Erin C. Tarver
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226469935
- eISBN:
- 9780226470276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226470276.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Although social science literature on sports fandom reduces its appeal to “basking in reflected glory” (BIRGing) and the euphoria of the stadium, this chapter focuses on the everyday practices of ...
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Although social science literature on sports fandom reduces its appeal to “basking in reflected glory” (BIRGing) and the euphoria of the stadium, this chapter focuses on the everyday practices of sports fans, arguing that sports fandom facilitates the cultivation and reproduction of individual and community identities. In Foucaultian terms, sports fandom is a practice of subjectivization—a means by which individuals both subordinate themselves to a discipline and achieve a sense of their own identities. Just as a religious practitioner obtains new self-knowledge by participating in confession, prayer, and the observance of Lent, the sports fan comes to understand him or herself as a particular sort of person through participation in the daily practices of sports fandom, which include knowledge acquisition, ritual performances, and participation in fan discourse. Through participation in these practices, sports fandom is instrumental in the production of masculine subjects, and of subjects who understand themselves as belonging to a specific (often racialized) community or region—as an “I” who is part of a particular “we.” Examples analyzed include Markovits and Albertson's (2012) study of women sports fans, Ole Miss fans' performance of white southernness, and the use of "we" pronouns in fan discourse.Less
Although social science literature on sports fandom reduces its appeal to “basking in reflected glory” (BIRGing) and the euphoria of the stadium, this chapter focuses on the everyday practices of sports fans, arguing that sports fandom facilitates the cultivation and reproduction of individual and community identities. In Foucaultian terms, sports fandom is a practice of subjectivization—a means by which individuals both subordinate themselves to a discipline and achieve a sense of their own identities. Just as a religious practitioner obtains new self-knowledge by participating in confession, prayer, and the observance of Lent, the sports fan comes to understand him or herself as a particular sort of person through participation in the daily practices of sports fandom, which include knowledge acquisition, ritual performances, and participation in fan discourse. Through participation in these practices, sports fandom is instrumental in the production of masculine subjects, and of subjects who understand themselves as belonging to a specific (often racialized) community or region—as an “I” who is part of a particular “we.” Examples analyzed include Markovits and Albertson's (2012) study of women sports fans, Ole Miss fans' performance of white southernness, and the use of "we" pronouns in fan discourse.
Erin C. Tarver
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226469935
- eISBN:
- 9780226470276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226470276.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter turns to sports fan practices that decenter masculinity to argue that sports fandom need not always reinforce existing social hierarchies. Women’s fan practices—both as fans of ...
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This chapter turns to sports fan practices that decenter masculinity to argue that sports fandom need not always reinforce existing social hierarchies. Women’s fan practices—both as fans of mainstream men’s sports, and as fans of women’s sports—show that sports culture is not exclusively the domain of men and complicate our understanding of the gendering and racializing effects of sports fandom in the contemporary United States. Some forms of women’s sports fandom work to destabilize rigid gender, racial, and sexual norms by undercutting the “homosociality” of sport and valorizing the very forms of subjectivity that are typically excluded from or denigrated by mainstream sports culture. Drawing on the work of Iris Young, this chapter examines two primary cases of women’s sports fandom, the LeBron James Grandmothers Fan Club, and lesbian fans of the WNBA, and argues that sports fandom may in some circumstances be instrumental in the production of subjects and communities that reject gender, racial, and sexual oppression. Women’s sports fandom may not be ‘typical,’ but this is precisely the point. Women fans and fans of women’s sports do fandom in ways that give us reason to hope that for sports fans, all may not yet be lost.Less
This chapter turns to sports fan practices that decenter masculinity to argue that sports fandom need not always reinforce existing social hierarchies. Women’s fan practices—both as fans of mainstream men’s sports, and as fans of women’s sports—show that sports culture is not exclusively the domain of men and complicate our understanding of the gendering and racializing effects of sports fandom in the contemporary United States. Some forms of women’s sports fandom work to destabilize rigid gender, racial, and sexual norms by undercutting the “homosociality” of sport and valorizing the very forms of subjectivity that are typically excluded from or denigrated by mainstream sports culture. Drawing on the work of Iris Young, this chapter examines two primary cases of women’s sports fandom, the LeBron James Grandmothers Fan Club, and lesbian fans of the WNBA, and argues that sports fandom may in some circumstances be instrumental in the production of subjects and communities that reject gender, racial, and sexual oppression. Women’s sports fandom may not be ‘typical,’ but this is precisely the point. Women fans and fans of women’s sports do fandom in ways that give us reason to hope that for sports fans, all may not yet be lost.
