Pick Your Playoff Bandwagon
We’ve known for some time that the 2016 playoffs would begin on this evening. Many have known for less time that their favorite teams wouldn’t qualify for the tournament. My favorite team is done playing. This is a post and a poll for those of you who find yourselves in an identical circumstance. Of baseball’s 30 teams, 20 are finished. So for fans of those teams who’re finished, who from the remaining crop looks the most appealing, as a bandwagon?
I’ve run this once or twice before. I’ve been forced to acknowledge that there’s nothing I can actually do to prevent fans of playoff teams from also voting, presumably for their own playoff teams. I get that when one is overcome by the postseason spirit, irrational behavior can feel like rational behavior. But I would still ask you to please refrain. There is no benefit from a vote for your team. Literally nothing. Not even a moment of fleeting pleasure. I trust you’re not naturally inclined to be an asshole just because. You’re great! Keep it up!
Assuming you do indeed cheer primarily for a team of present-day golfers, who do you want to see do the best? Or can you not bring yourself to bandwagon at all? Vote below. And, vote, just.
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
As a Nats fan I’m exempted, but I tend to default to Misery Order – which team has gone the longest without winning?
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but this year the Misery Order is
1. Cubs
2. Washington (the city, more than the franchise)
3. Indians
4. Rangers
5. Orioles
Red Sox are in, so I can’t vote. Cardinals are out, so I can’t go for my wife’s team (2nd option), no one other team eliminated the Yankees or is playing them (3rd option). So it defaults to NL teams by whim, Cubs then Nats then Dodgers.
The Mets are from NY and the Giants fans will be insufferable if they win another even year.
As long as it isn’t the Giants or Red Sox, I’ll be happy with any of the other teams picking up a long-awaiting championship. They all have something to root for:
Cubs – great team, longest drought, loveable
Blue jays – Bat flips, dingers, and awesome retro uniforms
Dodgers – long drought, Kershaw awesomeness, good/bad Puig
Nats – Natitude, Harper, I have a Nats hat!
Mets – Cespedes! Always the scrappy underdog despite being in a big market.
Indians – Long drought and tough history (win it for Kenny Lofton and those great mid-90s Indians!)
Rangers – Redemption for Nelson’s boner (1 strike away and he misplays flyball. Sad!)
Orioles – Machado! Smart switch back to the cartoonish oriole, away from the dumb aggressive oriole on their unis
Who would ever want to root for Machado?
Generally I like players who are good (and also for some reason Nick Hundley) provided they don’t hit women
The OCD in me really wants the the best team in baseball to win the championship. Go Cubs!
Come on guys (and ladies), give it up for the Nats! It’s quite an underdog team this year.
I live in the Bay Area, and am normally a Giants fan, but I would much rather see the Cubs go all the way, and if the Cubs can’t make it, the Nats (I wanted them to win that series in 2014). There hasn’t even been a WS in the capital since before WWII. I have some sympathy for Cleveland, too, but really, whose fault was it that they didn’t win in 1995 or 1997, and why did the city have to break its drought by knocking off the team with the best regular season record in the history of American pro sports?
Tribe. Win it for Hammy.
The story of the Nationals winning their first title with the most maligned manager of all time, in a season where their best player was a massive disappointment is just too tempting for me.
I’m good with basically anyone outside of the Red Sox and Cubs (for very different reasons). There are players on every other team I’d be legitimately delighted to see win a ring. It should be a great playoffs!
I hope you have nightmares for weeks (for very different reasons)
I’m a Reds fan. Baseball has been a nightmare all season – I can handle a couple more weeks of it lol.
My dislike for the Cubs is 100% related to my Reds fandom. My distaste for the Red Sox is they win a lot and don’t have Johnny Cueto on them (which gives the Giants’ winning ways a pass).
Glad to see the Nationals are down where they belong, below “no one.” May a thousand years pass, and may 4000-7000 World Series games be played, and may the Nationals never win a single one. Forever and ever, amen.
Moving along, what do people have against the Orioles? I mostly ignore the AL, so all I know about them is Machado.
I hope the Nationals fail miserably and spectacularly. If “whoever is playing the Nationals” was an answer, I’d pick that. Cheering against is as much a part of baseball as cheering for.
I’m a Dodger fan and I participated in the survey, but not because I’m an asshole! I picked the Cubs because I’m positive I’d root for them if LAD were out. I’ll even feel a sliver of guilt if we upset them.
This article doesn’t apply to me because my team is still in it! (I still voted for the Giants anyway!!!)
Am I the only one who gives a shit about the rules?!?
The rule is against voting for your own team.
Don’t hate on me dude. It’s not my fault your team is lame this year.
You’re making Giants’ fans look bad.
I’m a Giants fan but I voted anyway for the Orioles, is that cheating? They seem like the team with the most original idea of how to put a winning team together. After I did it I realized I might have voted for the Mets if the Giants weren’t playing them in the WC game. After that I realized that I might have favored the Orioles because their colors look like the Giants, in fact when they play each other I sometimes get confused for a second about who’s up and who’s in the field.
Wow, people really don’t like the Giants, do they?
Who are all these playoff “neutral” fans who want the Red Sox to win?
It’s incredible. How could anyone not from New England possibly like the Red Sox?
Big Papi?
A guy named Mookie?
Wrigley vs Fenway?
High octane offense?
Not that I voted for them but a Cubs v Sox series would be cool on many levels if you’re a fan of the game, not just your favorite team.
I mean, Cubs is just plain the correct answer, right? I’m a Mets fan (and hence didn’t vote), but like, I’m a bit conflicted about wanting the Mets to beat the Cubs, should we win tomorrow night. (Also I am utterly confident that we’ll get steamrolled by them, which maybe makes coming up with reasons to be okay with that a little too easy…) But like, it’s the Cubs, with a legitimate chance to win the World Series. How do you not root for that?
The results of the poll right now are not far off World Series win probabilities.
Red Sox fans are clearly voting.