The playoffs begin today and you know how I feel. I want the Yankees to win. I need the Yankees to win as I don't do well without championships and it's been 4 years since a team I cared about won a title. That's a long time for me. Weep for me.
I would rank my rooting interests as follows
Yankees - Brewers - White Sox - Dodgers - Braves - Giants - Astros - Cardinals - Tampa - Red Sox
You need to make your own decisions so I'm here to help.
Yankees (no current Nats connection)
Pros : It'll make me happy. Will reset the "Yankees don't have a title" talk that annoys everyone. Aaron Judge is fun!
Cons : 12 years isn't enough time to feel sorry for a fanbase, especially one with 27 titles. Yankees fans expect to win so it's no fun when they do win. Not like they need the exposure.
Red Sox (Schwarber, Brad Peacock pitched for a hot minute this year 15.19 ERA!)
Pros : Maybe 5 titles this century will stop fan base from acting like they are America's lovable underdogs when really America sees them as the Boston Yankees.
Cons : It won't. We're only a few years removed from Boston having won in three major sports at same time. Don't want to reward the "iykyk" team.
Cardinals (Jon Lester, Justin Miller on IL)
Pros : Arenando and Goldschmidt are good players who deserve a title, maybe Happ and Miller to a lesser degree. Umnmm... hmmm... you are a Cardinals fan? Maybe it makes Max happy?
Cons : Cardinal fans are just as annoying at Yankees and Red Sox* fans but think they aren't. Another good not great team winning would mean that many more "right way" articles. Have plenty of titles and it's only been 10 years since last one.
Dodgers (Max! Trea! Souza played this year!... blake treinen.)
Pros : Max! To a lesser degree Trea! They are the best team talent wise. They developed, spent money to keep those players and get better ones, traded for best players at deadline. Really all teams should follow this model. It should be rewarded.
Cons : Come on, they just won last year. Even if for legal reasons we didn't want to see slow movement on Bauer stuff. Only I care about "best team gets rewarded"
Rays (Hunter Strickland was there...)
Pros : Have become a perennial contending team who's been right at the doorstep for years. Fanbase might be tiny but they still have fans that suffered through a lot for no title yet.
Cons : Epitomizes worst aspects of modern baseball trying to stretch all the rules and regulations both on field and off to maximize wins at lowest cost. Not at all concerned with actually winning a title as shown by constant jettisoning of talent and lack of deadline moves. No org treats players more as fungible assets to be used up and discarded.
White Sox (Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez**, Brian Goodwin (IL))
Pros : Who cares about the White Sox? The other team in the other other city. There'd be a nice symmetry to the Nats/White Sox trade getting them both titles.
Cons : LaRussa is close to contemptible and shouldn't get to snag a title by jumping in on a team everyone knew was going to be good. Reinsdorf is also a pretty bad screw the players guy. Like all owners may be but we know he is.
Astros (Dusty!)
Pros : Dusty wins. Also you like Brantley and Greinke could use a title to cement his HoF case.
Cons : Cheating cheaters dumb enough to get caught win again? The redemption stories that we'd have to hear? No thank you.
Giants (no Nats connection)
Pros : Story of the season. Magic team of veterans on one last magic ride. Make Phillies fans mad to see Kapler win.
Cons : It's not like these vets haven't won - they have 2-3 titles with the last one just like 7 years ago. Kapler is a weirdo who likely said "not my problem" to harassment issues when he was with the Dodgers. Personally I don't think the luckiest teams should get rewarded.
Braves (Jon Lucroy? Jon Lucroy! 5 games for Nats, 2 for Braves)
Pros : I have a friend who's a Braves fan who'd be happy. It has been 26 years since the last one and they've been too good of a franchise for that to be a fair result.
Cons : They still do the chop. Last thing you want is your division rival to win it all. Pretty mediocre season for a team to win it
Brewers (... Hunter Strickland is here. Would ZNN get a ring?)
