GT, re your choices of teams to cheer for. I see the logic and reasoning, and have some similar patterns myself. But more and more I've been re- evaluating and revising my attitudes.

The first and most enduring emotional tie seems to be childhood affiliation. When you are a kid it's pure emotion and excitement, and that shapes how you look at things forever. Faith may be shaken and interest may wain, but usually there's still an automatic reflexive emotional reaction to any major franchise event. For me that was hockey and CFL football. Especially the latter.

My mother, who will be 92 in a couple of months was a huge Alouette fan. She took me to my first game when I was eight or nine ( I lost a shoe walking in the mud of the endzone on the way out of the stadium). We still talk about the current games every week. My father took me to my first NHL game around the same age but wasn't a big sports fan. But luckily they encouraged my love of sports, both playing and as a fan. I was Yankees fan as a kid in the Mantle era, but became an Expos fan when I was in high school and the franchise was awarded. I was at their very first game and saw hundreds at Jarry Park and the Big O between 1969 and 1982, when I moved away. Basketball was much more remote because of lack of a local team and very little TV coverage in those days. I did like the Lakers since their West- Baylor - Chamberlain days, but that was a matter of wanting to see a team equal to the Celtics who could topple their dynasty. With the NFL, my first attention was to the Giants because they were shown the most in our TV market. But one afternoon I saw a late Saturday game between the Niners and Rams from Kezar Stadium. It was an aerial circus I recall, and I liked the exciting style the Niners played. And their red uniforms were almost exactly the same as the Alouettes. After that game I started paying more attention to them, read about them in magazines and followed their fortunes. The big payoff was the early seventies playoff teams. I didn't follow college football by team then, but liked the hoopla and spectacle. I got interested in USC a little in the seventies (best looking cheerleaders, probably) and more so during the John Robinson days.

Even though geography was a major subliminal factor then, I've never felt that way as an adult. I've been in Vancouver about twenty five years and never have liked any of the teams. Especially in hockey, where a strong hatred of the Habs was evident when I'd watch them visit the Pacific Coloseum. I still enjoy watching them fail to live up to expectations even though most family and friends are fans. Not the most mature attitude, but who cares!

And I still have an amazingly ambivalent attitude about Les Canadiens. Because of political and social changes I've lost empathy for ther real world' there. I prefer to remember it as the city of my youth, and each time I return there I feel more and more remote and alienated. Sometimes I wonder how so many old friends and family can put up with some things and spend their entire lives there, but obviously there are a million factors behind such choices. In the real world, I feel no connection at all with the current generation of fans who cheer for the franchise. Their Montreal is in another universe from the one I grew up in. I'm not passing judgment for others and saying better or worse (actually I am) but it's just ... So different. But sports fandom is so irrational. Every time I see the uniform, time melts and an unbroken flow of continuity takes hold of me. I see myself through different ages and stages as a preteen,teen and in my twenties, enjoying the greatest dynasty in sports over a twenty three year span. now I have more fun just speaking to people and reminiscing about the past than getting emotional about the present. I still follow them and have occasional bouts of intense interest, but it's much less emotional. More a matter of stubbornness and duty.

Because the Niners were a team of choice, geography, real life history and local stuff never affected my feelings. It's a team of the mind and imagination as much as the real world for me. I do really like the city of San Francisco and hope to get to some games in the new stadium, but all that is icing on the cake.

But what's really odd is that I've kind of morphed some of my attention to the Los Angeles teams. Without the Expos, I was without any team to follow. As a small kid, the Dodgers top farm team was the Montreal Royals. Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Don Drysdale, and most of the greats of the forties through early sixties played there. And Tommy Lasorda was the franchise best pitcher, playing there for many years (not good enough for the big leagues). So even though it was mostly before my time ( I remember thei last game there as a small kid) I decided to reconnect the circle and follow the Dodgers with some regularity. It's easy because not many games are televised here so I just look at box scores and read about things.

I've also become closer with some of my family who live there and have been making a growing group of friends there. Even some collaborative creative partnerships. We visit a couple of times a year, so I'm becoming much more at home and familiar with the environment. That also helps connect more of a USC and Laker presence for me. And I even took a strong interest in watching the King's playoff run. They're my second favorite team now and gives me another hockey focus. I doubt I'll ever officially change loyalties, but I can add more diversity and different dynamics to the mix of my spectator attentiveness. I also have way too much invested in Hab collectibles and memorabilia to divest attention to their fortunes. A lifetime of emotion already spent. But I am seriously thinking about breaking my collection up and ending it mostly with the 1979 season. Even the 86 and 93 Cups came at a time when I didn't live there and had become disenchanted with the real world behind the facade.

So all in all I've been going through a complex gamut of sporting emotions. Not even dealing much with actual performance. In a lot of ways it's a good feeling knowing that one doesn't necessarily be a slave to habit, though it's also cool to be able to sustain a lifetime of interest.