They Hook You When You're Young
From the NYT a few weeks back, and I loved it! Very interesting research into why we love the teams we do and why those younger years are so important in loyalty. Be sure to check out the charts and graph. Cool stuff. What are you thoughts? Theories? Insights?
This is one of my favorite articles we've read for many reasons. It incorporates many of the themes we have talked about this year including masculinity and youth. The data regarding male versus female fans was interesting to see because it seemed as though males were more easily swayed, and therefore, could be portrayed as more "diehard fans" in comparison to the average female fan. In the analysis itself, the writer also hardly discusses the graph of the females, which is something that I noticed as I was reading. Another theme we have been implicitly discussing in the classroom is youth. The article reinforces the fact that the players and teams in baseball have a massive impact on the youth, especially, 8 year-old boys. The article demonstrated how easily boys can be effected and suddenly become loyal to certain teams.The impact of baseball on the youth could have an effect on them, good or bad, for the rest of their lives. I also really enjoyed this article because it stepped out of the world of baseball, and looked at the bigger picture. It asked the question: If baseball has such a large effect on the minds and outlooks of young kids, how significant are the values they adopt at a young age that may be unrelated to baseball? The answer is: very significant. The implications of this study on the minds of the youth are important to realize, as they not only relate through the lens of baseball, but in society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI plan to major in developmental psychology in college and absolutely loved how this article highlighted the significance of correlations between age and allegiance to teams. The writer put great emphasis on how support for a team is often determined by age eight. At this stage there is a lot of emotional development and kids tend to be more logical in their reasoning. It makes sense that kids of this age feel more connected to teams that have won the World Series because logically, it shows potential for future seasons. On a different note, I found it pretty surprising that there is less of a consistent trend for women. It reminded me of our conversation in class regarding women’s interest in buying team merchandise that looks uniquely appealing. Maybe I just don’t fit the mold for this one, but I believe that many women form strong allegiances to teams early on and are not necessarily swayed by the look of apparel. I wish the author had delved more into the reasoning behind why there seems to be more constant data for men than for women.
ReplyDeleteThis article completely supports the notion that people are most impressionable during their childhoods. There are many factors that determine what team will be "your" team: parents' preferences, geographic location, specific players, and success. In my opinion, the team that you root for as a child is the team that you will always have an attachment to. Even though I only rooted for the Giants as a kid because of proximity and my parents, I can say that without a doubt I am a Giants' fan for life. Being a lifelong fan of the game, of course you want your team to have success, but no matter what you are along for the ride. I thought it was interesting that I had considered the fluctuations of game attendance and team revenue in subsequent years based on championships and winning records, but I had never considered the long term implications. I realized that the Giants two championships brought in a lot of bandwagon fans, but the idea that 5% more fans will be lifelong Giants fans is fascinating. Just like Maddy, I think it is strange that women's interest does not seem to be swayed by success and wish more possible reasons were mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThis piece redefines the implications of being a bandwagon fan. It is typical for a team to get a bump in spectatorship during a winning run, but it is fascinating to think that for many of these young fans, hopping on the bandwagon could turn into a permanent love for a team. I would say that I am guilty of this. I have always been a Giants fan, but the teams domination in the past few years has definitely solidified me as a lifetime fan. As someone who isn't a true diehard fan of any sports team I can admit that had the giants been a lost cause throughout my childhood and teen years, I could very well be wearing A's t-shirts today. I also like this piece from a strictly data perspective. In stat this year we spent the whole first semester looking at correlations, and the complexities of what Davidowitz researched was crazy. He has so much data and was able to draw incredible connections from it. It is a scope of study I could not imagine working in. Thankfully, he was able to tackle such a large study and the result, while totally making sense, was something I have never thought about.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a great article. It really got me thinking about the further possibilites of studying fandom. I would be really interested to know how much things like race and socio-economic background effect fandom as well. Baseball is an unusual American sport in that it has relatively small amounts of African American players. I think it must have an effect on fandom. My dad always tells me about Fernando Valenzuela and how he would draw a huge crowd every time he pitched because Mexican fans would come to watch him. I wonder how many young kids in LA would have been Dodgers fans or even baseball fans without him. My guess based on this article is that would be a significant percentage.
