Get Yourself a Winning Team

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You gotta love this clip of Fenway Park North, locally known as The Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays… but listen to who is doing all the singing and cheering?

Get Yourself a Winning Team – Here’s Why

For years I’ve been a student of personal development. And for as many years – perhaps even more – I’ve been a fan of sports, primarily the four biggies in North America; baseball, football, basketball and hockey.

In my day, I’ve experienced the thrill of being associated with many winning teams, from the old Boston Celtic dynasties, to the Blue Jays of the early ’90s. More recently, I have enjoyed cheering on the Red Sox and Patriots of the current decade.

All the PD books I’ve ever perused make a point of advising readers to hang out with ‘winners’ and weed out the ‘losers’. The thinking is that you are influenced by the people with who you surround yourself. ‘Birds of a feather…’

I’m not exactly sure I buy into that completely. You see, I’m surrounded by three of the happiest ladies on the planet and still I’m constantly grumpy, reminiscent of Carl in the new movie, “Up”.

I much prefer my privacy and solitude. I actually find all the noisy exuberance in our home to be exasperating.

EXCEPT…

when my team is winning. It seems to have a dramatic effect on my overall mood.

Now I’m lucky enough to be able to lay claim to two ‘home’ teams. Having grown up in Massachusetts, I was spoiled by Bill Russell and later, Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics. I caught the hockey bug during the Orr/Esposito years. Talk about winning teams!

However, I was accustomed to having my heart crushed year after year by the Boston Red Sox starting in ’67 with Yaz; ’75 with Fisk; and ’86 with Buckner. They finally broke through this decade with a couple of World Series Championships to beat the ‘Curse of the Bambino‘.

When I moved to Toronto in 1981, it looked like all hope was gone for ever being closely associated with a winning team again. The Blue Jays were only four years old at the time. It wouldn’t be until the end of the ’80s where I would have something local to cheer about in baseball.

The Leafs were floundering during Harold Ballard’s turbulent reign as owner. The Raptors wouldn’t arrive on the scene until 1995. Even today, neither the Leafs nor Raptors can be described as a winning team.

My old Boston roots sustained me until ’92-’93 when the Jays brought back-to-back World Series titles home to Canada. Joe Carter’s dramatic walk-off home run to win the World Series in ’93 against the Phillies still ranks as one of the most thrilling moments of my life. Reading the recounts today literally brought tears to my eyes.

“Touch ‘em all, Joe! You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life.”

Click on this line to hear Tom Cheek’s famous radio call! AWESOME!

So What’s With a Winning Team?

Am I alone in this phenomenon? Am I the only one who is more effected by the team he associates with rather than his family and friends.

Surprisingly, the answer is “No”.

In 2004, a study was done in Japan measuring the emotional dynamics of soccer fans at winning and losing games. You can view the abstract here.

After reading the paper, I found that the researchers’ conclusions perfectly reflected the way I felt both when my team won or lost. While I can’t speak for everyone, the mere fact that I totally related to the deductions surmised by this publication tells me that I’m not alone. I find that comforting.

For example, fans of the winning team were much more relaxed than losing fans after a game. The report also included measurements of other pleasant emotions such as placidity and gratitude.

I experience those same feelings. When my team wins, all is right with the world. And especially when my team’s main rivals lose… well, now you’ve really got a happy camper!

As expected, the negative emotions of boredom, anger, sullenness, humiliation and resentment increased in frequency, intensity and duration for the fans of losing teams.

The paper didn’t mention anything about depression, but put a tick mark in the ‘sadness’ box for me. I definitely feel a let down when my team loses, no question about it.

In a future post I’ll continue to explore why sports teams sometimes have a more powerful effect on our psyches than even our own families. In the meantime, I suggest you go out and find yourself a winning team. It will do wonders for your morale!