fair weather fan
Who taught: Andrew
Pittsburgh Pirates (source: http://sullybaseball.blogspot.com/)
It is definitely summer here in Pittsburgh. Very hot! How about where you are? Hope you are enjoying summer!
I think I mentioned this before. But, for the sake of this story, there is a baseball team, Pirates, in Pittsburgh. Probably, you do not know the team very well. Usually, they are not that good. During the last five years, they have been usually the second from the last in the rankings. Guess what? This year, they have been # 1 or # 2 in Central of National League of MLB. What a great feeling to have? They are now even talking about the possibility of Pirates being in the playoff. Here is an expression that you might hear in the U.S. if you are a baseball fan. 500 mark! So, MLB measures each team’s winning percentage. And, if it is greater than .500 which means the team has won more than half of the games it has played, then the team is over 500 mark. People really say five hundred which is kind of weird because it should be ‘point’ five hundred.
Well, anyway, a few days ago, I tweeted as follows.
For the last five years, Pirates have never been this good. They are no 1 in central of National League of MLB. Time to go to PNC Park soon.
And, Andrew replied, saying “Fair weather fan!”
At first, nothing made sense. I was talking about baseball and, all of a sudden, he was talking about weather. Well, I had to look it up. As I expected, it is not the way to depict weather and has nothing to do with weather. In this expression, ‘fair weather’ simply means when things are going well. As a result, fair weather fan means a fan of a sports team who shows support when the team is doing well.
In my defense, I have supported Pirates when they were doing not well. How can I prove? I bought a few hats and t-shirts and have gone to games even though they lost every time I went.
Let’s go Bucs! Oh, Bucs means Pirates for people in Pittsburgh. 🙂
My question to American friends : Can I use this for a situation that is not related with sports?
Bucs is short for ‘buccaneers’, which is another word for pirates. Just so you know where that comes from 🙂
As for fair weather things, I think the most common phrase involving them is ‘fair weather friend’, and I bet you can feel what it means!
I’d forgotten about “fair weather friend”, but that was actually the first I’d heard the phrase. My sister had a fair weather friend 🙂 I’d say nowadays “fair weather fan” is more common, but I dunno.
Thanks, Jean, for the information! I did not know that. Go Buccaneers!
Fair weather fan is always used in the context of sports as far as I know. Another term you’ll hear that can be used beyond sports is “getting on the bandwagon”. I’ve also heard that used in politics, which many people treat like it’s a sport.
I think I have heard of it. Will be added into my post draft list.