True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans - Hardcover

Queenan, Joe

 
9780805069792: True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0805069798 ISBN 13: 9780805069792
Verlag: Henry Holt and Co., 2003

Inhaltsangabe

For Yankee, Cowboy, and Laker fans the answer is fairly clear: the return on investment is relatively high. But why do people root so passionately for tragically inept teams like the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, and the Philadelphia Phillies? Why do people organize their emotional lives around lackluster franchises such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, the San Diego Padres, and the Phoenix Suns, none of whom have ever won a single championship in their entire history? Is it pure tribalism? An attempt to maintain contact with one's vanished childhood? In True Believers, humorist and lifelong Philly fan Joe Queenan answers these and many other questions, shedding light on-and reveling in-the culture and psychology of his countless fellow fans.Making pilgrimages to such cradles of competition as Notre Dame Stadium, Fenway, and Wrigley Field, Queenan delves into every aspect of fandom in such illuminating chapters as Fans Who Love Too Much (men, like the author, who actually resort to psychotherapy to deal with their unhealthy addiction), Fans Who Run in Front (which meticulously delineates the differences between Retroactive, Municipal, and Vicarious Frontrunners), and Fans Who Misbehave (those who spill beer on women, moon other fans, or throw half-eaten sandwiches at innocent bystanders simply because they look like the current coach of the New York Jets). True Believers is a hilarious but also heartfelt look into the world of those fans who realize that it is, in fact, more than just a game.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

The author of the bestselling Balsamic Dreams (Picador 0-312-42120-6), Joe Queenan is a contributing editor at GQ and writes the column “Good Fences” for The New York Times. He lives in Tarrytown, New York.

Rezensionen

*Starred Review* What exactly does it mean to be that special kind of sports fan who roots for teams that perpetually disappoint--Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Saints? Is it masochism? Self-loathing? Childhood abuse? Chemical imbalance? According to Queenan, a contributing editor at GQ, it can be a combination of any number of personality disorders. He recounts his own troubled childhood rooting for the Phillies and the permanent damage suffered when they blew the 1964. He doesn't forget Philly's mostly woeful NFL franchise, the Eagles. They drove him to decide on a second NFL team for which to root, the Baltimore Colts. They broke his heart, too. He discusses the collective psyche of fans who paint their faces, throw hotdogs at opponents, or call sports talk shows to whine about the most disappointing White Sox moments of the last 12 years. But within the sarcasm and the self-criticism, Queenan reveals a universal truth: sports fans are hope junkies. Every season, every game, could be the start of the big turnaround in which the Cubs don't fade in August, the Saints turn the corner, and the Cavaliers . . . well, hope can only carry you so far. Great reading for fans who want a few insights into their personal demon and a few laughs, too. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Queenan's latest should be required reading not just for the folks of the sardonic subtitle but also for their wives, girlfriends and sports-phobic pals. The humorist spotlights something that's as peculiar as it is pedestrian: the schlub who roots for sorry teams. Why do some of us back losers, Queenan (Balsamic Dreams) asks, and why defend this foolishness so passionately? The recovering Philadelphia fan (of all the city's teams) would know. He groups admirers into categories-"Fans Who Love Too Much," "Fans Who Misbehave," etc.-and grounds his quips in droll situations such as his visit to a therapist who has the nerve to say the fate of the rain forest is graver than the fate of the 76ers. Queenan doesn't limit his premise to one club or sport, either; he covers everything from the Boston Red Sox to the "cataleptic" Wizards in Washington. Everywhere, stubborn followers like him hope for a turnaround in the standings. His enthusiasts remember times, usually before they were born, when "we" pulled out some miracle win. Queenan tallies the time he has spent watching sports and figures those years were not truly wasted: "It is my belief," he says, "that without sports, the average man would have no emotional life whatsoever." In this hilarious and strangely erudite book, Queenan doesn't overwrite his subject-for a diehard fan knows what to do when the buzzer sounds: go home.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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From True Believers:

Virtually all sports books deal with athletes. In my view, athletes are almost irrelevant: they can be replaced. Sports is not about the people who play the games, but about the people who watch them. Athletes ultimately manage to work these neuroses out of their systems. Fans never do.
Economists insist that every human action has some raison d’être. True Believers is an attempt to find out what that raison d’être is. There has to be some reason why we put ourselves through this year after year. Or, to paraphrase Darwin, man is the only species that honestly thinks the Cubs and the Red Sox could meet in the World Series.

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Verlag
Henry Holt and Co.
Erscheinungsdatum
2003
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0805069798
ISBN 13 
9780805069792
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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