Sports. What else unites people of different colors, genders, shapes and beliefs?

The way I see it, seeing your favorite team win the World Series, or the Super Bowl or even the Stanley Cup is equivalent to the joy of winning the lottery or maybe being a parent. But the anguish of seeing your favorite team lose instead is the same magnitude of said joy.

For example, those two years in which the Giants won the World Series were some of the most fun years in my young life so far. Nothing beats the atmosphere of a city painting the town in orange and black, embracing our team’s motto of “Mission: October.” Of course, the common theme with those Giants team were torture, and it was a sweet, sweet torture to see every ball, strike, ball, high drive and…glove. It was a moment of pure joy to be a Giants’ fan.

Conversely, the other side of those emotions have reared its ugly head in recent years when concerning football. Ever since the start of the Harbaugh era, we’ve been given hope and that hope has been warranted. The team has made it so far each postseason since Harbaugh started coaching the 49ers, yet every year we’ve been left with excuses to give to our teachers or bosses for missing a day to bask in Lombardi trophy-winning glory.

Basically, all these emotions came up after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. At first, their winning hurt worse than my Niners losing, but overall we’ve experienced more happiness than sadness. We’re lucky as sports fans; bay area’s teams have been resurgent since the turn of the decade and downright spoiled with two World Series titles in three years. We have such a high peak and deep valley when it comes to our emotions invested in our sports teams. Think about those poor Cleveland fans, who haven’t experienced any sports joys in decades, only misery.

Simply put, I’ll either be screaming my lungs out for Renteria’s homerun or falling into a short-term depression for, what I believe, was a missed holding call that cost the 49ers Super Bowl XLVII. Those are the sharp peaks and valleys sports have on my emotions. This is my love-hate relationship with sports.