Baseball Fan Interviews: Ryan Pfleiderer

For my story, "Cheering Out of a Suitcase," featured in the May edition of Norman Einstein's, I emailed a few people who have moved around the country to discuss their relationships with their hometown teams. Since I wasn't able to use their complete interviews in the story, I thought I'd share their full insights here. Today's post spotlights Ryan Pfleiderer.


Ryan Pfleiderer is a student at Emerson College in Boston. He hosts the sports talk radio show Overtime on ETIN every Monday night from 8-10pm ET. Tune in here.

Where are you from? Where are you living now?
I'm from Palo Alto, CA, about 40 minutes outside of San Francisco and 30 minutes outside of San Jose. I've lived there for my whole life, so 19 years now. I'm now living in Boston, MA to attend college at Emerson College. I've been in Boston for 2 years now, and it's been great so far.

What teams do you follow?
I follow the San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors, San Jose Sharks, and believe it or not, the Tennessee Titans. But my favorite sport to watch is baseball, so the Giants are my favorite team.

What made you a fan?
I went to my first Giants game when I was 8. My parents took me to Candlestick Park when they were playing the St. Louis Cardinals. I got to see Mark McGwire hit one of his 70 home runs during that crazy 1998 baseball season. But the Giants ended up winning the game, and ever since then I've been a die-hard fan.





How do you follow your team now?
It's very difficult to follow the Giants now; most of their games start at 10 ET, and none of them are televised in Boston unless they're on ESPN, but that's rare. So as of right now, I have to "watch" the game by using ESPN Gamecast or MLB.com's Gameday, which basically does a play-by-play without the visuals. I try to listen to the games online, but that doesn't always work. So it's difficult to keep up with the games because most of them end after midnight, and if I have to wake up for early classes, I have to shut down my computer and then hopefully read in the morning that they won. I'll always watch Sportscenter in the morning to see the highlights of the game.

Has moving away altered your perception of your team and/or city in any way?
Moving away from San Francisco has actually strengthened my relationship with the Giants. I take pride in being a Giants fan because almost everyone in Boston is a Red Sox fan. I feel more special walking around wearing a Giants shirt because I'm most likely the only one wearing Giants apparel in Boston. Every now and then I'll see someone wearing a Giants hat and I'll stop them for a quick conversation about the team. I have to deal with Red Sox fans telling me how bad the Giants have been in recent years, so it's up to me to defend my team.

Have you adopted the team of your new city? Why/why not?
I've been to a few Red Sox games at Fenway, and every time I go, I feel like I have to root for them. I have no real attachment to the team, so it's hard to be invested in the games, but as long as they're not playing the Giants, I'll be a Red Sox fan.

Other thoughts:
- I had one encounter with Barry Bonds when I was 9. I was at a shoe store with my Mom and my brother, and he was in the store with us. We ended up talking with him for a while, and he told my brother what pair of shoes to buy. He was extremely nice, nothing like the press made him out to be. For me, Bonds was one of my favorite players. I saw him hit no. 73, and I'll never forget that moment.

- There's a huge difference between Boston fans and San Francisco fans. Everyday you see people wearing Red Sox apparel. It's hard to miss them. In San Francisco there are not as many people sporting the orange and black. Not to mention that Boston fans are a lot rowdier than Giants fans. Both Fenway and AT&T sell out almost every game, but the atmosphere is completely different here. There's a lot more yelling, a lot more tension between Sox fans and the visiting team's fans. In San Francisco, we let the scoreboard do the arguing for us. Most fans don't get into it with each other. We're just as passionate about our team, we just show it in a different way. AT&T Park is a lot more family-friendly; they have a giant slide out in left field and a small ballpark where little kids can play. The beer is also a lot more expensive, so maybe that has something to do with it too. And Fenway offers the usual ballpark fare, hot dogs, peanuts, etc, but at AT&T you have your choice between a Caribbean Cha Cha bowl (rice, black beans, marinated pork, all the good stuff), fresh Gilroy garlic fries, and organic kielbasa sausage. It's definitely a different experience at AT&T.

- I've thought about moving back to the San Francisco area, and if everything works out, I'll end up living there later on in life. My dream is to have season tickets to the Giants, so I'll have to live there in order to make sure that works out. I may try and get involved in sports management and perhaps, if the stars align, I could work for the Giants. It's a little too early to plan out my future, but if I have the choice, I would love to be back in the Bay Area. Nothing beats living there; you've got great sports, great weather, good food, and a vibrant community.