i thought about fandom with how dan shanoff in wrote in his blog about his fandom (especially with the huge criticism he gets from his readers

(http://www.danshanoff.com/2007/10/fan-in-law-one-fairweather-fans-story.html)

i thought about it: maybe i could try to determine my fandom, or its evolution...

in the philippines, one can say that there is a nature of putting yourself along the line of the person or team. in other words, a team that you can identify with. for example, the biggest fanbase in our professional basketball league is a team with a never-say-die mantra, the kind you see in local movies wherein the lead gets beaten up, then mounts a comeback and wins at the end, gets the girl, and so on...

there is also a personality-based fandom, wherein the fandom is fixated on a certain player. for example, i love vladimir guerrero. when he was with the montreal expos, i was an expos fan. whey he moved to the angels, i can became an angels fan.

and then there is school loyalty. especially since i studied in one of the best, if not the best school in the philippines. the Ateneo de Manila University

this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/sports/23rivalry.html?ref=sports) will help explain it further.

school loyalty is very much valued here. to the point that if a high school standout from school A moves to the arch-rival school in school B, that person is almost permanently vilified.

but one thing trumps all of these: when national pride is at stake. that is why manny pacquiao is very relevant. that is why any achievements our athletes get here and abroad are treasured, expecially when it comes to B-sports (basketball, boxing, billiards and to an extent, bowling). it has been a cliche, but the country literally stops to see pac-man fight. he is such an icon and celebrity. something similar, but not of that magnitude, will happen with the upcoming World Pool Championships being held here in early November.

anyway, how about my loyalty...

i never really cared about my fandom when i was young. i could have cared less since my mind was on reading. i started with ateneo when i watched them beat la salle in 1996 (those who remember that game well know it as the "kaboom" game, where it was pretty much a three-point shooting exhibition). i decided then to pursue my dream of studying there for my college degree (1999-2003). now, i am a passionate alumnus of that school and will always be proud to have studied there. i do have friends who study in other universities and i do cheer for them when i feel like it, but the standard cheering goes to the school i studied, of which no one will make me shift allegiance (unlike Dan who shifted loyalty from Northwestern to Florida).

as for professional basketball, nothing really much. i started out with Ginebra, then moved on to Purefoods and back to Ginebra, to Red Bull and FedEx (now Air21) to Talk and Text and San Miguel (now Magnolia). it has evolved into more of i enjoying watching the game, period. for international, i originally was a Laker fan, as most of us Filipinos love Shotwime in the 80s and air jordan in the 90s. i then thought about cheeing for the Clippers, since i loved the makeup of the team then, especially elton and corey. also, since there isn't a lot of people who adore that team, for obvious reasons. i also cheer for good and excellent players and teams (lebron, gilbert, etc.) in the big four professional sports and soccer. in other words, just a simple sports nut. my mom would always kinda berate me for my tv habits. i look forward to Western Kentucky games as one of the players in the roster is the first Filipino in ages to be in a legitimate division 1 school. (i just hope that someone would cover the games for us here)

i credit my dad for grooming me into watching sports. nowadays it can be considered as bonding sessions since we don't get along that much. he loves baseball (he was a decent player in his younger days). he enjoys watching the yankees and the red sox play (blame our local espn for this). he always asks me about who this player and that player is (and given my smarts, i could answer). he's such a boxing addict, something i have come to appreciate as well.

i hope that this is something worthwhile to read and wail about.