Why do so many in Fairfield County root for Boston teams? (Bridgeport: transplants, 2015)
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I have always been mystified by this. Even more so now that I work regularly in a school in Norwalk. It seems that at least half the kids and half the adults are wearing Red Sox and Patriots gear all the time. I don't get this since Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium are 3 times farther away from FFC than Yankee Stadium/Citi Field/Met Life Stadium are. Even the Phillies and Eagles are slightly closer to FFC geographically than the Sox and Pats are.
I'm not saying it's the Bronx or Long Island where I would expect almost zero Sox/Pats fans but I would imagine this kind of split happening in Hartford or even New Haven maybe but not this close to NYC. I talked to a couple of friends who live in Stamford and Norwalk (and about half of them are NY sports fans and half Boston fans as well) and they had the following theories:
1) Because CT is a "New England" state. Now maybe I can see it in the sense that a lot of people in upstate NY who live in the parts of that region that are closer to Toronto, Cleveland and Pittsburgh than NYC (such as Buffalo or Elmira) still root for the "New York City" teams (except the Buffalo Bills and Sabres of course), but I'm not really getting that.
2) A lot of transplants from other parts of New England, especially Massachusetts, live in Fairfield County. I think there are a lot more people originally from NY and NJ than MA or RI there, but I can kind of see this (one of my Stamford friends who loves the Pats and Sox is originally from Springfield, MA for example and one of my colleagues at work grew up in Boston).
3) Right now, they are the teams with what in this day and age are as close as possible to being "dynasties" in their respective sports and as such they are geographically close enough that people are "joining on the bandwagon" and being "fair weather fans" even though other teams are a lot closer.
I only started working in CT in the last 10 years or so so I can't say if things were different in say the 70s or 80s, but my guess it is mostly reason #3 above. What do you think?
I am guessing that it is a combination of things including that Connecticut is a New England state plus the Red Sox have been having a really good year this year. Add in that they have some really likable players and you can see why they are popular. The same could be said for the Patriots. Jay
Although my opinion is probably worth zero because I lived much of my life in MA and now live around Hartford, I'll state what I think anyway.
CT is a New England state. We are a region of the United States. CT may be close to NYC but it is part of New England, not New York.
Another probable factor, things may change, but don't forget that for decades, Boston was the underdog against the rotten Yankees. Remember the curse of Babe Ruth (Curse of The Bambino.) The Yankees always won and the Red Sox always lost. The Yankees didn't need any more people cheering them on, but the Red Sox did. With some people, it practically became their mission in life. If only they could see the Red Sox win the World Series in their lifetime. Just once.
That race to "reverse the curse" inspired a lot of camaraderie and spirit. Then in 2004 they WON! Then again. And again. It's really quite an exciting story. It took 86 years but they did it!
A couple of thoughts on this, maybe some conflicting.
Anecdotally, I have noticed that people who have lived in Fairfield County for a long time are more tied to Boston than New York, despite New York's relative proximity. I think that the old timers here have more ties to Boston, and several decades ago, there was much less of a connection to New York than there is today.
In addition, I think that some who move here from New York make a conscious decision to reject New York and break with the New York past (I did). This sometimes involves switching allegiance to a New England team since Connecticut is part of New England.
Having said that, this is not a universal thing, and I think that many newcomers to Connecticut from New York have maintained their allegiance to New York teams. But between the people who have made the decision to break from their New York past, and the old times with stronger ties to Boston than New York, there is still a sizable number of people who favor New England teams here.
I was a NY Ranger fan, grew to hate the fans and the team. Fell in love with Montreal.
Was a NY Giants fan, now a Patriots fan. Im glad to be in New England, not the Mid Atlantic. Plus I hate NY. (I still root for the Giants at times, must be in the blood)
Was a Yankee fan as a kid but havent been a baseball fan in a long time.. Boring. Puts me to sleep. Hate it.
Here's my perspective as a younger person in the town of Fairfield:
1) My ancestors were NYC transplants and so kept with their teams.
2) So, as a young kid, I actually grew up "liking" NYC teams (but I never followed sports on my own or stopped to think about it).
3) Then, as I grew up, I realized how bad some of my family more tied to NYC was. They were incredibly snobbish and flaunted their wealth at us.
4) As a person who loves nature, I hated seeing the big cities and saw how dirty NYC is (it produces 2X as much trash as any other megacity in the world). Just take a look at Boston Harbor vs. the Hudson in NYC and you'll instantly know what I mean (plus, Boston's educational vibes resonate a lot more with me).
Also, in 2015, I was humiliated by other kids for rooting for the Seahawks when the Pats won (Their argument: "We're in New England."
5) That was the final straw. I'm now a Celtics/Sox/Bruins/Pats fan
LOL - It's rare you'll see such an anecdotal post from me. I crave the data*, and the data* shows that (at least for the town of Fairfield)
- It's about 60/40 Yankees/Sox (EDIT: this was of July 2018. Since the Sox have done so well this year it's now 57/43)
-It's about 60/40 Pats/Giants
-It's about 55/45 Celtics/Knicks
-It's about 55/45 Rangers/Bruins
In other words, Fairfield is the "midway point." My 15 years in the town agree with this. Lastly, if you compare "NYC" likes and "New England" likes, you get:
A perfect 50/50. I've always considered us right on the border (esp. since it's the last town with any significant commute to NYC).
