My 4-year-old son was climbing into our station wagon when he hit me with two words that rattled me to my core: “Dodgers rule!” Next came the death blow: “Giants drool!” We had only just moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco, but somehow my kid’s allegiance to my favorite baseball team had already faltered. When I shared my dismay with a friend (a die-hard Giants fan), I expected sympathy. Instead, he expressed envy. Neither of his kids shared his love for America’s pastime. “At least you have a fan of baseball,” he said. “Be grateful for that.”
And yet, I fixated on how my son’s team was not my team.