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LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Driving in my car the other day, I heard a song come in through the radio.

“If you’re dreaming of California, it don’t matter at all where you played before, California’s a brand new game.”

Then it hit me.

Living and working in Los Angeles this summer, I’m coming to the realization that this is the place where I’m going to live, at least for a few years, right out of college. I’ve considered the important questions: Where in the sprawling hodgepodge am I going to live? How am I going to handle the traffic? But only one question causes me to lose sleep at night: Who’s going to be “my team?”

As demonstrated by Exhibit A, California is anyone’s game. With a population that is largely transplant, allegiances are fickle (in the interest of full disclosure, my allegiance will always be with the Braves, as I am a native of the South, but there’s always room for two). Therefore I lay myself before you, oh mighty Golden State. You decide my baseball fan destiny.

Starting Sunday, July 19, I will embark on a four-week, five-ballpark quest to find “my team.” Here is my presumptive schedule:

Sunday, July 19: ROCKIES at PADRES

Saturday, July 25: TWINS at ANGELS

Saturday, Aug. 1: BLUE JAYS at ATHLETICS

Sunday, Aug. 2: PHILLIES at GIANTS

Saturday, Aug. 8: BRAVES at DODGERS

In my travels, I will interview fans, security guards, hotdog vendors—basically anyone who has an opinion—to find out why I should be a fan of their team. I'll take lots of pictures and maybe throw in some video clips here and there.

Stay tuned for my reports from each team's venue as I rank my experiences based on quality of team, quality of stadium, and quality of fan base, using factors of my own devising. Each review will consist of a series of items that I deem a plus, minus, or neutral. I will grade each experience on a bell curve, accounting for Harvard grade inflation, of course. And, when all is said and done at the end of the four weeks, I'll determine which team deserves my devout faith.

Dixon McPhillips '10, a Crimson sports chair, is a visual and environmental studies concentrator in Kirkland House.