SPORTS COLUMN: When does the sports bandwagon stop?

Just like that, with the final out of the 2016 World Series, a fan base instantly gained thousands of followers.

Did these fans like the Chicago Cubs prior to the World Series? Have they spent year after year lamenting at the “Curse of the Goat” that haunted Chicago for over a century? Did they even watch all of Game Seven?

These fans are what the sports world has come to call bandwagon fans. Those myriad newcomers who latch on to a team’s success with no real passion or ties to said team.

They are generally looked down upon by their longtime counterparts — those that stuck through thick and thin with the home team, through winless streaks and first-round losses.

But should they be looked upon with such disdain and loathing?

What about a young child that gets a pint-sized Cubs jersey for Christmas this year? Are they now a bandwagon fan by proxy? Must they suffer from their parents’ sporting sin?

How are people who are maybe not the most dedicated sports fans supposed to pick a team? Sure, proximity to a team can do it, but take it from me personally as an Oakland Raiders fan: Proximity to a team doesn’t mean the general population will hear about them, especially if they are as bad as Oakland has been over the last decade or so.

People hear about teams, locally and abroad, when that team wins. That is the No. 1 way to get fans — winning.

My own father has been a Cleveland Indians fan, bless his heart, since he was a kid growing up in 1949 upstate New York. What happened in 1948, just one year prior to his life-long love for the Indians?

They won the 1948 World Series. He could have been a Yankees fan, a Brooklyn Dodgers fan or even a New York Giants fan. But according to him, the three older boys he was playing a game with one afternoon had already chosen the hometown teams, so he was left with the only other team he knew — and from that 1948 championship, a life long fan was gained.

While I may rib him every now and then for being a bandwagon fan, it’s safe to say he has probably paid his dues after 67 years. So maybe we should all take a moment to reflect on whether that friend, who now all of the sudden owns a Cubs cap and jersey, is really a bandwagoner or not. They may just be getting started in a life time love affair with their new team.

David Norton is the sports editor for Clovis Media Inc. He can be reached at 575-763-6991, ext. 317.