Pros : Never won a title. Great logo. Bob Uecker. No one cares if the Brewers win.
Cons : No one cares if the Brewers win. If you want to get hung up on Hader it does feel like he should have gotten more flack than a couple nights of online chastising, an apology, then a standing ovation? Yeah he was a kid (17/18) but like take a class? Do community service? I mean every team has probably like a half-dozen guys like this but you have to be very good and hidden in Milwaukee to slide like this.
*Yankees fans know they are and own it. Red Sox fans know they are but pretend they aren't. Cardinals fans are oblivious.
** Lopez had been out much of year but came in to be a good reliever. Eventually they started to start him again and that probably messed him up a little.
12 comments:
That's more like it: The stinging, incisive, hilarious Harper we all know and kind-of love.
Much more bracing than yesterday's damp-hanky professional eulogy of Zimm.
I'm obligated to root for the Giants due to the Mrs and being a transplant to the Bay Area, but in all actuality, when I look at the list of teams, it's hard to root for anyone else. Maybe the Brewers? I would've pulled for the Mariners or the Blue Jays had they gotten in, but this list is a bunch of annoying fanbases (or nonexistent ones in Tampa's case)
This is good Harper- very clever and fun! But, wait...4 years since a team you cared about won a title... what?! We all know you didn't start the blog as a Nats fan, but we also know you now are a clandestine Nats fan!
Chas R - well there is well wishes and then there is heartfelt celebration. I was glad to see the team win and certainly glad for all of you. So a mini-pick me up, but you only have one team that's yours in any league (imo)
My parents were both born in LA. Lifelong Dodger fans. As a military brat, I grew up in DC, starting baseball fandom as a young kid for the Senators, then waiting 30 empty years until the Expos moved to Washington.
My parents pulled for the Nats, too, until they moved back to California where they re-established their Dodger connection. When I attended USC I was briefly an LA follower, never a true fan. "God made the sky blue because he's a Dodger fan" -- Heard that all the time from arrogant Californians.
Yankees, no thanks. Definitely not Atlanta. And not Houston. Don't dislike any of the others that much, but don't feel particularly partial to any. I will root for Max and Trea, but not the Dodgers. They deserve rings.
How does Hunter Strickland make the con list but Pete Kozma does not. Never would have happen if Needham was alive.
Nattydread - every team who uses a blue that isn't dark uses that line. Also no way the sky is that blue.
Hoo - I didn't put anyone on a con list. These are just former Nats that are on these teams
Nice piece - I love how you can put together an overwhelming list of "cons" for every team in the hunt.
I hate to admit it, but for me the former Nat sentiment factor makes me want to pull for Dusty and the Astros. I know -- cheating cheaters cheated and got away with it. But Dusty . . . c'mon, poor guy deserves a title to get him into the Hall. At least I know I'll be rooting for him over that slime ball LaRussa.
Of the other former Nats, there's Max of course - but he got his ring as a Nat, so I won't feel bad if he doesn't get another one as a Dodger. Let him remember his years with the Nats as the highlight of his career.
Harper, you may be soulless, but an automaton can't write like that. Nice piece.
Max didn't have command of his pitches last night, but he hung in there and he didn't give up any homeruns. Trea grounded into a double play (on what would have been ball 4) with the bases loaded, but had 2 hits later in the game.
Harper: have you ever compiled a list of Max's post-season outings for the Nats? My recollection is that he's been okay but not dominant.
@Potomac, that seemed like a very typical Max postseason start. Very shaky in the first, lacking his best stuff, constantly teetering, but grits it out through 5 or 6. I was annoyed when Roberts took him out, because he looked like he had figured it out--but it worked out. When your bullpen is that good, there's really no fault in being trigger happy. It must be nice.
Yes. It must be nice ... to have a good bullpen on your side .... (paraphrasing from "Hamilton").
LAD bullpen is damn good.
Nats pitchers wouldn't know about that.
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