Erin C. Tarver
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226469935
- eISBN:
- 9780226470276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226470276.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter conducts an historical investigation into the development of “sports fan” as a concept and argues (contrary to a popular social scientific model) for a broad theoretical understanding of ...
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This chapter conducts an historical investigation into the development of “sports fan” as a concept and argues (contrary to a popular social scientific model) for a broad theoretical understanding of what constitutes sports fandom. It defines the scope of the book’s inquiry into “fans” as persons who exhibit both care about sport and some form of continuous practice associated with it, and situates this concern in relation to the existing debate in philosophy of sport on partisan and purist sports fans. Despite the thickly normative character of the “fan” concept—and the fact that for many fans, the exclusion of persons who are not “real fans” is an important component of fandom—we ought to understand sports fandom as inclusively as possible in order to fully understand its effects.Less
This chapter conducts an historical investigation into the development of “sports fan” as a concept and argues (contrary to a popular social scientific model) for a broad theoretical understanding of what constitutes sports fandom. It defines the scope of the book’s inquiry into “fans” as persons who exhibit both care about sport and some form of continuous practice associated with it, and situates this concern in relation to the existing debate in philosophy of sport on partisan and purist sports fans. Despite the thickly normative character of the “fan” concept—and the fact that for many fans, the exclusion of persons who are not “real fans” is an important component of fandom—we ought to understand sports fandom as inclusively as possible in order to fully understand its effects.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804756686
- eISBN:
- 9780804769778
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804756686.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This chapter focuses on several ways that consumers (i.e. sports fans) are hurt by the lack of an independent competition organizer and the presence of a clear-cut conflict between the interests of ...
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This chapter focuses on several ways that consumers (i.e. sports fans) are hurt by the lack of an independent competition organizer and the presence of a clear-cut conflict between the interests of certain owners and those of the league. The chapter discusses a number of problems that sports fans are forced to tolerate. It then describes the monopoly power that the owners use to exploit consumers, which often leads to inefficient results. The chapter also includes a discussion on two important features of North American sports leagues.Less
This chapter focuses on several ways that consumers (i.e. sports fans) are hurt by the lack of an independent competition organizer and the presence of a clear-cut conflict between the interests of certain owners and those of the league. The chapter discusses a number of problems that sports fans are forced to tolerate. It then describes the monopoly power that the owners use to exploit consumers, which often leads to inefficient results. The chapter also includes a discussion on two important features of North American sports leagues.
Matthew Klugman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038938
- eISBN:
- 9780252096891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038938.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter examines how sport fansites can be mined by sport historians as “a wonderfully rich resource.” Each week, “thousands, if not millions” of sport fans congregate online to “read, chat, and ...
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This chapter examines how sport fansites can be mined by sport historians as “a wonderfully rich resource.” Each week, “thousands, if not millions” of sport fans congregate online to “read, chat, and blog” about their favorite teams. Importantly, these sites exist as free-standing histories produced and consumed voraciously by contributors in collaboration with one another and subject to their own internal rules, protocols, and modes of expression and meaning. As such, engaging with this massive digital archive of fan postings and discussion can offer insight into new communities surrounding sports teams, fantasy engagement, and humor, as well as gendered, racial, and sexualized aspects of spectator sports culture. Indeed, sport fansites provide opportunities to consider questions of sporting memory and popular history.Less
This chapter examines how sport fansites can be mined by sport historians as “a wonderfully rich resource.” Each week, “thousands, if not millions” of sport fans congregate online to “read, chat, and blog” about their favorite teams. Importantly, these sites exist as free-standing histories produced and consumed voraciously by contributors in collaboration with one another and subject to their own internal rules, protocols, and modes of expression and meaning. As such, engaging with this massive digital archive of fan postings and discussion can offer insight into new communities surrounding sports teams, fantasy engagement, and humor, as well as gendered, racial, and sexualized aspects of spectator sports culture. Indeed, sport fansites provide opportunities to consider questions of sporting memory and popular history.
Brian F. Harrison and Melissa R. Michelson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190654740
- eISBN:
- 9780190654788
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190654740.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Chapter 3 examines the power of sports fan identity. Despite ongoing issues of homophobia in professional sports, increasing numbers of fans and professional athletes are supporters of LGBT rights, ...
