What Fans Do.

Mike Lupica's biography reads as follows:

"He began his newspaper career with the New York Post in 1975, at the age of 23, covering the Knicks. In 1977, he became the youngest columnist ever at a New York paper when he joined the Daily News."

I can only deduce that it took Lupica thirty years to realize that fans are biased towards the players on their local team:

"If David Ortiz were a Yankee, Yankee fans would have been writing their Congressmen the last two years to get him the MVP award."

Yes, that's how it works. Of course, the major exception being Alex Rodriguez in 2005.

But, generally, the local fans and writers and coaches and teammates and batboys and hot dog vendors and smiley local morning news anchors all pull for the player from the local team.

I mean, Billy Wagner has pitched 70 whole innings and practically leads the league in blown saves (probably, in a lazy, unverified sort of way), but the Mets are pushing his supposed candidacy for the Cy Young Award.

That's how it works.

Go to an ESPN Sports Nation poll and ask if Khalil Greene is the NL MVP. He will receive 0.01% of the national vote, but 90% of the San Diego vote.

So, yeah. Lupica is stating the obvious.

Yankee fans root for Jeter in 2006, (we'll ignore 2005), and they rooted for Soriano in 2002 and Mattingly in 1986.

Red Sox fans, such as New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, root for David Ortiz.