I am Your Sunshine

My recent obsession over baseball has led me toward the decision of reading Fever Pitch, written by a gooner about his relationship with football, with Arsenal FC in particular, which is the archenemy of Chelsea FC, at least it is for me.

I have different obsessions over the years. During different periods of my life, I have obsessions grand or tiny, over TV shows, over fictional characters (the most recent case is The Scarlet Pimpernel portrayed by Richerd E. Grant), over celebrity (the most recent case is Mark Ellis, obviously), over sports clubs, over bands… For some, the zeal cooled off quite fast; for some, I have put them down and picked them up again years later; for some, they linger like ghosts in a deserted town. Obsession, in dictionary definition, is a compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety. How perfectly precise it is.

Nick Hornby’s gonna provide me with view of a veteran supporter and what a proper fandom is like. Loving the blues (or the green and gold, take your pick) or moreover, being a blue, the joy and pain can both be immense. I remember jumping sky high as if I was possessed alone in my room and I also remember the tear ran down on my face when I drove back to the office after the UCL Liverpool match. The losing streak the A’s pulled kept me depressed for days but a simple ’86 uplifting story (the hapless A’s against the Red Sox empire, which turned out to be the overture of a series of memorable Stewart/Clemens matchups) gave me a ray of hope. They’re probably not gonna love us back, but seriously, who cares? They might make us miserable, but they might also cheer us up on a unbelievably blue day. But most importantly, they are the outlets for our passion and they are the links between our fellow kindred souls.

And this is the prologue of my reading of The Fever Pitch.