I have now had two people of late questioning my fanhood and more or less attributing me to be another “bandwagon fan.” This compells me to respond to these individuals.
To begin, I would like to say that I’ve been a Tigers fan as long as I can remember (since age 6 to be specific). I’ve followed them in the bad times (the late 90’s to the early 2000’s). I’ve never been considered a bandwagon fan by anyone until lately when I wrote my post “Dear Tigers, I’m done with you till something changes.” To clarify to those who don’t understand, I wrote this post out of frustration, something that any truly devoted fan tends to do… instead of yelling at the team and throwing my remote (which I’ve been tempted to do), I write blog posts. I spit out what i’m thinking. Kneejerk… YES! Well thought out commentary … OF COURSE NOT! These are things that I’m prone to doing as an emotionally invested fan.
In my post I used the phrasing “i’m done with you,” to clarify for fans who misunderstood, what this meant, was I’m gonna stop emotionally going berzerk after losses, and try to detach myself more to spend more time with other things such as my family and friends and avoid watching this team for awhile until significant moves have been made. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I STOP ROOTING FOR OR CARING ABOUT THE TIGERS. I’m just taking a step back to prevent myself from ripping out my hair (what little I have left) and emotionally being depressed about my favorite Detroit sports team… After all I didn’t pick the name Tigsfan for nothing 
I’ve attended several games this year, (even some after my supposed “jumping off the bandwagon” post as some have claimed). And I plan to go to several more. I love watching my team play winning and losing. I remember catching my first baseball when Alan Trammel belted a foul ball into the second deck at Tigers stadium that I ran after in grabbed (at the time I was surrounded by empty seats). Since then I’ve attended tons of games and have been a Tigers fan for life.
I came into this season after drinking the TIgers Koolaide hoping for a championship. What would be the first of my lifetime. I anxiously sat and watched as we started the season 0-8 and my hopes continued to fade as we are 11 games under .500 as of this posting. I still hold out hope though, that one day this team will be as dominant as we had all hoped. I just believe that changes need to be made before that can happen. This is not to be misinterpretted that I am going to stop watching, or staying up till 1:30 watching us blow a game by walking in the winning run. Or stop screaming at Todd Jones when he drives us all through a rollercoaster ride of an inning. Or stop calling out players who I think are underperforming. Its my job as a fan to be reactionary, thats what makes us fans. I’ve NEVER rooted for another baseball team in my life. I never plan to. When I have kids the first experience I want to have with them will be taking them to a Tigers game. My post was something I wrote as a fan to this team. It was by far my most popular post that I’ve written. I write kneejerk thoughts, I cater to the fans that think “I wish I could trade this whole damn team away” one day, then the next say “WOW WE HAVE THE NEXT MURDER’S ROW” the next. Its how fans are, we react this way as emotional human beings. I write about how I would fix things, not how I hate the Tigers, not how I’m giving up on them and jumping off the bandwagon. No. I write about how I would change things, and how lack of change is hurting this team. I write how to fix, as oppposed to how to give up. This is because i’m NOT a fairweather fan. Hopefully my readers will understand that as I write more and more about this great team.
The Tigers are a part of my life, and always will be. And today they did something that is worth noting…
Dontrelle Willis was sent to Lakeland to figure out what the hell is wrong with him. This is progress, this is change, something I am ecstatic to see after watching the Tigers drag him out there and crossing there fingers as he tossed bombs. I can only hope that he doesn’t have the dreaded “It” disease… See wikipedia for clarification.
I hope this move is the first of many to come. Chuck Hernandez eating some tomatoes is my next hope haha. At what point do we realize that he has done nothing to help this once talented pitching staff? Also, does anybody remember that he got fired by THE DEVIL RAYS??? Funny thing is, look how the Rays are doing without the guy … 
They might just have to be my new favorite team……. Just kidding of course.
To summarize I still love my Tigers, root my tigers, and invest what little monetary income I have to going to Tigers game at the most beautiful park in the league. I’m liking the changes being made so far, though much more are needed. I still think Leyland needs to retire, Inge needs to get more playing time, and Sheffield needs to hang up the glove and bat.
Tigsfan for Life,
Chris
P.S. Thank you to Mike who clarified what a real fan is and what a bandwagon fan is not and for prompting me to write this post…
“A bandwagon fan is someone who follows the team when all is well, and bails on the team when it struggles. A real fan invests in the team during the ups and downs.”
Amen. Truer words were never spoken.
