As a Giants fan, of course, we are expected to root for Emmanuel Burriss despite the fact we have no idea who Emmanuel Burriss is. But just because he wears the french vanilla, black, and orange of the hometown nine, we find ourselves having to excitedly cheer whenever he comes up to bat. All of which proves the old joke that as sports fans, we basically root for the laundry.
This gets us to thinking of A's fans who have to deal with this seemingly every season, to the point there was a discussion on Athletics Nation as to what player jersey to buy when the player whose name is on the jersey is usually gone in a few years or so. The difference, though, is that A's fans have an all-abiding faith in Billy Beane that those random guys are in the lineup for a reason, something borne out by move after move that Beane has made (Jack Cust anyone?) That cannot be said of the Giants whose roster seemingly seems to be made up of people who happened to walk by the Giants office at the right time and were given a bat and a glove (as a result, we tried stalking Brian Sabean in hopes he'd sign us but alas, all we got was a restraining order). It's not like these guys are fancy pants free agent signing (with the exception of Aaron Rowand) or well-hyped phenoms or even had Topps players cards with their pictures on it at one point in their lives.
But still, root, root root we will even if we're not sure why. So, with that said, rah, rah sis-boom bah, Go Giants!