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Chapter 3 examines the power of sports fan identity. Despite ongoing issues of homophobia in professional sports, increasing numbers of fans and professional athletes are supporters of LGBT rights, including marriage equality. The chapter describes five experiments testing the power of priming a sports-fan identity among both sports fans and non-fans. This includes an experiment conducted at a San Francisco Giants baseball game and among Wisconsin supporters of the Green Bay Packers football team as well as more general experiments among fans of professional football and hockey. The results show that when primed with a sports fan identity and presented with an unexpected cue of support for marriage equality, many fans are motivated to reconsider their attitude on the issue.Less
Chapter 3 examines the power of sports fan identity. Despite ongoing issues of homophobia in professional sports, increasing numbers of fans and professional athletes are supporters of LGBT rights, including marriage equality. The chapter describes five experiments testing the power of priming a sports-fan identity among both sports fans and non-fans. This includes an experiment conducted at a San Francisco Giants baseball game and among Wisconsin supporters of the Green Bay Packers football team as well as more general experiments among fans of professional football and hockey. The results show that when primed with a sports fan identity and presented with an unexpected cue of support for marriage equality, many fans are motivated to reconsider their attitude on the issue.
Erin C. Tarver
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226469935
- eISBN:
- 9780226470276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226470276.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
In this Introduction, the author reflects on her own initiation as a sports fan, and the centrality of fan sports fan practices in her southern American hometown to introduce the primary question of ...
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In this Introduction, the author reflects on her own initiation as a sports fan, and the centrality of fan sports fan practices in her southern American hometown to introduce the primary question of the book: why does sports fandom matter so much to sports fans? The introduction continues by delimiting the scope of the book, including its focus on American revenue sports, and its particular interest in white sports fans. The latter follows Toni Morrison's call in Playing in the Dark for analysis of the effects of racism on the consciousnesses of "those who perpetuate it." It concludes with an overview of each of the book's subsequent chapters.Less
In this Introduction, the author reflects on her own initiation as a sports fan, and the centrality of fan sports fan practices in her southern American hometown to introduce the primary question of the book: why does sports fandom matter so much to sports fans? The introduction continues by delimiting the scope of the book, including its focus on American revenue sports, and its particular interest in white sports fans. The latter follows Toni Morrison's call in Playing in the Dark for analysis of the effects of racism on the consciousnesses of "those who perpetuate it." It concludes with an overview of each of the book's subsequent chapters.
Erin C. Tarver
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226469935
- eISBN:
- 9780226470276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226470276.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Sports fans love to hate. This chapter examines the distinctions between fans’ moral judgment, hate, and ressentiment, and their contemporary practices of rejection of individual players. It argues ...
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Sports fans love to hate. This chapter examines the distinctions between fans’ moral judgment, hate, and ressentiment, and their contemporary practices of rejection of individual players. It argues that contemporary fan “haterade” for individual athletes—a sentiment that is the reverse of hero worship—exposes the racialized character of sports fandom in the contemporary United States, revealing a deep anxiety about black masculinity. Fan antipathy for star players often results when players act in ways that prevent them from being instrumentalized as mascots. Looking at the cases of LeBron James, Richard Sherman, and Michael Vick, I argue that black men who do not conform to fan expectations of mascots are treated as dangerous, either as criminal threats to the community (“thugs”) or as a contagion that threatens to consume the healthy body of good (white) society. The ease with which players move from mascot to danger in the eyes of fans illustrates just how tenuous the relationship between white fans and black male athletes is.Less
Sports fans love to hate. This chapter examines the distinctions between fans’ moral judgment, hate, and ressentiment, and their contemporary practices of rejection of individual players. It argues that contemporary fan “haterade” for individual athletes—a sentiment that is the reverse of hero worship—exposes the racialized character of sports fandom in the contemporary United States, revealing a deep anxiety about black masculinity. Fan antipathy for star players often results when players act in ways that prevent them from being instrumentalized as mascots. Looking at the cases of LeBron James, Richard Sherman, and Michael Vick, I argue that black men who do not conform to fan expectations of mascots are treated as dangerous, either as criminal threats to the community (“thugs”) or as a contagion that threatens to consume the healthy body of good (white) society. The ease with which players move from mascot to danger in the eyes of fans illustrates just how tenuous the relationship between white fans and black male athletes is.
Ignacio Palacios-Huerta
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144023
- eISBN:
- 9781400850310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144023.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
This chapter compares the behavior of fans before and after games who were subject to acts of hooliganism, vandalism, or criminal damage, including those who experienced disturbances and violent ...
