Los Angeles Fans Are Actually the Best in Baseball

There’s no need to list off the many great things about living in the Los Angeles area because the people that live here already know them and the people that don’t live here already hate us for them.

One thing that non-L.A. folks have always been able to pride themselves on is that, possibly even because of enduring tougher living conditions, they’re all better sports fans than those of Los Angeles – who are widely regarded as fickle, unknowledgeable “bandwagoners.” But what if all that just wasn’t true?

As a sports fan, the L.A. area is a veritable smorgasbord of athletic delights and championship-caliber teams everywhere you look. If you like basketball, there’s the Los Angeles Lakers and UCLA Bruins – two teams steeped in rich, buttery championship tradition. Heck, even the Los Angeles Clippers are a playoff contender now.

If you like football, the USC Trojans have a pretty decent track record – and even the UCLA Bruins are ranked this year. Maybe hockey is your thing. Cool, we’ve got the Los Angeles Kings who just happen to have won the Stanley Cup last year. We even have a championship soccer team.

As much as I like to make fun of soccer for being a fake sport (because it is), all that running around and not scoring requires a great deal of athleticism. And if you’re into that sort of thing, the Los Angeles Galaxy have won the MLS Championship of Boredom Cup four or five times.

When it comes to baseball, we’ve got the high-flying Los Angeles Dodgers and the down, but not forgotten, Los Angeles Angels. Both of these teams have strongly devoted fanbases.

Fans of the Dodgers have recently enjoyed their switch to the “pay to get all the top players” motto, while the Angels fans won a World Series just a decade ago and now are employing “pay to get all the once-great, now-mediocre players.” But the Angels still have the best player in baseball for at least the next four years, so there’s still hope.

These two teams are, technically speaking, rivals. But in Southern California a rivalry mostly consists of making catty remarks behind someone’s back. Some fans try to pretend they’re tough guys, but when they’re done barking they usually pour themselves a light beer and finish off their sushi plate.

It’s the people outside Los Angeles who seem to have the biggest beef with our teams. The East Coast vs. West Coast theme has permeated many aspects of our culture. And nowhere is that more true than in sports. East Coast fans proclaim, “We are superior because we care more than West Coast fans do!” And West Coast fans reply, “Huh? What were we talking about? I just saw Julia Roberts walk into a Starbucks.”

L.A. fans get ridiculed for showing up late to games and leaving early. The fallacy of this is that at any given home game, there are a significant number of fans in attendance for the opposing team arriving late and leaving early. Because this is Los Angeles and our traffic nightmares have permanently altered the way people think about time. We aren’t just late for games; we’re late for everything.

L.A. fans are labeled “bandwagon” and not “true fans” like other cities have. Not going to games when a team stinks, doesn’t make them any less as fans. When a movie stinks, people don’t go see it just to prove they’re the best fans of Jennifer Aniston or James Cameron or Paramount Pictures.

Other team’s fans accuse L.A. fans of not being as knowledgeable about baseball. Even if something like this could actually be measured, do you have to know exactly how a meal was made for you to enjoy it? Nope. And do you need to know who was the best at making it 20 years ago to find it delicious? Nope.

Additionally, the Dodgers and Angels have each averaged over three million in attendance for some time now and that’s with all the other things in Southern California they could be spending their money on.

Detroit Tigers fans get an honorable mention here. It’s a real testament to their devotion that their attendance has been so good despite the city’s economic trouble. That stadium could easily be a wasteland and Tigers fans light it up every night.

When a free agent player is looking at what team to sign with, L.A. has its location advantage. But, a player can also factor in that if you succeed, L.A. fans will exalt you to highest of highs; and, if you fail, L.A. fans will just be kind of bummed a bit, but it’s cool, bro, let’s head out to the beach.

There is certainly no denying that L.A. fans are more laid-back than fans from the rest of the country. But if you think being more high-strung about men in matching clothes playing a game, then it might be time to reevaluate your life choices.

Los Angeles baseball fans love their teams. They just do it while also enjoying a great deal of the other cultural and environmental delights which are readily available throughout the area.

And that’s really what makes fans in L.A. the best — they have so many other choices and they choose to spend their hard-earned money on a day at the ballpark.

Jed Rigney is a Los Angeles-based award-winning filmmaker who also fancies himself a baseball writer. You can follow him on Twitter @JedRigney

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