sports fandom. His anecdotes are hilarious, his pain is palpable, and his honesty is refreshing. A breezy read -- I picked it up to read on a business trip, but after flipping a few pages, was done only hours later -- in short, it's going to be a gift to everyone I know. It's not just for sports fans -- though for honest fanatics (not you stinkin' front-runners), this is required reading to be sure. I think it's an especially good read that non-sports fans would get a real kick from. In fact, I think people who don't really understand what it means to be a sports fan will LOVE the humor and insight into what it means to be a fan. That's how accessible and fun his book is.

Another Queenan Triumph...:
I love Joe Queenan's books, this the fourth of his that I have read. He is usually hilarious and always on the mark. This book lacks (and that is not a bad thing) has usual trademark razor wit that causes bleeding when touched. However, he goes after fair weather fans and Yankee fans quite well. With the exception the extended chapter on Notre Dame (I still hate Notre Dame and can't enjoy even Queenan's wise commentary), the book is terrific. Parts are moving. Queenan's life, as many of ours have, been shaped by sports. Friendships, family, etc. The book is funny; but it also honest and a bit moving. The end, taking place at Wrigley Field (of course) may move you to tears. Great stuff.

A quick, dead-on read:
Joe knows the suffering that goes along with loving the sometimes unlovable loser teams that most of us follow. He also has some pointed attacks at the bandwagon jumpers that should satisfy all who, like me, have those friends who check the box scores before declaring their allegiances. A great gift for even those moderately interested in sports and a great addition to any personal library.