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This chapter compares the behavior of fans before and after games who were subject to acts of hooliganism, vandalism, or criminal damage, including those who experienced disturbances and violent confrontations among spectators. It examines model predictions, among these are that frequent consumers of soccer matches should respond less to acts of violence (hooliganism, vandalism, and criminal damage) than occasional consumers of football matches; that violence should have a differential effect across singles versus married individuals; that fans with greater cognitive ability should respond less to acts of violence, hooliganism, and vandalism than those with lower cognitive ability; and that the response to acts of violence, hooliganism, and vandalism should be lower in games that end after midnight than in games that end before midnight because of differences in media coverage.Less
This chapter compares the behavior of fans before and after games who were subject to acts of hooliganism, vandalism, or criminal damage, including those who experienced disturbances and violent confrontations among spectators. It examines model predictions, among these are that frequent consumers of soccer matches should respond less to acts of violence (hooliganism, vandalism, and criminal damage) than occasional consumers of football matches; that violence should have a differential effect across singles versus married individuals; that fans with greater cognitive ability should respond less to acts of violence, hooliganism, and vandalism than those with lower cognitive ability; and that the response to acts of violence, hooliganism, and vandalism should be lower in games that end after midnight than in games that end before midnight because of differences in media coverage.
Stephen F. Ross and Stefan Szymanski
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804756686
- eISBN:
- 9780804769778
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804756686.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This book is a clarion call to sports fans. It proposes a significant restructuring of sports leagues. The book sets out a rational program for a revolution that will serve the best interests of the ...
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This book is a clarion call to sports fans. It proposes a significant restructuring of sports leagues. The book sets out a rational program for a revolution that will serve the best interests of the fans and of the sport itself. But the book is not Marxist: it shows how a revolution in the organization of sports might even benefit the owners. By harnessing the power of markets, sports leagues can be made both more responsive to the needs of the fans, and more efficient. Many years were spent before this bok was written evaluating the ways in which leagues work across the globe. Drawing on an extensive study of leagues, the book boils down a plan to two major reforms. Borrowing from NASCAR, the book proposes that team owners should not own sports leagues as well. Rather, league ownership should be separate. The second proposal is drawn from soccer: introduce competition through a promotion and relegation system. In this type of system, the worst teams in the league are kicked out at the end of the season and replaced by the best-performing teams in the next division down. This gives poor performing teams incentive to step up their game, and allows fresh blood to enter the leagues if the poor performers fail to do so.Less
This book is a clarion call to sports fans. It proposes a significant restructuring of sports leagues. The book sets out a rational program for a revolution that will serve the best interests of the fans and of the sport itself. But the book is not Marxist: it shows how a revolution in the organization of sports might even benefit the owners. By harnessing the power of markets, sports leagues can be made both more responsive to the needs of the fans, and more efficient. Many years were spent before this bok was written evaluating the ways in which leagues work across the globe. Drawing on an extensive study of leagues, the book boils down a plan to two major reforms. Borrowing from NASCAR, the book proposes that team owners should not own sports leagues as well. Rather, league ownership should be separate. The second proposal is drawn from soccer: introduce competition through a promotion and relegation system. In this type of system, the worst teams in the league are kicked out at the end of the season and replaced by the best-performing teams in the next division down. This gives poor performing teams incentive to step up their game, and allows fresh blood to enter the leagues if the poor performers fail to do so.
Erin C. Tarver
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226469935
- eISBN:
- 9780226470276
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226470276.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Why does sports fandom matter so much to fans, who often don’t play the games they watch at all? This book philosophically investigates sports fandom, spanning the fields of feminist philosophy, ...
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Why does sports fandom matter so much to fans, who often don’t play the games they watch at all? This book philosophically investigates sports fandom, spanning the fields of feminist philosophy, critical philosophy of race, and philosophy of sport, and in dialogue with the work of sociologists, anthropologists, and historians of sport and popular culture. Sports fandom, this book concludes, is a primary means of creating and reinforcing individual and community identities for Americans today, contributing both to communities’ persistence over time, and to the racial and gender hierarchies that characterize those communities. Sports fandom is a practice of subjectivization: a means by which individuals are both regulated and, at the same time, achieve a sense of their own identities. By analyzing fan practice, history, and discourse (especially in the American south), and by responding to contemporary philosophical and social scientific work on sports fans, this book argues that racial whiteness is reproduced in and through many white fans’ imaginative relation to and ritualized display of men of color, and that normative heterosexual masculinity is reproduced through the practices of sports fandom that more or less explicitly disparage femininity and homosexual desire. Yet, it also concludes that sports fandom is not uniformly oppressive; sports fans are not univocal, and there are marginal forms of sports fandom that constitute genuine glimmers of social resistance.Less
Why does sports fandom matter so much to fans, who often don’t play the games they watch at all? This book philosophically investigates sports fandom, spanning the fields of feminist philosophy, critical philosophy of race, and philosophy of sport, and in dialogue with the work of sociologists, anthropologists, and historians of sport and popular culture. Sports fandom, this book concludes, is a primary means of creating and reinforcing individual and community identities for Americans today, contributing both to communities’ persistence over time, and to the racial and gender hierarchies that characterize those communities. Sports fandom is a practice of subjectivization: a means by which individuals are both regulated and, at the same time, achieve a sense of their own identities. By analyzing fan practice, history, and discourse (especially in the American south), and by responding to contemporary philosophical and social scientific work on sports fans, this book argues that racial whiteness is reproduced in and through many white fans’ imaginative relation to and ritualized display of men of color, and that normative heterosexual masculinity is reproduced through the practices of sports fandom that more or less explicitly disparage femininity and homosexual desire. Yet, it also concludes that sports fandom is not uniformly oppressive; sports fans are not univocal, and there are marginal forms of sports fandom that constitute genuine glimmers of social resistance.
