I haven’t exactly followed this year’s baseball season closely, but it brought a smile to my face to see that both the Dodgers and the Yankees were eliminated yesterday.
Sorry for all you LA and NY fans, but an essential part of being a baseball fan is knowing who to root against, and these two teams are at the top of my list.
Ed Bott 
I shed no tears for either of these teams.
Ironically one of the Google ads on this page today is advertising for LA Baseball Playoff Tickets.
As Casey Stengle might say if he was still with us, “Let’s Go METS!”
Whats this thing about rooting against teams? Seems kinda dumb. A grown man rooting aginst a bunch of other grown men so that they won’t accomplish a life long goal of theirs? Throw out the thought of how much money they make these baseball players are still just people. I mean, maybe rooting against one guy cause he did you wrong some how seem reasonable, but then again how did he do wrong? Just because the Yankees have a firm tradition of doing literally what ever it takes to win does not make them any different that say the United States of America on an international stage. And your a fan of the USA aren’t you?
As for the Dodgers, they were streaky and if you watched them at all this year you know that they did a lot of re-building on the go. A complete overhaul of what the team looked like last year or even six months ago when the season started. How do you root against the Dodger’s GM Ned Coletti? He put it all out of there on the line to get the Dodgers into the playoffs this year, ya they were swept by the Mets but then again the Mets are no diferent from the Yankees, they just took on a lesser opponet in the Dodgers. The Mets spent a ton of money to re-make their team and they probably won’t win the World Series unlike the Yankees which have won 26 of them.
Thanks for the insight on the season. Like I said, I haven’t followed the season, and when I saw who was in the playoffs I feared it was going to be 1977 all over again. But maybe it will be 1968 instead.
I’m a dyed-in-the-wool populist, and I instinctively root against plutocrats, which is what both LA and NY in their respective leagues. Their financial advantages are so overwhelming it’s not funny. It’s satisfying to see them get their comeuppance.
Part of the ritual of being a professional sports fan is rooting against other teams. Rivalries are great, but these are meta-rivalries. I’m a fan of whoever is playing the Dodgers or Yankees.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not hoping the individual players get some horrible disease and die. I’m delighted they lost to teams that are considerably less rich (not that they’re exactly paupers, but still).
What the F is Baseball?
Guys! Relax! It’s just a game! Grown men getting paid obscene amounts of money to play a kid’s game at an extreme level! Not like it has any bearing whatsoever on humanity or society in general.
Ed, you disappoint me. If baseball to you is hoping for others to fail, then you and I learned two different games. I pray you do not couch Little League.