ReplyDeleteLike what Ben said above, this is also one of my favorite articles that we have read this year. I think the correlation between age and fandom is incredibly fascinating. It is interesting because kids are taught at a young age that winning should not matter; you should love the sport and have fun doing it. Yet, this article defies this morality because in the end, winning is what matters. You play the game to win, which in my opinion, is not a bad thing. Furthermore, I am curious to see if this correlation is true in other sports such as basketball, soccer and football. I know that for Premier League soccer in England, fandom is more of a lifestyle rather than just support. In all, this is a very interesting topic and I hope that at some point I will be able to explore this in more depth.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I would like to say that I was very surprised that Mets were listed as one the most popular team in baseball. This confusion stems from the graph of fans in each county throughout the country that we looked at in class because on that graph, there wasn't a zip code in the country in which there were a majority of Mets fans. Now about the article, I was genuinely amazed that something like that could be measured. The article shows the importance of championships in a person's early years and proves that winning is the key to fandom. Although it is obvious that a team that rarely wins isn't going to have very many fans, which seems very fair-weathered, the few fans that do attend the games are probably those who experienced a successful season when they were young. No matter what a franchise does to try and get fans to come to their games, the key to attendance is victory and this article is justification for that.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this article. I find it fascinating that your early years as a fan have a major role on which teams you root for, for the rest of your life. After reading this article I began to list off the teams that I like. In most cases I root for bay area teams. However, there is one specific outlier that I believe is due to the team’s success during my time as an adolescent. That team is the Boston Celtics. I have absolutely no ties to Boston and in fact hate every other team from Boston. However, in 2008 the Boston Celtics won the NBA finals and I was eleven years old. I feel that due to their consistent success before and after they won the NBA finals is the cause for my affection towards the team. However, I’m still not sure that I will be a Celtics fan the rest of my life. I think that this data and theory definitely depends on weather a fans local sports teams are good or not. In 2008 the Warriors were awful, which is why I think it caused me to branch out. However, recently as the warriors have become better and better my ties to the Celtics have began to unloosen. Thus, I believe that the success of a team during your youthful years has a very different impact on a kid who has a decent local team compared to a kid whose team is god-awful.
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Through all the statements and data made and presented in this article, I like how the author as made the concept of chance more statistical. For baseball fans that have favorite teams other than where they live or are from, I like how the article analyses each possible factor that could determine which team someone chooses to root for for a certain period of time. Being a loyal fan to only two baseball teams I find it hard to believe that the simple act of winning the world series can make someone who has no correlation to the team a diehard fan for life, but since that data shows that if this occurs at a certain age between around 8-12 (other factors of course also taken into account) it seems that children are easily able to detach from one team attach themselves to another. I also liked the graph that depicted the difference between male and female data because of vast difference it presented regarding gender, age, and loyalty.
ReplyDelete^this was Ben Epstein - its not showing the name for some reason
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DeleteI really like this article for many reasons. It completely resonates with me. I love the bay area teams(minus the A's) that do well. Championships haven't come from the Warriors or Sharks or 49ers in recent years but they have won many games each season, contributing to our amazing fan base. I think the coolest fact from this article was how winning a championship has not only the effect of increasing sales over the next year but also creating around a 5% increase of fans for the rest of their lives. I also think it is very interesting that the most important age to get hooked onto Baseball, and I assume other sports is eight years old. It makes complete sense but all of the data that this article explains is so impressive and persuasive. Another thing I really liked about this article was how men are much more vulnerable to be hooked to a club at the age of 8 while woman, are not significantly won over at any point in their lives.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article. I strongly agree with what most of it says and can relate to what it is saying. I left the bay area when I was 8 years old, and up until I left, some of the biggest memories I can clearly remember were those at the Giants or 49er games. My parents had season tickets back then and so I was constantly going to games and getting gear. I felt like being exposed to those two teams that early are what made me become a strong sf fan. I believe that if my parents had been massive Oakland fans at that point then I would have supported the A's and the raiders instead. Even as I moved to China, I was still always a 49er and Giant fan, and it is interesting to me how that could have been because I was hooked at the perfect age.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that social media has so much influence on what teams are the most popular. Living overseas, it was so obvious which professional teams were the most recognized. Walking down the street, you would always see that person with the Yankee cap on or that person with the LA Laker jersey with the name Bryant on the back. I was always so confused on why people would wear team gear when they didn't even support the team and weren't from the US. I then started to realize that people would wear them because they thought it looked good, or because it was the only sports team they really knew from the US.
I thought that this article really hit home for me because of the interesting combination of personal relation to the subject, mainly his use of the 2012 Giants as an example, and very intuitive/interesting presentation of data. I had always kind of figured that winning in someone's formative years would heavily impact the popularity of the team. For example my oldest brother who graduates from college this year is and has been a Arizona Diamondback fan for as long as I can remember. My oldest was born in 1991. The D-backs won the series in 2001. My brother is this data!!! I am the same way to some extent, as my interest level in the Giants undeniably rose after the 2012 series. Interesting view into the marketability of it as well and how that relates to commercialism as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI love how succinct and specific the data in this article is. The data provides clear support for the ideology behind the sentimentality of baseball at a young age, considering how if a team is successful in a boy's childhood they will continue to support them for a lifetime. I also thought it was funny how the women's data played into this in how it is so tangible to me that in general, women care about baseball in such a less powerful and/or impressionable way.
ReplyDeleteSandy Schenker:
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article because of how accurate and interesting I believe it to be. For example, I was a boy when the giants reached the World Series in 2002, and even though they did not win, I have been a fan ever since. The article also provided clear evidence of this being true. I also really liked this article because everybody talks about how they are not "bandwagon fans", yet this article shows that people due choose teams when they are younger mostly based off of success, and I believe this continues throughout peoples lives. I also really enjoyed how this article took something as simple as why somebody supports the MLB team that they do, and break it down to a science that explains why people of different ages and generations support different teams.