California Today: A Giant Dilemma: Is It Possible to Root for the Dodgers?

I'm a die-hard Giants fan. This year was painful for me an the brethren. So painful I almost forgot about the three rings in the drawer. Anyhoo, root for the Dodgers? Um, how bout, no. Geography has no place in the equation. Ask a Red Sox fan if he ever rooted for the Yankees in years in which there was no other alternative. It's about baseball and the quality of the team. The Dodgers have some great individual players - well one, anyway, Kershaw - but collectively they are overpaid and lack chemistry. I'm rooting for the Diamondbacks. The DBacks management put together a quality team last year they underperformed. To their credit, they stuck with the roster, and this year seems to me the DBacks are set to slay the Dodgers. I've seen Goldschmidt and Lamb put daggers calmly into the Giants heart late in games enough in recent years. So, (my Giants) hats off to Arizona. Beat those dumb Dodgers, disappoint poor Nats fans again and then line up to be the Indians lunch. It's about baseball, man. No way does a serious Giants fan go soft on this. People move back and forth all the time. Those that switch hat colors when they do get to sit in the nosebleeds of this great sport.

I suggest checking yourself into a hospital if you find you are cheering for the Dodgers. There must be something seriously wrong.

CalBrexit ... Cali Solidarity ... I was born (67 years ago) bleeding blue. However, when the playoffs rolled around and the hated Giants were playing, I was ... We're all Giants ... Come join us fellow countrywomen and men ... GO DODGERS, Go California

No.

Lifelong Giants fan and daughter and granddaughter of lifelong Giants fans, I can confidently say that if you believe you are a "die-hard" fan and entertain the idea of rooting for the Dodgers, you are delusional. No Giants fan would ever make this argument (unless its a disingenuous one intended to foment outrage, shares, clicks, and comments ... in which case you're a bad Giants fan AND a crummy journalist.)

Can a Giants fan root for the Dodgers? What a facile question! If you root for the Dodgers even for just a little while,, then you are NOT a Giants fan. Of course, it doesn't work the other way around as I know several Dodgers fans who rooted for the Giants, during the last stretch of Giants championships. And that is the difference between a Giants and Dodgers fan. We hate the Dodgers. Dodgers fans don't hate us, they just look down on us, albeit for ever fewer reasons .The rivalry is not getting smoothed over by shifting populations as you suggest. The answer to your query is NO, it is impossible for a Giants fan to root for the Dodgers. Go D Backs! May Kershaw choke. James Wang San Francisco

Any die-hard Giants fan who could for one second entertain the thought of routing for the Dodgers under any circumstances needs a gut check. And I say this as a blue-blooded Dodger fan (one who has lived in San Francisco for 20 years, the last few quite painful). But that's what a rivalry is all about. I have no patience for the so-called Dodger fan who moves to SF and, somehow as if by magic, becomes a Giants fan (I know some). No magic here... just a flawed character. They were never fans to begin with. I have tons more respect for the Giants fan who hates the Dodgers and roots for their humiliation than for any Giants fan who would equivocate, for any reason. A few years ago, Terry Gross asked a famous Philadelphia sports writer (whose name I can't recall), what he thought of Phillies fans who switched their allegiances to the more successful Mets or Yankees (this was before the Phillies had their successes in the late 2000s, and had just set the record for most losses by a franchise in any sport). He said people like that go straight to hell when the die. Well said! All that said, watching the Giants completely implode this year, after being favored by many to win the division, has been wondrous. All the Giants fans I work with have been silent for 6 months. It's the way it should be. GO Dodgers!

Shame on you Conor. Shame. Even Tommy Lasorda is disgusted with you.

I grew up near Kansas City which had no MLB team at that time. Willie Mays was my idol and I was a Giants fan. I hated the Dodgers. In 1983 I moved to San Diego and became a Padres fan 1st and a Giants fan except against the Padres. Now I hate the Dodgers twice over. I can't stand their smug fans and their sissy uniforms. I can't stand the way they think they can spend their way to success. They're worse than the Yankees. Way worse. I'm getting fired up. Play ball.

We have a sanctuary state, now? I guess we should send out a notice to every unskilled, uneducated person that wants to move to the US, because now it's open season on California.

I tried to share my thoughts, but the dodger lovin' "die-hard Giants fan" wouldn't print them.

Mike, No way! True Giants fans never ever ever support the Evil Dodger Empire. We went 56 years without a title. The Dodgers are almost half way there. Here's hoping. I recommend doing the upstanding thing [aka what I'm doing :-) ]: Root for the Indians. For bonus fun/integrity/self-flagellation points, root against the Yankees. But the Dodgers?! Never! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodgers–Giants_rivalry

Root for the Dodgers? Never!

this is modern world but i still wont back the dodgers. id rather back the yankees.

Not likely. Easier to root for Dusty, an excellent former Giants manager, as he guides the Nationals to a WS title.

I will root for the Dodgers as soon as they come back home to Brooklyn. I haven't watched a full baseball game since they left.

