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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Who I'm rooting for in the 2008 Playoffs

I've gotten a couple of questions about this so I'm going to announce my preferences and biases to the world. Feel free to praise me for my excellent judgment or call me whatever dirty names you can think of as you wish. These are not who I think will actually win in the playoffs, These are the ones I am rooting for and why. I'm going to list them in order from the least favorite team to the one I'm rooting for all the way. That way if your team comes up first you can curse me as a fool and move on.

Least Favorite: Chicago Cubs

I make fun of the Mets a lot. That's kind of a rivalry thing. If I had grown up on Long Island instead of the suburbs of Atlanta I'd be a rabid Mets fan. Hell, two of my all time favorites, Casey and Yogi were their managers at one point. So I hate the Mets, but it's kind of a college football rivalry kind of hate. I loathe the Cubs. I will always loathe the Cubs. It's kind of sad really, because I was a big fan back in the day of Ernie Banks and Ron Santo and Andre Dawson and Leon Durham and Ron Cey and Harry Caray singing Take Me Out To the Ballgame after about a half dozen Budweisers. I absolutely can't stand 'em now though. I have a good reason for it, but I'm not going to talk about it so don't ask.

#7 Boston Red Sox

I don't hate the Red Sox, it's just that they've already won two this decade. Let someone else win for a change. Dynasties are boring unless it's your team doing the dynasticising. Hey, I just made up a new word!

#6 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

I can't possibly enjoy an Angels World Series victory simply because it would be just one more page in Scott Boras' book on why Mark Teixeira should get Eleventy Billion Dollars a season and not a penny less. I guess a silver lining would be Casey Kotchman getting a ring, but I'm still not too excited about the Halos this year.

==================line of demarcation==================

If any team below this line wins the World Series I will ultimately be happy with the result. Unfortunately all the favorites are above the line. This will all end in tears, I know it.

#5 Tampa Bay Rays

This almost was my #4 team, but at heart I'm an NL guy and I couldn't do it. Great story, awesome young team, I hope they can stick it to the Sox and Yankees for years to come, but... they're the Rays. I'll probably watch more Rays games this postseason than I will have seen my entire life before now.

#4 Los Angeles Dodgers

There's a lot of reasons for me not to root for the Dodgers. High profile team. Spends a lot of money on washed up players. Left Brooklyn 50 years ago. They were a big rival of my Braves back before the divisions changed. Manny Ramirez. However, This could be Greg Maddux's last shot at a second ring. So I have that to root for.

#3 Philadelphia Phillies

I like the Phillies. I know, I know, it makes no sense that I pick on the Mets like they are a red headed stepchild but like the Phillies. The Phillies utterly stomped the Braves' guts out this year too. There is no logical reason why I should like the Phillies and hate the Mets as a Braves fan. Ah, but actually there is... The very first card in my collection is a 1980 Topps card of Michael Jack Schmidt. The Phillies were reigning champs when I really got into baseball and collecting cards. I have a lot of family in Pennsylvania and a cousin who was a big Philly fan took me to a bunch of Braves games when I was a kid. I rooted for the Braves and he got drunk off his ass and cheered on the Phils. The first cap I bought at a Braves game was a Phillies cap, and I wore it obsessively for months. Finally, their history has been bad. Really bad. That team stunk a lot. I like rooting for underdogs and the Phillies franchise is definitely an underdog.

Well, here is my dream 2008 World Series matchup. Fans of these teams can start yelling at me now, as I have certainly put the whammy on your entire franchise.

#2 Chicago White Sox

I've been a Fisk fan ever since I pulled his card out of an '81 Topps pack. I really liked Ron Kittle because he hit lots of home runs and had big clunky glasses like me. I was always saddened by the 1919 scandal and Joe Jackson getting kicked out of baseball. I also had one of the old three color caps from the '80s for a while. I always kind of liked them, then when they changed the logo to the current black caps with the SOX on them I really started to like them, I followed the team with Black Jack McDowell, Frank Thomas, Fisk, Lance Johnson, Tim Raines and Bo Jackson almost as closely as the Braves. I played a Sox - Braves World Series on Tecmo Baseball many times on my Super Nintendo. Like I said before, I'm an NL kind of guy, but if I was an AL guy, the Sox would likely be my team. Plus Ozzie Guillen just rocks. I hope he manages the Sox for 30 years.

That means the team I'm rooting for to win it all is...

#1 Milwaukee Brewers

Thorzul just had a heartattack. I know, I'm sorry! This is the team I genuinely want to win! I can't help it. Sorry. There's a few reasons why I feel this way. First of all, Atlanta stole your team. You guys stole it from Boston so I don't feel all that bad, but we stole it all the same. Milwaukee fans are passionate and it's not nice to take teams away from passionate fans. So there's kind of a Braves connection going on there historically. They are the underdoggiest of underdogs in these playoffs. Their history makes the Phillies look like powerhouses. Except for 1982, they've been really really bad. I have fond memories of that '82 series, and I was rooting for them back then too. I am upset at the firing of Ned Yost, but Dale Sveum is one of those guys you can't really get mad at so that didn't really alter my feelings that much. The thing that puts them over the top though is that Prince Fielder and CC Sabathia are large, large men, and I see them dominate and can dream that my fat ass could actually play in the league. And you gotta have your dreams.

