Surviving as a Die-Hard Sports Fan in the Most Depressing Sports City in America

Surviving as a Die-Hard Sports Fan in the Most Depressing Sports City in America

An In-Depth Analysis on How to Stay Sane as a San Diego Sports Fan

By Christian Gange

One of my all time favorite expressions is “It’s always darkest before the dawn,” which famously means that things always seem to get worse before they get better and to keep the faith. Having said that, I am sick and tired of the darkness that casts over San Diego sports and have been painfully waiting for a sliver of light to resemble that dawn is finally here. Ever since I taught myself how to read at the ripe age of three for the sole purpose of reading the sports page, sports have for the most part taken over my life. This very easily could’ve been an expert article on how to celebrate your city winning a championship if I was born in Boston, San Francisco, New York, or any other city that have been unfairly spoiled for the entirely of my 22 years on this planet. However, my selfish parents decided to chase beautiful weather and have left me in tears multiple times a year watching my teams fail to come close to winning a championship year after year AFTER YEAR.

Now that I was able to get that off my chest, I must transition to the point of this article. I don’t think I can physically endure writing a full article on how depressing my sports fandom has been. Due to that, I will be writing about the multiple reasons that before each season I can put on my “SD” hat and look in the mirror and smile knowing that one of these days I will get the luxury that those from Boston and San Francisco get way too often... And that’s to celebrate my city winning a championship.

Always Be Optimistic For The Future

San Diego has had a major professional sports team since the San Diego Padres joined as an expansion team to the MLB in 1969. Ever since then, San Diego remains the largest United States city to have not won a Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, or any other Major League sports championship. Having such consistent failure is certainly more than enough for fans to simply give up on San Diego sports but I have never been one to give up on something I care about. The Padres have not made the postseason since 2006 and have not won a playoff series since 1998 and I obviously was too young to even remember that. The only thing that has kept me going throughout all of these catastrophic seasons has been to be optimistic for the future. 

For the past 4-5 years I have gone into each season knowing that there was virtually no chance that the team has any success but have known that the future has been looking up. On January 26^th of this year, “MLB Pipeline released its preseason ranking of the Top 100 prospects on Saturday night, and the list again skews heavily toward San Diego. The Padres became the first team in the history of the rankings to place 10 prospects on the preseason list” (Cassavell). I’ve been following these prospects for some time now and have been tweeting non-stop that the San Diego Padres will win the 2020 World Series and until that officially doesn’t happen, I don’t plan to stop talking about it. Optimism is all I got as a depressed fan of a historically bad franchise and it’s a major reason why I’ve stayed happy rooting on this team.

Have a Sense of Humor

San Diego 'wins' title as 'Worst Sports City' in America

I honestly have no idea how anyone can be even somewhat okay without having a sense of humor about how bad it has been rooting for a sports city that has shown no life. Growing up going to games and watching them on TV with my friends and family, I have listened to many F-Bombs towards players, coaches, ownership, and, of course, other fans. And while we’ve had plenty of reason to do that, we’ve also had equal reason to laugh at our misfortune and the best example of that was in an article written by Jay Posner of The San Diego Union Tribune. The very first line of the article was, “Finally, San Diego has won a championship” (Posner). Posner was referring to an article written by Associated Press Columnist, Paul Newbury, where he used several categories to ultimately declare San Diego as the worst sports city in America. Many sports fans would be heartbroken to read this about their hometown - but not San Diego. We have embraced it and have openly claimed it as our town’s first championship. We know how bad it has been but we know that it’s only going to get better and by laughing at our past misfortune, we have been able to stay smiling knowing that better times await.

Have a Villain to Root Against (Yes I’m Talking About Dean Spanos)

My room growing up was covered with San Diego Chargers flags, posters, jerseys, signed memorabilia, etc. I along with the rest of my city loved Junior Seau, Ladainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, Philip Rivers, and everyone else who suited up in the powder blue jerseys to represent the city of San Diego. The love that we all had for our team ended on January 12, 2017, when the worst man in the sports world decided to do the unthinkable and rip the team away from us and move them up north to Los Angeles. I am a proud USC Trojan and love living in Los Angeles, but when it comes to professional sports, I can’t stand any team from LA. Moving our team to the same city as the Dodgers was as big of a slap in the face as you could do to San Diego and the way they did made it so much worse, “Dean Spanos and his kids left San Diego without so much as a proper goodbye. They tweeted a letter in which they addressed the city that had been home to the team for 56 years for a paragraph. Then, like so many snakes, they slithered out of town without giving so much as an interview to a local outlet” (Phillips). 

However, ever since he made this evil decision, San Diego has rallied together to hate Dean Spanos and the Chargers with a burning passion. Instead of another year of heartbreak, we have gotten to witness historically low attendance numbers and a team that will always lose a big game even when it looks like they have everything they need to win a championship. And for that I thank you Dean. Yes you are a clown and are never welcome back to America’s Finest City, but laughing at you on a daily basis gives us all something to smile about so I guess I am obligated to thank you for your service… Oh, and you can go kick rocks in that soccer stadium that you call home too.

Do Something Else! – Thank God for the Pacific Ocean…

“San Diego may be California’s second largest city, but it’s also known America’s finest city. People flock to San Diego and are captivated by its amazing weather, laid back people, and abundance of activities” (Chou). While I will never deny my jealously of Boston sports fans, or any other fan who’s gotten to attend a championship parade in their hometown, I will always brag that I grew up in America’s Finest City. As I’ve explained throughout this article, a playoff appearance by a San Diego sports team is just about as rare of an occurrence as it gets, but while other cities freeze their butts off in the snow, we get to enjoy all of the great things that make San Diego so great. If spending every day of the year on the beach with sunny, 75-degree weather isn’t enough for you, we also have things to do for all ages. You can experience the best nightlife in the world in the Gaslamp District, take your kids to the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, or Legoland, or simply walk along our beautiful harbor with your significant other and just take in the beauty that is America’s Finest City. I could talk for hours about why San Diego is the best city on the planet and growing up there made it okay to watch bad sports year after year. “All I can say is that you have to experience San Diego for yourself to completely understand what makes it so unbelievably amazing. There is a reason why it’s called America’s Finest City!” (Chou).