Answers to your favorite baseball teams

I couldn’t have been older than 6 or 7 when I bought my first ball cap. I remember sitting in front of the rack brimming with hats from baseball to the NFL and the college ranks. I wanted one.

But how to choose? Growing up in rural Montana — I’m talking the middle of nowhere to anyone not from there — my parents didn’t have a high interest in sports. We were ranchers and hanging out in the living room to watch football on Sundays generally wasn’t an option.

I was left to my own imagination and the sporting gods to help me “pick” my favorite teams. That sort of thing seemed important as a kid. If I met someone for the first time and they asked who my team was, I felt like I had better have an answer.

Buying a ball cap was a step toward pledging devotion to someone, anyone. But without mom or dad pulling (or pushing) me in any specific direction, I just sat in front of those hats, stumped.

How does a young kid with no Internet and two TV channels choose between the Reds and Cardinals or the Raiders and 49ers?

Turns out, I didn’t have to. My brother’s godparent walked up and simply suggested I wear a Notre Dame hat. We were Catholics, the Fighting Irish were rolling in the early ’90s with Lou Holtz and I liked the colors.

Worked for me.

I wore it everywhere — for years. Something about it just fit. The fabric on the crown and brim wore away and the color turned from that Irish blue into an off-yellow, the kind of color only produced from the stain of sweating in the high mountain air of our ranch.

I have an unabashed love for that hat and the leprechaun on the front of it with his fists raised, ready for a fight. For better or worse, with the purchase of that hat, I became a Notre Dame fan. Ever since, the Irish have stunk — four BCS bowls with Notre Dame losing by a combined score of 100 points.

All those blowouts confirm what any non-Notre Dame fans already know: The Irish are perpetually and continually overrated. I get it. They’re easy to hate.

When UND made a run to the 2013 BCS National Championship, screams from Notre Dame detractors drowned out any Irish fan celebrating an undefeated season. (After Alabama pasted Notre Dame 42-14, I guess we know who was right.)

Reactions to Notre Dame mirrors the New York Yankees in baseball. I asked a couple weeks back for all of you to let me know who your favorite baseball teams were. Facebook measured popularity by the number of likes on a team’s page. The Yankees are No. 1 in huge chunks of Idaho, including Bannock, Caribou, Bingham, Power and Oneida County.

Are the pinstripes really this area’s favorite team?

Randy wrote, “I despise the NY Yankees and refuse to watch any telecast that includes them, including the playoffs.”

“DON’T turn the local paper into just another version of the Eastern Sports Programming Network (all Yankees, all Red Sox, ... whether you care about them or not),” wrote Mark in an email.

Arlie said, “The Yankees buy their wins.”

But there were a few who wanted more Yankees’ coverage in the Journal. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of them came from Facebook. And there were a few folks clamoring for the Atlanta Braves, who used to have their games on TBS when Ted Turner was the owner.

Refreshingly, though, the majority of responses wanted to keep the Rockies and Mariners as the two baseball squads that the Journal dedicates its coverage to. Seattle had lost eight straight before knocking off Houston on Wednesday, and Colorado struggles to compete with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ cash.

But, Jeff wrote in saying, “We need to support regional teams and are we going to be a true fan or not?”

You’re right, Jeff. It is important to get behind our local teams. The Irish will always have a special place in my heart. But, honestly, that ugly, deformed hat means more to me anymore than a pricey university in Indiana.

“My vote is to keep coverage of the Colorado Rockies,” Marc wrote. “They’re our home team.”

So there you go. Sorry, Yankee fans. I am willing, however, to dedicate the entirety of the Journal's sports section to all things New York. It just takes the right monetary investment. Pinstripe money is good for things other than wins.

Let’s hear it — who's your baseball team?

There are a few truths in life that I’ve discovered. One is that everybody’s busy. Between kids’ baseball practices, mortgages, 72 unread emails, shopping for the best deal on milk and dirty socks, I don’t know one person who isn’t bustling from here to there and there to here like a hamster on the wheel of life.

Another truth is that it’s tough to love losers. Life as a San Diego Padres fan is rough. The Padres haven’t won a World Series in their 44-year history, and with a $91,138,600 salary (per Baseball Prospectus) that ranks in the bottom third of the Majors this season, San Diego isn’t headed to its first championship in 2014.

Being a Padres’ fan has to be like going to the dentist. You know it’s going to hurt but not going just isn’t an option.

Landing on the other end of the spectrum are the mighty New York Yankees. With iconic pinstripes and a multi-million dollar salary, New York has a grip on our psyches as either the most beloved or hated team in baseball, if not all major sports.

The Yanks have more cash to spend than anyone else and 27 championships make them the greatest winner in American pro sports. If the Padres are like visiting the dentist, the Yankees are akin to walking out of the teeth-doctor office with a bright, clean smile and not even the hint of a cavity.

Just how popular are the Yankees? Facebook measured popularity in each county of the country based on the number of likes on the team’s page. The Yankees ranked No. 1 in Bannock County and much of southern Idaho. From Boise to Twin Falls and up to Blackfoot, the pinstripes, according the world’s biggest social media machine, are our team.

Now, despite rumors circulating otherwise, the Idaho State Journal sports desk is in the business to please. We run box scores for two Major League Baseball teams, the Colorado Rockies in the National League and the American League’s Seattle Mariners. Granted, baseball fans would prefer full and complete coverage of all 30 Major League teams, but with space constraints, that isn’t possible.

It ain’t happenin’.

When we pulled back our baseball coverage to run box scores and game recaps for two teams in 2013, the Journal chose the Rockies and Mariners based on the sound logic that they are the closest to Southeast Idaho. But are they really this area’s two favorite ball clubs?

The Rockies hail from the same city as the Broncos, the NFL squad that ensorcells southern Idaho, a fact that saddens Journal sports writer and Omaha-native Josh Friesen, an avid Kansas City Chiefs fan.

But where do the Rockies fit in our area? They’re the team on Root Sports, folks are guaranteed they can watch their games with a basic cable package, though I don’t know why anyone would. Colorado is coming off a 74-88 regular season, finishing dead last in the NL West, 18 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.

At the same time, the Mariners don’t exactly resemble the Seahawks. The M’s were in first place of the AL West after an opening-day victory over the L.A. Angels and had the splashiest free-agent pick up in the offseason, nabbing Robinson Canó from New York.  But does that erase the fact the Seattle is a perpetual loser in baseball?

So let us know. Go to Facebook, find the Idaho State Journal’s page and tell us what team you want us to cover. Don’t like Facebook, email kfranko@journalnet.com and tell me yourself what you think. Refuse to use technology? Send the Journal a letter detailing which Major League ball club demands space in these sports pages.

If Facebook is right and the Yankees are this area’s No. 1 team, we’ll dump the Mariners and run boxes/stories detailing Derek Jeter’s final year in the majors.

Or we can stick with Colorado and Seattle, because, you know, the dentist isn’t that bad.