Matthew Osborne
I have lived in Habersham County going on three years, and anyone who has seen me around knows I am not native to Georgia.
If nothing else, that is evident from the seemingly endless hats and jerseys I wear around in my spare time, and most of them this time of year say “Phillies” on them.
Yes, this is no secret to anyone by now, and this is actually the first time I have lived in such a homogenous sports culture as Georgia. Even in South Jersey, where Philly teams mostly rule, there is a large smattering of New York fans that gets larger each mile that you travel north on the Jersey Turnpike.
But here in Georgia, it’s simple – Dawgs above all, then Braves, Hawks, Falcons, Evander Holyfield and Goldberg.
OK, maybe the last two are more or less retired, but the point remains that I grew up mostly in in Florida and lived in Western North Carolina, where honestly you could grab 10 people and get 10 different answers about their favorite teams.
Not here. It seems as if everyone but Georgia Tech grads are on the same page when it comes to sports allegiances, and even they are with the group on everything but college football.
Even though the Braves and Dawgs are not my bag, I have enjoyed seeing so many of my friends revel in their recent championship runs. I have warned them to treasure these moments, as they can be fleeting. You never know when they will come again.
That aside, a fascinating thing someone once told me about sports affiliations is that “We are all rooting for laundry.”
The point here is that we attach ourselves to a ball team and then root for the folks wearing those jerseys no matter who they are or what they’ve done because they are wearing the same “laundry” in the same city as we are.
This was always an interesting take to me, because while I find that it cheapens the joy and attachment one gets from following your favorite team, it does warrant some consideration. Most of us do not follow players, but we grow to love the ones on our team and not care as much for those our teams oppose. Then when our team picks up a player we didn’t previously like, they are suddenly our guy, and vice versa. There is a fascinating psychological study there for anyone who wants to put in the research.
But I am here to present you with perhaps the ultimate example of the other side of the argument in the great debate of People v. Laundry – Frederick Charles Freeman.
When people said during the lockout that it was possible Freddie Freeman would leave the Braves, I scoffed. There was no way a homegrown star and world champion hero was not going to be resigned.
And so, he left for Los Angeles – presumably greener pastures, but for that awful California tax structure – and folks here wept. Sure, Matt Olson is a terrific ballplayer, but he is a guy hitting homers and wearing your laundry.
Freeman was your guy, and even I feel the loss. I don’t even like the Braves and it offends me as a baseball fan and a human being that the team did not do whatever it took to keep him here.
Now it comes out that his agent may have lied to him to manipulate him to the Dodgers. The agent denies this, of course, but he has to in order to keep his career. So that question may never truly be answered, but Freeman firing him speaks volumes.
There are a lot of ballplayers who are not worth idolizing. Let’s face it, the percentage of wonderful people and jerks is the same across nearly every profession in our society, including ballplayers, so that is no surprise.
But Freeman was a true hero to a lot of people here, with not only his home runs, but his charity and community works as well. He was a big part of this wonderful sports community in Georgia – and the surrounding southern states when it comes to the Braves – and he deserved to be here forever.
Whoever dropped the ball on that, shame on you. It was an error that cannot be erased from a scorebook.
Matthew Osborne is the editor of The Northeast Georgian. Reach him at 706-778-4215 or editor@TheNortheastGeorgian.com.