OSCILLATING FAN

One claims to be an oath-taking fan of the Mets,

yet he wears his Yankee cap proudly if they are having

the better year. He is a chameleon fan

as is the other, who oscillates between the White Sox and Cubs.

Neither would understand the concept of loyalty or faithfulness

the way Jackie Robinson did when he retired rather than be traded

from his heroic Brooklyn Dodgers to the hated cross-town

Coogan’s Hollow rival New York Giants. Such fans as those cited

from the start circulate hot air that stifles the heard mentality

of dedicated fans, the ones who wave and cheer encouragement

without changing uniforms and changing tides,

descendants of those Brooklyn fans who prayed for Gil Hodges

to come out of a deep hitting slump rather than relent

to base inclinations and mercilessly boo their beloved first baseman,

predecessors of the recent Met fans who cheered Juan Soto in the midst of

his slow offensive start in his first weeks as a Metropolitan.

Oscillating fans can be noisy but the sounds they produce,

as the original Bard called out, are

“full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.”