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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.
It's a spectrum. As others have pointed out, even Greenwich still has hints of NE poking through (the architecture, view from I-95 is completely different than in Westchester, etc). On the other end of the spectrum, Guilford/Madison are undeniably small town New England but are the last yankees towns...
Trying to make an all-defining border for a cultural area (especially when there's no national border) is pointless.
My best approximation is looking at WESTCOG minus Sherman, New Milford, Bridgewater, and Brookfield as the part of CT NOT in New England...
The Patriots and Red Sox have an awful lot of bandwagon fans. Personally, I have enormous respect for Jets fans. Super Bowl III was January 1969. Joe Namath must be 100 years old by now and embalmed by all the alcohol. They've only had 10 playoff wins since with 4 AFC Championship game losses and no Super Bowl appearances. None of those AFC Championship games were very close. Pittsburgh in 2011, they were down 24-3 at the half. They were blown out the year before by Indy. They lost badly to Elway. Miami shut them out.
I wonder if we've come full circle and front running fans now become Boston fans! I can remember a time when that was unthinkable. But the four major Boston teams have 10 titles this century. 11 if the Sox win the World Series. New York teams in that span have 5 and that's if you count the Devils.
It's a spectrum. As others have pointed out, even Greenwich still has hints of NE poking through (the architecture, view from I-95 is completely different than in Westchester, etc). On the other end of the spectrum, Guilford/Madison are undeniably small town New England but are the last yankees towns...
Trying to make an all-defining border for a cultural area (especially when there's no national border) is pointless.
My best approximation is looking at WESTCOG minus Sherman, New Milford, Bridgewater, and Brookfield as the part of CT NOT in New England...
It will be interesting if it is a Sox-Dodgers series, I am old enough to remember the Yankees and Dodgers having a nice rivalry too (though not the BIG rivalry in the World Series years of my parents generation when they were still in Brooklyn) so it will be hard to root for anyone. Maybe the Brew Crew can pull it off tonight and I can root for the underdog (besides being one on paper this would only be their 2nd World Series and they didn't win their first one back in '82)
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 think it's likely a holdover from pre cable television when the only TV stations available were part of "The Red Sox Baseball Network" which pretty much blanketed all of New England. Eastern Long Island is similar...the locals to this day are mostly Red Sox fans( even though it's NY) ... because pre cable the only 2 television stations available were from New Haven and Providence and both broadcast Red Sox games, not Yankees. People were born into Red Sox nation.
I think it's likely a holdover from pre cable television when the only TV stations available were part of "The Red Sox Baseball Network" which pretty much blanketed all of New England. Eastern Long Island is similar...the locals to this day are mostly Red Sox fans( even though it's NY) ... because pre cable the only 2 television stations available were from New Haven and Providence and both broadcast Red Sox games, not Yankees. People were born into Red Sox nation.
I had read that Carl Yasztremski, who grew up in the far eastern part of Long Island, was a lifelong Red Sox fan and that he was thrilled he got to play his entire career with them.
I had read that Carl Yasztremski, who grew up in the far eastern part of Long Island, was a lifelong Red Sox fan and that he was thrilled he got to play his entire career with them.
Right...because he grew up listening to or watching Red Sox Games.
It's funny to go into local kinds of bars on Eastern Long Island in Summer and see the discomfort of the NYC Summer people when there is a Sox/Yankees game on TV and everyone is cheering for the Sox.
Also, one more thing I'd like to add is that while FFC is closer to NYC than Boston at least the eastern end (where I'm at) is sufficiently far from NYC that in order to go see a game that would be a "big deal." It's a 75 minute drive in as compared with a 150 minute drive.
Both are somewhat prohibitive to the point where you're not going to be a fan who shows up every season, let alone month/week like some fanatics.
So, since both are sufficiently far, it's less of a pragmatic thing and more of an ideological one...
Also, one more thing I'd like to add is that while FFC is closer to NYC than Boston at least the eastern end (where I'm at) is sufficiently far from NYC that in order to go see a game that would be a "big deal." It's a 75 minute drive in as compared with a 150 minute drive.
Both are somewhat prohibitive to the point where you're not going to be a fan who shows up every season, let alone month/week like some fanatics.
So, since both are sufficiently far, it's less of a pragmatic thing and more of an ideological one...
I would also say that for football fans, from Eastern Fairfield county, Giants/Jets stadium and Gillette in Foxboro are pretty much equidistant, and coming from the south/west, Gillette can be a more pleasant drive.
I would also say that for football fans, from Eastern Fairfield county, Giants/Jets stadium and Gillette in Foxboro are pretty much equidistant, and coming from the south/west, Gillette can be a more pleasant drive.
Yes, this is absolutely true.
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