Root, root, root for someone. In this case, the Phillies.

I'm a lifelong baseball fan.

Even when "my" team isn't in it - and this year, the Red Sox were abysmally out of it - I catch at least a couple of innings in most of the playoff games. And will pretty much watch all of the World Series, which starts tonight.

The team I was rooting for to win the 2022 World Series was the Cleveland Guardians.

I was pulling for Cleveland for a number of reasons. For one thing, they haven't won since 1948 - even before I was born -  and this is the longest World Series drought among the 30 Major League Baseball teams. When Cleveland last won, they were the Indians, and there were only 16 teams, 8 in the American League, 8 in the National. There were no wildcards, no divisional playoffs, no league championships. Whoever finished first in their league made it to the October Classic (which now runs into early November...). In 1948, those teams were Cleveland (AL) and the Boston Braves, now in Atlanta, in the NL. 

Then there's the Cleveland manager, Terry "Tito" Francona, who managed the Red Sox to their first World Series championship in 86 years, way back in 2004. Francona is forever in my heart. Good guy. Deserves to win, if anyone really ever does.

I also like that the team is now named for the "Guardians of Traffic," the wicked-cool Art Deco statues that grace a bridge near their stadium. 

And I like that Cleveland is a low payroll team, ranking 28th among the 30 MLB teams with a lowly team payroll of $82M. Alas, Cleveland lost to the Damn Yankees (3rd highest payroll, at $265M) in the divisional playoffs. 

Although "my" team is a big spender (6th highest 2022 MLB payroll at $223M), I like to see the little spenders make it big.

Beyond wanting Cleveland to win, my only other rooting interest during the playoffs was rooting against the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Fortunately, the baseball gods smiled on me and the Dodgers lost their divisional series, and the Yankees lost their league championship series. This made me very happy. Bad enough I have all the political goings-on to fret about. My parallel nightmare scenario was Dodgers vs. Yankees in the World Series. 

You just cannot watch any sort of sporting event without picking a side. Would I really have had to root for the Yankees?

Thankfully, I was spared that decision.

Mostly, I enjoyed watching the playoff games.

Loved seeing the Astros sweep the hapless Yankees. And I much enjoyed that New York's mental strength coach thought that, with the Yankees down 3-0 and facing elimination, it would be motivating to show them a video of the only team that ever came back from a 3-0 deficit to win a league championship. That team would be the Red Sox, who famously rebounded in 2004 to snatch victory from the jaws of the Yankees. The motivation apparently didn't work.

The National League Championship Series between the Phillies and the San Diego Padres was far better. The games had a lot of lead changes and the whole thing was far more exciting than the outcome- Phillies winning in 5 games - suggests.

Based mostly on geographic proximity, I was rooting for the Phillies to beat San Diego. Which they did.

Generally, I will go with the American League in the World Series.

But for a variety of reasons, I really don't like the Houston Astros.

Yes, I recognize that they are an excellent team, well balanced, well coached. Nonetheless, based in large part on their having knocked the Olde Town Team out of contention in the 2021 league championship series, I just plain don't like them. Plus, Texas.

Sure, the Phillies are a big money club. Fourth on the list at $255M. But so's Houston, coming in ninth at $193M.

But the Phillies seem like a gritty and likable bunch. They are a pleasure to watch. And I know a lot more folks from Philly than I do folks from Houston.

I hope the Phillies win it all. 

But if they don't, I won't be in any way, shape, or form distraught. (Distraught is what I'll experience if Pennsylvania elects Oz to the Senate.)

Once the World Series concludes, I will promptly forget who won and begin mentally preparing myself for the start of the 2023 baseball season, when it will be the 'wait until next year' year that Red Sox fans are hoping for. 

But you have to root, root, root for someone. And this year, for me, it's the Philadelphia Phillies.

Now let's go play some ball.