Gary Osmond and Murray G. Phillips (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038938
- eISBN:
- 9780252096891
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038938.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
From statistical databases to story archives, from fan sites to the real-time reactions of Twitter-empowered athletes, the digital communication revolution has changed the way fans relate to LeBron's ...
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From statistical databases to story archives, from fan sites to the real-time reactions of Twitter-empowered athletes, the digital communication revolution has changed the way fans relate to LeBron's latest triple double or Tom Brady's last second touchdown pass. This book analyzes the parallel transformation in the field of sport history, showing the ways powerful digital tools raise vital philosophical, epistemological, ontological, methodological, and ethical questions for scholars and students alike. Chapters consider how philosophical and theoretical understandings of the meaning of history influence engagement with digital history, and conceptualize the relationship between history making and the digital era. As the writers show, digital media's mostly untapped potential for studying the recent past via media like blogs, chat rooms, and gambling sites forge a symbiosis between sports and the internet while offering historians new vistas to explore and utilize. In this new era, digital history becomes a dynamic site of enquiry and discussion where scholars enter into a give-and-take with individuals and invite their audience to grapple with, rather than passively absorb, evidence. Timely and provocative, this book affirms how the information revolution has transformed sport and sport history—and shows the road ahead.Less
From statistical databases to story archives, from fan sites to the real-time reactions of Twitter-empowered athletes, the digital communication revolution has changed the way fans relate to LeBron's latest triple double or Tom Brady's last second touchdown pass. This book analyzes the parallel transformation in the field of sport history, showing the ways powerful digital tools raise vital philosophical, epistemological, ontological, methodological, and ethical questions for scholars and students alike. Chapters consider how philosophical and theoretical understandings of the meaning of history influence engagement with digital history, and conceptualize the relationship between history making and the digital era. As the writers show, digital media's mostly untapped potential for studying the recent past via media like blogs, chat rooms, and gambling sites forge a symbiosis between sports and the internet while offering historians new vistas to explore and utilize. In this new era, digital history becomes a dynamic site of enquiry and discussion where scholars enter into a give-and-take with individuals and invite their audience to grapple with, rather than passively absorb, evidence. Timely and provocative, this book affirms how the information revolution has transformed sport and sport history—and shows the road ahead.
Mike Tanier
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037610
- eISBN:
- 9780252094859
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037610.003.0014
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
In this chapter, the author shares his journey, traversing different paths that take us from Broad Street to Locust Street, from Pattison Avenue to City Line Avenue, all the way to Bethlehem. His ...
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In this chapter, the author shares his journey, traversing different paths that take us from Broad Street to Locust Street, from Pattison Avenue to City Line Avenue, all the way to Bethlehem. His story reveals a kaleidoscopic nocturne, “the story of Philadelphia after sunset, of the fan life that on-field cameras cannot capture.” It is the portrait of a massive, eclectic community and some of its many sporting passions. The author compares the attitudes of Philly sports fans during the day and at night, claiming that he has walked among these fans for forty years, witnessed their soft side, the night face they rarely show the world. The author concludes by describing the city of Philadelphia from evening to dawn.Less
In this chapter, the author shares his journey, traversing different paths that take us from Broad Street to Locust Street, from Pattison Avenue to City Line Avenue, all the way to Bethlehem. His story reveals a kaleidoscopic nocturne, “the story of Philadelphia after sunset, of the fan life that on-field cameras cannot capture.” It is the portrait of a massive, eclectic community and some of its many sporting passions. The author compares the attitudes of Philly sports fans during the day and at night, claiming that he has walked among these fans for forty years, witnessed their soft side, the night face they rarely show the world. The author concludes by describing the city of Philadelphia from evening to dawn.
