Get Joe Posnanski to be a Fulham Fan

Who is Joe Posnanski? He is a great sportswriter for the Kansas City Star, and he does a blog on the side, at http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog . I think if you read his blog, you'll find it very interesting and insightful.

Anyway, yesterday, this was in the middle of his blog (on On Base Percentage, believe it or not):

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*OK, so here’s the deal. This blog has, for reasons that are quite beyond me, become an International thing. Best I can tell, we either have readers in various countries all over the world or we have readers who PRETEND to be from various countries all over the world — it really works either way. So, here’s what I’ve been thinking: I need a soccer team. A football club. Whatever you call it. You can teach me that stuff later. For a while I thought about becoming a fan of Arsenal because of Nick Hornby, but I never really followed up on that. I’m more committed now — thanks in large part to the upcoming soccer book Bloody Confused by my dear friend Chuck Culpepper.

Yes, I want a club. I want to buy soccer jerseys. I want to feel international (Sorry: American soccer teams are not eligible). I want to be able to use all those cool soccer words like … well, I don’t know, I’ll learn them.

So, here’s the deal: My fan services are for hire. All you have to do is send along an email telling me why I should support your team. The best email wins my enduring soccer love and maybe even an occasional soccer post.

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I'd like to see if we can get him to become a Fulhamite like we are. )Those of you who've been around this site awhile might remember a similar campaign to get the ESPN Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, to become a Fulham fan. If failed; he picked Spurs but never followed up and really became a fan. I guess I'm stubborn...)

Anyway, if you're interested, e-mail Joe at joe@joeposnanski.com and persuade him why he should become a Fulham supporter. If you want, go ahead and post your e-mails to him here too. I will post mine as soon as I write it (in the next day or two).

 

Thanks for the heads-up, Dave. Posnanski's baseball writing is great and it'd be neat for Fulham to be the subject of some of his ink.

 

I dunno... he writes about baseball in Kansas City? How much do you expect the man to take?

 

Come on 'Fog, that's the wrong attitude! What we should be thinking is, "he writes about baseball in Kansas City, so he knows how to handle the punishment!"

 

Actually that view is the first thing I thought of...

But that wouldnt be humorous, would it?

 

He wouldn't be the first person to follow the Royals on a daily basis for years on end before discovering soccer and choosing Fulham as his side.

Hell, relating Fulham's roller-coaster ride with my years as a long-suffering Royals fan was the only thing that kept my spirits up some days last season. :lol:

 

After two days of no power due to the most brutal string of thunderstorms (one after another), I was ready to compose my piece for Joe, but first I wanted to see if he's posted any updates on his search. He had. He's narrowed it down to a Premier League club, and we're in the running, from what I can see. Here's what he said about Fulham:

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3. Jim and several others play up Fulham FC because of its Wrigley Field like grounds (I love the word “grounds”) and because it has been fighting off relegation lately, much like the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland teams of my youth. Sounds like I’d feel right at home. HatterDon also points out that Fulham has LOTS of Americans on it, which is a plus for a patriotic guy like myself and also might help explain the near-relegation thing.

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Good job, gang! (Is Jim our very own Pettyfog?) Anyway, after reading his post, here is what I sent him:

I saw that you have had several other people extol Fulham. I had planned to write right away for Fulham too but two days without power sort of got in the way. I see that you saw Hatter Don's letter; he is a friend of mine from the www.FulhamUSA.com site. Neither Don nor I founded the site, but we are both active members and have found it to be a great community of Fulham fans. We have a lively message board, where everything from Fulham to USA soccer, to the presidential race are discussed, as well as in-game chats,
but the best thing about it is that it is the most civil message board I've seen on the web. We may not always agree, but we disagree respectfully. I mention that because I think that would be a good reason for you to become a Cottager. You would be very welcome on the site and no prior experience or knowledge of soccer/football or Fulham is needed; we're happy to bring you up to speed.

I was going to talk about the Cottage a bit too but it seems that several others have filled you in on the charm of the place. Just in case, here's a link to the Wikipedia site: ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craven_Cottage.

I have one more reason to become a Fulham fan, "Fulhamish". Fulham has never been a big club, but we've had a lot of interesting things happen to us. There is a tradition that if something unusual can happen, it will happen to us. It is usually bad stuff, but winning four of our last five games, including three on the road where we had only won two games in the league in 2.8 seasons, to stay up in the Premier League on goal differential, was the very definition of Fulhamish.

Anyway, I am a big fan of yours, after hearing about your site from a friend of mine, Rob Neyer (I'm a SABR guy), and I would love it if you became a Fulham fan. I think you'll enjoy the ride!

 

Yay - I got quoted.

 

He also has a poll, not unlike our polls. I voted for Fulham (http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/) of course. We are in the middle of the pack but he has made it clear that it is not votes that decide it (he's seriously considering Boro). Note that as of right now, we have eight times as many votes as Chelsea (24 to 3). Actually, that's not too surprising when you consider how many Chelsea fans actually have computers... However, we're behind QPR.

 

Great quote, and while am not an expert on English football, I know that quote is true.

 

Here is the whole email I sent - since Mr. Posnanski read it I think it only fair to publish it.

 

I posted this on TIFF and told the guys to get voting. We're now in the lead!

 

That's awesome Mike. . . showing again Fulham fans are the best in the league.

 

Thanks a bunch Mike! Maybe I'm just being a super optimist, but I think we have a decent chance. Even if he doesn't choose Fulham, I am very impressed by the e-mails to him and the great support from this board.

 

heh... note both Don and I {jim} were mentioned in the FFC para. If he only knew.. oh, wait. He probvably does.

 

A great quote, at that!

 

An update from Joe--we're still in the running...

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2. The last two years, the FANS at Fulham did top the Fairplay Competition. The team didn’t do the job — but, that’s not the fans fault, and as you can see Fulham is now running away with the poll. Fulham is very interesting to me — a London based team that can’t win at all and has basically needed miracles in recent days not to get relegated. I have considered that I don’t want to really root for a team that will get relegated after only one year — that does seem a bit masochistic. But, of course, my whole life has been filled with sports masochism.

Arsenal is still appealing. Some good friends push Liverpool. Tottenham is still in the mix and of course, Middlesbrough. Much excitement.

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Here is my response to Joe:

As a Fulham fan, that is a risk, but as painful as it can be, there is nothing more exciting in sports than a relegation battle. You’re playing not for a championship, but for something much more basic: survival in your league. As a lifelong American sports fan, I really did not “get” what relegation was until we were almost relegated last year. When we stayed up, the feeling was like nothing that I’d felt in American sports. Then, this year, to stay up when there was no reasonable hope we’d stay up, with a goal with less than 20 minutes to go, well, I can’t describe it.

 

Dave, thanks for starting this thread. Joe is a riot! I'll keep reading his blog. I voted for Fulham and told him why he should be a fan.