Fandom is a weird thing, where we become fiercely tribal about something we’re only tenuously related to. People find all different reasons to like a team, such as logo, uniform, big wins, random choice, or, probably more common, geography and family.
In that regard, I’m not different. I became an Indians fan as a kid, when the juggernaut offenses of the ‘90s were winning games more often than Mariah Carey churned out No. 1 hits. I got exposed to the team by my dad and his mom, whose northeast Ohio roots reached deep. All the way to central Illinois, where we lived.