I was born a Dodgers fan. “My” Dodgers, as I like to call them, won the World Series in dramatic fashion in 1988, the year I came into the world. I inherited this obsession from my dad, a southern California native, who taught me about Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and the miraculous home-run hitter Kirk Gibson. But since that fateful 1988, the Dodgers have broken my heart every year.

My family’s emotional stability rests on the Dodgers season. Summer nights I would listen to Vin Scully broadcasting live from Dodger Stadium, sometimes to victories, but mostly to sad losses. As a 12 year old, I had to deal with the emotional trauma of Mike Piazza trade to the Florida Marlins. I wrote a letter to the owner of the team begging him to bring Piazza back (to no avail). I spent a week of my summer angry and depressed, all because my Dodgers had let me down.

The 2007 season provided no relief from my emotional roller coaster with my Dodgers. My team got hot, and then flustered at the end of the season, crushing my dreams of coming back to California and going to see postseason games at Chavez Ravine. However, at the end of this season I found myself surprisingly content, and from a team I never thought would come through for me.

In the past, I have hid my Colorado roots because the Colorado Rockies are an embarrassment to baseball. Their mascot is a dinosaur named Dinger—need I say more?

Usually by September, I have checked out completely, trying to look forward to the Rockies’ spring training next year. I experience a type of self-diagnosed seasonal depression that comes around the start of the postseason every year. But this year, the Colorado Rockies, gave me hope for the first time.

An incredible run at the end of their season, winning 21 of their last 22 games, helped them win the National League Wild Card, and they continued winning into the postseason. After sweeping the Phillies and then the Diamondbacks, they were pitted against the Red Sox in the World Series, a hot team with undeniably more power and experience than the young Rockies.

Judging from Facebook, the Rockies’ incredible run turned apathetic Coloradoans into fans. My Colorado friends began to profess undying love and support for the Rockies. At first, I was torn. Do I root for the team I ridiculed my entire life or do I stay true to my Dodgers? When my dad told me he bought tickets for the post season in Denver, I knew it was OK: I could root for the Rockies.

It was an odd experience: being baseball happy in October, and checking espn.com for unstoppable Rockies. My friends asked me about my Rockies, and it was a nice feeling to be able to brag about a team of mine—something that the Dodgers have failed to allow me to do for many, many years.

And then came the Red Sox. I knew it would be a hard series; the Red Sox are a dynasty, and the Rockies, well, are not. Rockies fans were coming from all over the place. “I was going for the Rockies because they represented the NL West, the Dodgers’ division, and their being undefeated throughout the playoffs was awesome,” said Sam Monkarsh (PI ’10) adding, “but the eight days off in between series made them lose the fire”

The Rockies were humiliated in Boston, and then came home to loving Colorado fans, and still drowned. I watched the first game, and knew it was over. I had, for a week, jumped on the Rockies bandwagon, wearing my Matt Holliday jersey, and bragging about the Rockies. But it was over so quickly, and thank the lucky stars that I didn’t get more wrapped up in the Rocktoberfest.

In my opinion, baseball fans are the best fans, and loyalties run deep. Because of the 2007 World Series, loyalties were firmed, as Ben Alpert (PI ’10) describes: “I’m happy the Rockies didn’t win. My grandfather was a Red Sox fan, and he wanted me to be one too.” For baseball dynasties like the Red Sox, the Yankees, and my beloved Dodgers, being a fan is a lifelong commitment.

For newly born teams like the Rockies, who were inaugurated in 1993, it is hard for me to see why people would be diehard fans, but Djamila Ricciardi (SC ’10) points out: “For the diehard fans who have believed in the Rockies throughout many seasons, it was especially difficult to recover after our boys received such an embarrassing pummeling on the national stage. But you just have to put a good face on the whole situation.”