https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/2024/01/08/fans-vs-fanatics/
FANS vs FANATICS.
Totally Tigers
I am reminded of the day I was sitting at a Tigers? game in Lakeland and heard a group of people behind me talking about how they were big fans. In the next breath, they were unaware of one of the team?s top players and his history with Detroit.
In front of me was a guy who was busy keeping score of the game in a notebook.
I was sitting in-between the 2 polar opposites of fandom and it got me wondering who exactly can call themselves a real fan of baseball?
I then realized that the word ?fan? is open to interpretation. Yet, it needs some type of definition.
If we take the word ?fan?, it is short for the word ?fanatic.? In Merriam-Webster, it is noted that a fan is ?marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion?. It comes from the Latin word ?fanaticus?, which means ?insanely but divinely inspired?.
But do you have to be this way in order to call yourself a fan?
Of course not. Rather a fan is someone who simply puts in time, interest and/or invests in the sport. To what degree is up to them.
And that?s how we can more accurately define who a fan is. Rather than creating a singular definition, wouldn?t degrees of fandom work better?
I think so.
How much of a fan you are should be determined by your involvement in the game and knowledge of the sport.
I would call them levels. And if we?re talking about the Tigers, here?s how I would define them.