*data refers to the number of Facebook likes per zip code as calculated by the "create an ad" feature. Enter a search term and it will tell you the number of people in an area who like it (accurate to the 100's place).
PS: Younger (25 and under) and Older (65+) like "New England" more, while middle aged people (26-64) like "NYC" more...
Think back to prior gens, and you may get the answer. FFC and east to New Haven burbs, at most, got NYC stations pre cable. WOR and WPIX for decades carried the Mets and Yanks, respectfully. If you lived in Hartford, you got neither Boston nor NYC, but perhaps got Red Sox on radio.
So I think the NY aversion upstate was tied to the far less generous offerings in antenna tv days upstate.
Here's my perspective as a younger person in the town of Fairfield:
1) My ancestors were NYC transplants and so kept with their teams.
2) So, as a young kid, I actually grew up "liking" NYC teams (but I never followed sports on my own or stopped to think about it).
3) Then, as I grew up, I realized how bad some of my family more tied to NYC was. They were incredibly snobbish and flaunted their wealth at us.
4) As a person who loves nature, I hated seeing the big cities and saw how dirty NYC is (it produces 2X as much trash as any other megacity in the world). Just take a look at Boston Harbor vs. the Hudson in NYC and you'll instantly know what I mean (plus, Boston's educational vibes resonate a lot more with me).
Also, in 2015, I was humiliated by other kids for rooting for the Seahawks when the Pats won (Their argument: "We're in New England."
5) That was the final straw. I'm now a Celtics/Sox/Bruins/Pats fan
LOL - It's rare you'll see such an anecdotal post from me. I crave the data*, and the data* shows that (at least for the town of Fairfield)
- It's about 60/40 Yankees/Sox (EDIT: this was of July 2018. Since the Sox have done so well this year it's now 57/43)
-It's about 60/40 Pats/Giants
-It's about 55/45 Celtics/Knicks
-It's about 55/45 Rangers/Bruins
In other words, Fairfield is the "midway point." My 15 years in the town agree with this. Lastly, if you compare "NYC" likes and "New England" likes, you get:
A perfect 50/50. I've always considered us right on the border (esp. since it's the last town with any significant commute to NYC).
*data refers to the number of Facebook likes per zip code as calculated by the "create an ad" feature. Enter a search term and it will tell you the number of people in an area who like it (accurate to the 100's place).
PS: Younger (25 and under) and Older (65+) like "New England" more, while middle aged people (26-64) like "NYC" more...
Interesting. I have heard it said that Fairfield is the first town in New England. Technically, that is not true, but in other ways it may be. I hope it continues to be true, but I wonder.
Keep it coming, interesting insights, thanks! My thoughts.
In terms of the past, obviously not everyone from FFC is a transplant, but I am thinking of mostly the last 10 years or so when I have more familiarity with the area (my parents owned a chain of conveniences stores, mostly in NY but opened one in Stamford the last few years they were in business in the early 80s so I had some familiarity when younger, but not much beyond the Greenwich/Stamford area). I do imagine that 50 years ago plus the county identified a lot more with New England as a region, though even in the 50s a couple of TV shows in their later years had characters based in NYC moving to CT (I Love Lucy and the Goldbergs (yes, there was a very different show with that name once before) come to mind), so it's not completely new that NYers moved there, back then the lack of taxes was probably an even bigger incentive, even my parents debated a move that way in the 80s (as well as FL but did neither in the end). Nowadays a lot of people in other parts of New England half joke that CT is not a New England state, but I won't debate that here (I feel it is, even Greenwich has an architecture to its houses and signs distinctly different from most of Westchester County)
I like the "shuck off NY" reason though. I myself may as things continue to go well finally move your way in the next year or so and be closer to the job though in my case being a lifelong Yankees and Giants fan who is 50 years old I doubt I could ever root for the Sox and Patriots. I have a cousin who grew up in Long Island who just turned 40 who has lived in the Boston area since her late 20s who did completely flip though.
Personally, I'm still going with it's mostly a fair-weather "bandwagon" kind of thing where FFC is close enough to NY/far enough from Beantown to still have plenty of NY fans as I would expect, but close enough (and technically in the outskirts of New England) for people to use it as a reason to "jump on board". I was telling a colleague who grew up in Bridgeport but always rooted for Boston teams that now with 4 World Series (and 3 titles so far, maybe a 4th coming?) since 2000 that she and all those long "cursed" Sox fans get to feel what it was like for me as a kid being a Yankees fan in the late 70s. In the 21st Century, the Sox seem to be the new Yankees.......
Quote:
Originally Posted by dazzleman
Interesting. I have heard it said that Fairfield is the first town in New England. Technically, that is not true, but in other ways it may be. I hope it continues to be true, but I wonder.
I can see that in some ways, I often just considered everything beyond Fairfield County (so the line along I-95 could be Milford or so) to be New England.
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