It’s been an emotional week for baseball fans. I made a significant number of sympathy phone calls Monday night, mostly to answering machines. “I’m so sorry,” I’d say. “I hope you’re doing okay. If anyone understands, it’s me.” My away message that night? “Rough game.poor Bernie.”
But Bernie Williams wasn’t the only one crying himself to sleep that night. Yankees fans were right up there with him. And so were Red Sox fans and Yankee-haters everywhere. The reason for this? Monday night’s game changed the rest of the post-season for them, too.
The only thing arguably worse than no longer having a team you can root for in the post-season is no longer having a team you can root against in the post-season.
For Cubs fans like myself, we are placed into an interesting situation, given the LCS teams. Cubs fans are hoping that the Cardinals (and, for some, the White Sox) will lose in the LCS, which would give the Cubs fans reason to hold on and keep them tuned in. But what could be worse for us than a very possible-unsettlingly possible-Cardinals-White Sox World Series?
Because by law, tradition and every baseball religion, a Cubs fan can’t root for the Cardinals-but think about how detrimental a White Sox championship would be to the world of Chicago sports as we know it. It’s not supposed to be like that-the Cubs are Chicago’s baseball team, at least in numbers. What would that mean for the infamous curse on the Cubs, and conceivably on the city of Chicago in general?
So, if we’ve lost Yankees fans, Red Sox fans, Yankee-haters and Cubs fans, what are we left with? What we’re left with are four all-around terrific, talented baseball teams competing for the World Series championship.
And maybe last year’s Yankees-Red Sox ALCS was more exciting, more exhilarating, more intense and more fun. But that doesn’t mean it was better baseball. This year, both the Yankees and Red Sox went down fair and square in the first round. The better teams won. So let’s try to get into it and let the potentially non-existent Angels fans and unfortunately existent White Sox fans have their chance at glory, too. Not that I foresee either of these two teams defeating either possible NL opponent.
The point is that this isn’t the time to boycott the MLB and refuse to watch the post-season play out. This is the time to sit back, relax and truly enjoy some good baseball. In my mind, baseball can only be relaxing when neither the team you love nor the team you hate is on the field. Because otherwise you’re wasting too much time cheering and booing to wholeheartedly appreciate and experience the beauty that is this sport.
I have personally met a lot of people, mostly consisting of diehard Red Sox and Yankees fans alike, who I highly doubt are paying any attention to baseball anymore now that their teams are out of it. Maybe I’ve just experienced too many Cubs-less post-seasons to still be too bitter to watch the playoffs anyway. But I think you’re a sorry excuse for a baseball fan if you can’t at least try to enjoy the sport when your team is not playing. And I’m not saying it’s going to be the same experience.
Sophomore Jake Greenblatt, a Mets fan, admits he’d prefer to watch his own team in the post-season, but if they’re not in it, it’s not the end of the world for him.
“I would rather see my team play in the playoffs,” said Greenblatt. “But if that can’t happen, then I would rather see the best product possible. And this year, the best product doesn’t include the Yankees or the Red Sox as evident by their regular season struggles.”
Greenblatt also seems highly optimistic about the purity of baseball fans in general.
“I think there are some fans that don’t care about the best product [and] only care about their team,” he said. “But I think most baseball fans are educated fans and like the sport, not only their team.”
While I’d like to believe that he’s right, I don’t have quite as much faith in baseball fans. Prove me wrong and watch these playoffs anyway. It will be well worth your while.