WASHINGTON — It was a beautiful day for a ballgame, and then it turned into a perfect soft June evening full of Americana. On the riverfront, the crisp white-clad Nationals faced the Philadelphia Phillies, from a short ride up the tracks. The Phillies fans were polite and treated well — compared to rougher rivalries.

The young Nats pitcher, Stephen Strasburg, hit a double. Then came a storybook "monstrous" home run by a little guy, don't ask me who. Cotton candy wafted in the ballpark air as the Four Presidents (George, Abe, Tom and Teddy) mascots did their crowd-pleasing run around the green — and I mean emerald green. In this divided city on a hill, you breathe deep the times when everyone's on the same side.

Surrounded by a sea of sports fans (or fanatics), I felt it's not as simple to be a fan these days, with so much flux off the field. What does it mean to be a "fan"? There are all sorts, from the bandwagon fan, to the devoted fan to the social fan. But what makes us a fan? And more important, what stops us from being fans?

A handful of troubling trends are taking some of the pure pleasure out of being sports fans. Take the concussions lawsuits filed against the National Football League. A generation of retired players are aging, and the question on the table is whether they are at greater risk for dementia. The mighty League, how's it going to play this one? And what will it mean to win — or lose? You tell me.

Closer to home, Washington's NFL team, the Redskins, is in a real fight over its name, a disrespectful nickname for American Indians. The team has a deep well of fans through so many unfortunate seasons and coaches, but there are some who say they will stop being fans if owner Dan Snyder refuses appeals from across the country to change the name. Snyder says no, period — a brash stance that's not winning any new friends for the Redskins franchise. The cost of what he may lose — some small part of a devoted fan base — can't be counted.

Speaking of owners who hurt their teams, how about the swift fall of Donald Sterling, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Clippers? Nobody could countenance the remarks he made in private about "black people." If he had not been banned by the National Basketball Association, how many fans would have walked away from supporting the team? His team didn't even want to play for him. He is being forced to sell, and you can bet that's sending a shiver through other NBA owners, who will watch their words more carefully. The thing is, they like being kings. Now they must settle for being barons. The climate has changed.

Used to calling the shots, professional sports team owners and their leagues are under tighter scrutiny, playing to a wider stage of society. If the NFL had failed to draft its first openly gay player, Michael Sam, it would not have been pretty. We are in an era of rapidly rising human rights for gays. The NFL (on the seventh round) was smart enough to go with the flow. But reports of locker room harassment on the Miami Dolphins did not do the League any favors. Richie Incognito, identified using verbal violence and racial slurs against a teammate, is not someone I'd pay to watch.

Fans are watching in more ways than one, with the buying power to influence outcomes.

How bad does a bad boy have to be for you to stop being a fan? Getting back to Major League Baseball, doping scandals and suits have tarnished America's pastime — a distinction it shares with biking. The summer night Barry Bonds (then shadowed by steroids) broke Hank Aaron's home run record in San Francisco, a friend sat on his hands — a protest of one. Even if it was a majestic hit, he said, against the Nationals.

The places where the Orioles, Indians, Cubs and Red Sox play — I adore them all, especially seeing the blue-lighted Bromo-Seltzer Tower in Baltimore beyond the Camden Yards warehouse wall. That's America, any of those gathering spaces with spirit. Let's try to keep it simple.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm, and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.