The most compelling competition in any sport often involves a heroic entity on one side and a villainous counterpart on the other.
Sorry, baseball fans. This year’s MLB post-season has been reduced to four teams that emit nothing but the sweet aroma of cookies in the oven and sympathetic story lines.
Now that the San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox – champions in seven of the last dozen World Series – have been eliminated, there are not any teams left that Win Too Much.
Each of the remaining four (the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League, and the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays in the American League) represent long-suffering fan bases, and feature players who would wear a championship ring well.
The Cubs’ attraction needs no explanation beyond this: 1908 – the last time they won a World Series. It is why they will have most of the baseball universe on their rooting side the next three weeks.
If everyone’s new favourite team, the Cubs, get eliminated in the NL Championship Series, that may be enough to make villains of the Dodgers. But that would be unfair.
The face of the Dodgers is Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher on the planet, a hard luck figure of previous play-offs, and more than just a rich athlete.
He and his wife Ellen fund their own foundation that does humanitarian work for children in Africa.
Los Angeles have the highest payroll in the sport, which may be a turn off. But the Dodgers offence is propelled mostly by two modestly compensated players, rookie shortstop Corey Seager and journeyman third baseman Justin Turner.
It may not be 108 years since the franchise last won a championship, just 28 seasons, but one generation of pain is still pain.
In the AL, Toronto and Cleveland are looking for sporting justice, as well.
The Blue Jays are in this fight for an entire nation. Hockey-mad Canada cannot seem to win a Stanley Cup anymore, but taking the baseball title out of the United States would feel like a good compensation, and at least temporarily soothe the ice rink wounds.
Coincidentally, the last time Toronto won a World Series, in 1993, also was the last time a Canadian NHL team (the Montreal Canadiens) won the Cup.
The Blue Jays also are fun to watch. If they win it, there will be home runs – struck hit with flair, most likely by Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Troy Tulowitzki.
Then there is Cleveland, which ended their sad, 52-year sports championship drought just last spring when the LeBron James-led Cavaliers claimed the top NBA prize.
Now LeBron cheers on the Indians. Can the oft-mocked city go two-for-two sports seasons after 0-for-forever?
The Indians last won the World Series in 1948. Since then, the baseball team’s biggest claim to fame is as the irreverent heroes of the “Major League” movies, which earned the franchise a small, cult-like following.
Sadly, even filmmakers could not stretch credulity by making a make-believe Cleveland team fictional champs: the Indians in the movies also came up short of the World Series.
In reality, though, what is not to like about a small-market franchise that develops the vast majority of its own talent and succeeds?
Farm system graduates Corey Kluber, Jason Kipnis, Carlos Santana, Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, Cody Allen and Tyler Naquin, among others, will try to impress a nation, as well as their own cozy corner of Ohio.
We may not know which of the four will raise the trophy, but a feel-good finish is guaranteed.
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