Though the term has a whole other meaning here in Montana's third-largest city - a speck of civilization on a landscape of vast, breathtaking emptiness - Ferderer is a rabid baseball fan.
That love affair, for the most part, has been platonic. Ferderer's favorite team, the Minnesota Twins, plays 1,000 miles away, and he has seen it only on television. He likes the Seattle Mariners, too, because they're the closest big-league club, merely a rugged 12-hour, 680-mile drive away.
Ferderer, 46, and most other Great Falls natives don't develop baseball allegiances the way fans elsewhere do. There are no superstars signing autographs at local car dealerships, no outings to games for Boy Scout troops, and no Saturday afternoons in big-city bleachers.
Ferderer was 21 before he saw his first major-league game in person. He drove to Seattle with buddies and watched two games while spending four days there.
That's life for sports enthusiasts in Great Falls. They must learn to endure the loneliness of the long-distance fan. If they want to see big-league baseball or an NFL or NBA game, they have to drive forever, book a hotel room or two, pay for a lot of meals and, most likely, take several days' vacation.
While athletically remote towns are scattered throughout the continental United States, perhaps none is as isolated from big-league sports as this central Montana city of 56,600, named for the falls where Lewis and Clark stopped in 1805.
The flash and panache of live events in urban arenas and stadiums is just an illusion here. Residents see evidence of them on ESPN or Fox, but few have witnessed them in person.
"Never been to a Red Sox game or a Raiders game," said Beth Murphy, a Great Falls accountant who claims that she is a passionate fan of both teams. "In fact, I've never been to any major-league sports event."
