I read a long time ago that as you get older, you tend to root for the underdog less and less. You would rather see greatness rewarded than an improbable victory, despite how exciting the latter is. And I think that's sort of where I am now, for the most part. I'd like to see the Dodgers or Mets prevail. The Dodgers have been so great for so long and another ring would be appropriate. The Mets seem to be everyone's punching bag and I'd hate for them falling short to be another opportunity for people to cackle, "LOLMets."

YMMV of course.

Outside of the Astros, and maybe the Braves, I can find a reason to root for every team in the post season if I needed to.

Obviously I'm rooting for my team, and I kinda have a greedy reason to not root for the Dodgers (the more success the Dodgers have, the more it diminishes the Cardinals history relative to them) but ultimately any team that does win it all, there is a legit reason for a fan of the sport to feel good for them.

If I ever stop wanting to LOLMets, just kill me ... I'll be in full-blown dementia anyway.

I have long tended towards "greatness" and maybe more as I get old (esp in music) but I still like an underdog. Always depends somewhat on who the overdog is. But when it comes to baseball, I think age also makes one "appreciate" the misery of the poor Cleveland fans so I'd always be happy to see them win one ... unless of course they had the misfortune of landing in the WS against the Cubs. I have no particular sympathy for Ms fans though -- nothing wrong with them but it's hardly an historic level of suffering.

In terms of rooting interest, I suppose:

Guardians
Dodgers (greatness)
Jays (Who doesn't like Canada?)
Rays (On the one hand, terrible to see frugality rewarded; on the other hand, this would be hilarious)
Braves
Astros
Ms
Cards (I fear/respect them more than hate them)
Phils (Even Phils fans have a hard time rooting for them)
Padres (Never forget 84!)
Yanks (Duh)
Mets (Double duh)

Braves-Astros is a tough call. I always had respect for those old Astros team, the current crowd is a bit too evil then ... corporaate? But other than Hank Aaron and the Maddux years, the Braves are not among my faves. But they did have that run of greatness that resulted in not much reward and are on a second impressive run so maybe they'll get more reward than they deserve this time. If they do win two in a row, they'll move down next year.

Anybody but the Dodgers. Well, if they play the Yankees I'll probably root for injuries.

Mariners have a fun team to root for, but the Guardians, Phillies, and even the Cardinals are kind of fun to root for this year, at least for me. And whatever the Mets will do be enjoyable.

I'm actually a little wistful about the Mariners' playoff drought ending. It's a pretty major statement for a franchise to have Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr, and A-Rod, then get rid of them all, win 116 games, and then just bow out of competition for decades. There's something almost honorable about it.

I actually root for the underdog more as I get older. My politics are also much more to the left in my sixties than earlier in life, too. Oh well, everybody is different.

Rooting order:
Astros
Mariners
Blue Jays
Guardians
Padres
Rays
Cards
Phils
Braves
Mets
Yanks
Dodgers

My team made the playoffs for the first time in 20 years, so my rooting interests are pretty straightforward.

Mariners
[enormous gap]
Blue Jays, Guardians, Dodgers, Mets, Phillies, Rays, Padres - all pretty close but roughly in that order
[gap]
Astros
[huge gap]
Cardinals
Barves
[enormous gap]
Yankees

Mariners
Mets
Guardians

Padres
Blue Jays
Phillies

Braves
Astros
Dodgers

Cardinals






Yankees
Rays

welp

the Crew fizzled out so

Cardinals (Mama's team)

then any one of seattle, cleveland, padres - yes. i like the underdog bestest usually

then astros or toronto

large gap

barves

really large gap

philly, rays

gap so ginormous it is bigly yuge

mets, el lay

gap that is more than infinity

nyy

Lotta haters here, but that's all right.

Order of preference:

Yanks (America's Team. As Poppie would say: "On this issue there can be no debate.")

Astros (love The Tiny Terror Tot)
Blue Jays (Springer, Vlad, the uniforms)
Mariners (the city and the ballpark)

Rays (AL East)
Guardians (not NL)
Padres (Manny)

Cardinals (best NL uniforms)
Mets (there must be some reason)
Dodgers (still belong in Brooklyn)

Phillies (can't stand Harper)
Braves (the zombie chop chant)

Does Alonso have the most punchable face of anybody?

Anybody but the Yankees (x11)

Yankees

Mixed feelings north of the border...

Does Alonso have the most punchable face of anybody?

Be careful, he's a big guy, a big strong guy. You don't know his temper or what he could do, if he wanted to put you in the hospital, he easily could.

Yeah, this is dumb. Since I started watching baseball regularly, the Dodgers have won 12 division titles and 2 wild cards and have only one title to show for it. This is the first time I’ve seen the Mariners make the playoffs and they didn’t even have that great of a season and I should be rooting for them to have just as many titles, despite two decades of crap teams? Screw that!

Since none of the 3 teams I follow are in the 2022 mlb playoffs (O’s, Pirates and lastly the Mationals) I am keen to see Cleveland and the Mariners do well.
I am 77 and firmly believe that I will never again see my Pirates get to, yet alone win, a WS.
I have outside hope for the Orioles as this new crew of young players shows so much promise.
So, I will root for Cleveland and the Mariners.
If I never see the Dodgers or Yankees in a WS again, that’s just fine by me.

In fairness to the Mariners, they won 93, 90 (last year!), 89, and 88 games over the past 20 years, all without making the playoffs. They haven’t just run crap teams out there every year.

Yanks (America's Team. As Poppie would say: "On this issue there can be no debate.")

Yup - nobody liked the Cowboys, either, so it's a perfect self-chosen moniker.

My non-geographic rooting interests

AL
Astros
Yankees
Jays
Mariners
Guardians
Rays

NL
Padres
Cardinals
Mets
Dodgers
Phillies
Braves

Braves (the zombie chop chant)

Sure it's not politically correct but it seems more viscerally pleasing than Guardians fans' new chant of "In loco parentis!"

I don't know much about him but Scott Servais seems like a red ass. Any Mariner fans around?

We get to root for the Mariners for another week! Value added as far as I'm concerned.

Like I said all along, the Ms are the team to root for. :-)

Dodgers
Mariners

(most of the other teams)

Cardinals

And I cannot, will not root for the Yankees.

Servais seems decent enough. The Mariners are 28th in the league at hitting opposing batters, even though their batters are getting hit much more often. They don’t bunt much (the batters that should, aren’t very good at it.)

He kept the team rowing together when they were ten games below .500 in May. And I know it mostly comes from the Team President’s office, but Gilbert and Kirby have been protected despite being the most reliable starters on a contending team for much of the year.

After this year, and winning 90 games with a much weaker team in 2021, Servais has won the benefit of the doubt from me.