The Downside of Hegemony

Awhile back, Eric McErlain made a post in the general sports site Off-Wing Opinion that was amusing. After the 2004 Eastern Conference Final, he wrote along the lines of "now I know how it feels to root for the Yankees." Eric, you were half right then, you are fully correct now. After a full day of demands to fire and trade everyone from informed and uninformed people, that's the kind of fan reaction you only see when a proud dynasty seriously screws up. Now you know what it is like to be a supporter of the dominant team, you know the panic, fear, irrationality, and despair that comes from the incongrous moment when the team you belive can do no wrong is sent forcefully to the ground. The kind that fall that echoes across its fandom, the resonates to such a degree that DC shopkeepers look tenatively at their store windows, wondering if they should stock up on plywood. As Suzanne Vega put it: "When heroes go down, they go down fast." And hard.

Now you know.