'Tis it Better to have loved (the Rockies) and lost, or never to have loved at all?

My boy Tulo and the rest of the Rockies have Colorado believing again, is that a good thing?

I hold it true, whate'er befall;

I feel it, when I sorrow most;

'Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.
-From Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam

Yup, I just quoted Tennyson, so you know this post is going to be high quality! You may wonder why I am quoting Tennyson when I am purporting to write a sports blog post, and in the hands of a lesser blogger, you'd be right. However, I actually am going somewhere with the above poetry from 1850, so stay with me.

My question is this...When it comes to sports, is it better to have your heart broken by a team who goes very far, but not quite far enough, (Such as the Nuggets this past season falling in the Western Conference Finals or the Rockies getting swept in the World Series in 2007 after a glorious run.) or is it preferable to have your team struggle mightily and never really get off the ground so that your expectations are never raised and you never have your heart broken. (Such as the Avalanche this past season, or for Clippers fans...pretty much every season ever.)

On the one hand, it kinda stinks to have your hopes raised by the possibility of a championship only to have the Lakers or Red Sox stomp all over your dreams like a old bag of moldy tangerines. On the other hand, you could be a Clippers fan (shudder) and never really have to worry about the angst that comes with hope.

I bring the topic up, because I am dealing with both possibilities this season with the Rockies, and I've been thinking about it a bit. To start the season off, they were atrocious, and my baseball fandom was kind of like Vince Carter's basketball play. I was wearing the uniform, but I wasn't really putting a whole lot of effort or emotion into it. I was following the results, but not hanging on the results. In other words, I was acting like a guy whose team was 20-33 as the Rox were back on June 3rd. Since that time, however, the Rockies have gone 21-4, and I am now extremely interested in every game, and hoping that they can keep it up throughout the summer and find a way to sneak into the playoffs like they did two years ago and perhaps make another ridiculous run.

So that's my question, is it better to have a team that I only sort of pay attention to, but with no possibility to break my heart, or is it better to have a competitive team who may fall apart later on in the summer and dash my expectations against the rocky shores of an August swoon? I think I'm going to side with my pal Alfred Lord and love with the possibility of losing as being better than never having loved at all. How say you?

Although it may lead to pain, I'll say it proudly, "GO ROCKIES!!!"