Fellow NY resident — but like me, of solid New England stock — Lockhart Steele has a great post on the Red Sox, baseball, and The Business of Emotion. Talking about the likely trades of Sox Manny Ramierez and Nomar Garciaparra, Lock asks, "is the core of sports fandom rooting for favorite players, or the team?"
For my own part, it's team first. I'll always be a Sox fan. When one of my teams trades a player I'm not crazy about (e.g. Celtics unloading lazy Antoine Walker to the Mavs), I'm extra pleased with the team. And I have to say, I wouldn't be too sad to see Ramierez traded for A-Rod. But Nomar? Oy, now that's a tough one, because I really like Nomar. Then my thinking gets all player-centric and I wonder, couldn't he just play third instead?