The Anatomy of a Fan, Part IV: The Gift of Short-Term Memory

Yes, 2014 was a dumpster fire since "Pablo Night" (July 25), but something interesting happened earlier this month: the 2015 schedule came out. As I entered the games into my phone (since the Rapids had not put out the downloadable schedule yet that goes into my Google calendar), I found myself pumped about the new season.  Truly, 2014 was behind me.

Then the draft.  Yes, we lost Klute, who may or may not have a revival of form in 2015, but we gained some solid players in the offseason--not the least of which was Marcelo Sarvas from the Galaxy--gives us more hope.  Truly, 2014 was behind us.

Then the epic nature of the Pablo-stache. In a recent interview with Richard Fleming, we see that the 2014 Mastroeni was in full philosophical form, noting that he needed a new look to close the chapter on his playing days and be Coach Pablo. That, again, feels like 2014--but who knows!  Time will tell!  But even so, it's different, fresh, and glorious!

Why does this happen?  Why, after all the groaning of 2014, does this happen to fans each year?  It seems that humans have in this a capacity to move on.  We have a hope that tomorrow will be a better day. But we also have a capacity to forget all that when 2015 starts looking like 2014.  To the fan, one year can be a fluke, two or three years is a pattern.  More than that, you breed a culture of mediocrity and ineptness.  But we're not there yet.

So bring on training camp, bring on preseason, and bring on the opener at Philly (3/7) and the home opener against NYCFC (3/21 at 2 pm).  Bring on the fans.  And bring on the winning!

Then, at the end of 2015 we can say, "Hmm... that 2014 was a fluke after all.