Surely you jest, Mike. With the Giants out of it this year, I'll root for the Nats and the Tribe for as far as they get, but above all, ABD.

No. And this no means no. As every Giants fan knows, the Dodgers are evil. May they suffer a 108 year drought.

No. Way. I am a relatively recent but avid Giants fan who suffered with the San Diego Padres for decades. Either way, I would never think of and have never considered rooting for the Dodgers. I hope the D-Backs sweep ‘em.

Wow. Only twenty negative reactions to your sacrilege?

Presumably the monument at the site of the St. Francis dam will include a bust of William Mulholland.

Do what foolishness you will, Conor. A blue hat on your head will not be forgotten. Just know that the Bay Area remembers…the Bay Area remembers…

Never.

So we're going to spend money on a monument to highlight the fact that we're spending money on things other than infrastructure. Figures.

The only remotely conceivable time a real diehard Giants fan might root for the dodger bums is if their win would benefit the three-time World Series Champion San Fransico Giants in a pennant drive or playoff.

As a long time SF Bay Area resident and sports fan, I want to express my deep satisfaction at chanting “Beat LA” when attending games between Bay Area and LA teams.

Well, I don't know as I could root for the Dodgers, but I sure can't root for the American League - that ain't baseball.

Is it possible to root for the Dodgers? Though as the holder of ticket stubs from Ebbets Field, I neither can nor have any desire to forgive the Dodgers, I learned to hate the Giants in utero. And the Yankees well before that. It's a hard world out there, and the choices are not always easy, but in this case they are simple and clear.

Let me just say that I abhor tribalism. I have shed my political party, and think that in group / out group dynamics are the root of all evil.....literally. All that being said, rooting for the Dodgers is simply beyond the pale. Never. Gonna. Happen. If my son played professional baseball, and was signed by the Dodgers, he can call me after he gets traded or retires.......

my only remaining joy in baseball this year will come from the dodgers inevitable choking, whenever it happens. I don't need to root for someone else, I just enjoy a good game wherever it happens and celebrate the combustion sure to happen to the ducking fodgers at some point prior to the end of the month.

There are only two goals for every Giants fan at the beginning of the season 1. The Giants win the World Series 2. The Dodgers don't

Answer: No, it's not possible. If you date the Giants/Dodgers rivalry to 1890, then I've been a Giants fan for almost half that time, and the question itself is a sacrilege. You want an option? Root for the Nationals so that former Giants manager Dusty Baker can get his first World Series ring. Root for the Indians so that they (like the Red Sox and Cubs) can end their decades-long WS drought. Root for the Astros to uplift Houston a bit. Shall I continue?

Of course you can't be a Giants fan and root for the Dodgers. The very fact that you suggested it is proof positive that your support for the Giants runs skin-deep. To paraphrase the late, great Herb Caen: "isn't it nice that people who prefer Los Angeles to San Francisco live there?"

Matt above has a good point. As a 50 year old Dodger fan, San Francisco victories hurt. The Giants winning the series hurt. My father passed the Dodgers down to me and I'm true blue. It's fun having a rivalry. It's an interesting component in my relationships with friends who are Giants fans. Mostly I have to root for the Giants to be eliminated. I want to be magnanimous in life and in sports fandom, but if I'm honest, a Giants victory pains me. Maybe there's hope for the next generation.

You’re not even from the City or the Bay Area and you’re willing to cheer for the Dodgers. You were never a real Giants fan. I bet you’ve never even been to Candlestick.

Mr Dougherty shows a remarkable lack of understanding of the true baseball fan. In '58 the Dodgers broke this little boys heart by abandoning Brooklyn for LA. I moved my allegiance across town to the Yankees and have been there ever since. There are some things in life that you just can't arbitrarily change. A bad season and nitwits in the front office are a part of it that makes the good times all the sweeter. And the real deal is...anybody but LA!

The only thing the Dodgers are any good for LA is making freeway traffic near downtown worse than it already is when they have home games. That and it gives the gangs here a baseball hat to wear as their ID or bumper sticker for their pickup truck.

No

No, I could never, ever root for the Dodgers. I can barely watch them on tv.

Good luck. I attended Auburn and every time I think "place" should drive who I root for I wind up screaming for whoever Bama is playing against in the playoff by the 4th quarter. I try every year and I just can't do it. Then again Deep South football is a little different than coastal baseball...

No. It's not possible.

No. Just no. Root for the Astros or Indians. Anybody but the Dodgers or Yankees.

Root for the Dodgers? You must be nuts. No right minded and true Giants fan ever roots for the Dodgers. Remember when the all climbed into the swimming pool in Arizona with all their gear on after clinching the West Division? The baseball gods haven't forgot.

Root for the Dodgers, NEVER !!

The very fact that you wrote this proves that you are not a die-hard Giants fan. No die-hard Giants fan would ever even consider such heresy.

You cannot be a "die hard Giants fan" and write this.