There it is, Steve and Thorzul are weeping over my inevitable jinx, but that's how I feel. This is going to be a good October for baseball.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rooting is agood release of stress. I guess ;-)

Go, Milwaukee Brewers!

Steve Gierman said...

I'm fine with either of your top two picks, unless they face of against each other. Then it's White Sox all the way! Sorry Thorzul.

Anonymous said...

It's pretty unfair to not explain yourself on why you hate the Cubs so much when reasons you support other teams are hypocritical. And yes, I would still be saying this if I wasn't a fan of the Cubs, or if you supported the Cubs and hated one of the others in a way that fit what I'm saying.

dayf said...

I don't care if you think it's unfair. I've got my reasons, they are very personal and I'm not talking about it. And if I'm a hypocrite, whatever. I'm talking about who I'm pulling for in the playoffs, not politics or philosophy or international finance or some shit. You like the Cubs? Great. Root for your team. I don't like 'em. Go Dodgers.

capewood said...

You know, I might like the Brewers as well except that they have to get through the Phillies first. I don't think they will.

Anonymous said...

I had a long response to this, but I think I will make a post of my own to air out my thoughts. It requires more and *hopefully* deeper thought on my part. Come on by and have a look when it's finished if you see fit.

I will just say this here:

If your reason is so personal, then I can respect not explaining yourself. It isn't going to bother me enough to stop reading your blog or even from possibly pursuing a trade at some future date.
It certainly will affect my thoughts on any opinions and personal feelings you present. In truth however, that may ultimately be for the best.

Billy Suter said...

I'm rooting for the Brewers as well. Why, you ask? Four words:

Seattle Pilots, World Champions.

Anonymous said...

First of all, don't be mad about the Yost firing. If that had not happened, we wouldn't even have an 0-2 deficit to cling to.

As for the Cubs hatred, I fully support it. Here is my reasoning.

Since the Brewers have joined the National League, people who claim to support the Cubs have overtaken Miller Park. From years of research gathered on this phenomenon, I have concluded that these are not real Cubs fans. These are not season ticket holders who take weekend trips 90 miles north to take in a couple of games. These are losers who cannot acquire Wrigley Cubs tickets, these are Wisconsin residents living in Kenosha and Beloit and Racine who are so sad about their own pathetic little lots in life that they feel compelled to attend a Major League Baseball game and root against the home team, these are tools from Hoffman Estates who are attending their only Cubs games of the year. I'm hoping Lonestarr is not one of these "fans." Dayf, for whatever your reasons, I've got your back.

dayf said...

Wow, I just got called a douchebag by a Cubs fan. Well that certainly changes my mind!

GO CUBBIES!

Anonymous said...

Time to let 2003 go, Dayf. If you hated all the teams that beat the Braves in the playoffs, that would be a pretty long list.

dayf said...

Are Cubs fans so insecure that they cannot live without the implicit approval of some random asshole from Atlanta? It's not like I hate Chicago, I LOVE Chicago and I state in this very post that I like the White Sox. It's the damn Cubs I can't stand.

And somehow I'm the one who needs to let it go. Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

I don't care if you hate the Cubs or not -- hate away, my friend.

But when you say you hate them but won't say why, and go into detail about how you won't say why, you just look like a whiny diva bee-yatch. You're probably not one, but this makes you look like one. If you said the same thing about, oh, the Mariners, it would still be just as weird.

dayf said...

Listen.

A very BAD thing happened in my life that through sheer coincidence has caused me to permanently associate it with the Cubs. I don't like talking about it and I sure as hell ain't gonna splatter it all over my baseball card blog just to satisfy your curiosity. Furthermore, I'm going through something very similar _right_this_very_second_ so I'm a bit extra sensitive about the whole goddamn thing right now. It's part of the reason I've suspended my blogging for the time being and it's all of the reason why I'm stupidly allowing myself to get involved in this stupid bullshit drama with idiot Cub fans who can't accept that someone, somewhere might not like their precious team. All the shit I'm catching from commenters and e-mailers about nonsense at a time when I am stressed out of my fucking mind is quite frankly making me reconsider whether I want to unsuspend the blog at all.

So lay off.

Anonymous said...

My least favorite are the cubs too How quick the biased Chicago media is to cover for this dumb ass. The fact that they cover up everything for him and give him a free pass wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that he is highly marketable (for some reason) and makes lots of money for the Tribune Co., would it? This man is the dictionary definition of a jerk. Let's take a look back at all of the stuff Sammy does that the media pretends to forget about. (If someone like Barry Bonds or Frank Thomas did any of these things, Jay Mariotti and the rest of the Chicago media would bring it up daily until the end of time.)

Cheers,
Ed