Topic: Fandom

May 3, 2013

John Rawls, one of the greatest American philosophers, was also a pretty serious baseball fan. Still, there are some serious holes in his recently unearthed argument for baseball as "the best of all games." Also, though, there's some basic emotional truth about being a fan.

April 12, 2013

Being a sports fan is a passive thing, and can be a frustrating one. But it shouldn't make us smaller, less happy and less generous than we'd otherwise be. So let's stop letting it do that.

March 26, 2013

Virginia Commonwealth left the NCAA Tournament earlier than usual, but has emerged as a miniature dynasty of sorts in recent years, and remains one of the foremost examples of mid-major excellence. But this ascent is both more complicated and more exciting for VCU diehards than you might expect.

November 19, 2012

It's one thing to watch sports in search of some reflection of ourselves and the world as it exists. It's another and entirely more complicated thing to find it.

July 31, 2012

The Minnesota Twins are not the worst organization in baseball, or the unluckiest or most poorly managed. They are, however, an organization in the middle of an existential crisis that's now two decades old, and which shows little sign of working itself out. In part two of this two-part look at their two decades of meh, a look at what's been lost, and what's at risk.

July 16, 2012

A Minnesota Timberwolves fan does his best to remove his fan's blinders and figure out just what we talk about when we talk about Kevin Love. And why Kevin Love seems so unwisely, stubbornly moved to keep talking about it.

June 15, 2012

Dean Smith and Jack Keane wanted to host club soccer fans at bars in New York City. By bringing together fans of different loyalties and backgrounds, they got closer to recreating the communal atmosphere of real stadiums than English pubs ever have.

June 11, 2012

Fandom requires a certain amount of surrender to contingency, given that we're not the ones playing the game. But, in his column advocating a politically motivated approach to picking a favorite in the NBA Finals, Dave Zirin takes engagement a step too far.

March 10, 2012

Ricky Rubio will miss the rest of the season, and for some reason, we just can't cope. 

February 1, 2012

The league's latest campaign has already spawned a host of imitators. That had to be the point, right?