Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman): "I don't deserve this! To die like this!"
Will Munny (Clint Eastwood): "Deserve's got nothing to do with it!"
As I occasionally (but not annually) do, I am ranking Playoff teams by how much they, and their fanbases, deserve to win a World Championship. And I am casting baseball bias aside, so the Yankees won't be 1st, and the Mets won't be 12th.
12. Houston Astros, American League Western Division Champions
May Deserve Because: Houston is a liberal city. It would make Eva Longoria, Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion happy.
May Not Deserve Because: They cheat. Texas is a Red State. Those two facts alone might drop them all the way to #12. Minute Maid Park is a stupid stadium. They still have José Altuve. They won it all just 5 years ago. Their only player worth rooting for is Justin Verlander, and he already has a ring.
11. Tampa Bay Rays, American League Wild-Card Berth
May Deserve Because: They have never won a World Series in 25 seasons of trying.
May Not Deserve Because: They are a rotten, classless organization. Tropicana Field is a stupid stadium with artificial turf. St. Petersburg is a conservative city in a Red State. Their only player really worth rooting for is Corey Kluber.
10. Los Angeles Dodgers, National League Western Division Champions
May Deserve Because: Los Angeles is a liberal city in a Blue State. Dodger Stadium is a nice ballpark with a lot of history. Their players seem to be good guys. Magic Johnson is the main owner.
May Not Deserve Because: They won it all just 2 seasons ago. Their manager, Dave Roberts, was a 2004 Red Sock. And while current management had nothing to do with it, the Treason of '57 must never be forgotten or forgiven.
9. St. Louis Cardinals, National League Central Division Champions
May Deserve Because: St. Louis is a good baseball city. It's a liberal city. Busch Stadium is a good ballpark. Albert Pujols. Adam Wainwright. Yadier Molina. (And to go back to my baseball bias, Yadier, thank you, always, for the 2006 NLCS, Game 7.)
May Not Deserve Because: They won it all just 9 years ago, with Wainwright and Molina. They also won it all 16 years ago, with all 3 of those guys, so while they're more deserving than most guys who have won, they're not more deserving than most guys who haven't yet won. Their fans can be a bit arrogant, especially when they get into that "best baseball city" talk. Missouri, Southern Illinois, and pretty much every other place that considers itself Cardinal territory, except for the City of St. Louis, are conservative as hell.
8. Atlanta Braves, National League Eastern Division Champions
May Deserve Because: Truist Park is a decent ballpark, and they've done a better job of building a "ballpark village" around their venue than most teams have. (Which is good, because Cumberland, in Cobb County, used to be the middle of nowhere.) Atlanta is a liberal city in a State that has turned Blue.
May Not Deserve Because: They won it all just last season. They are not seriously considering changing their Native American nickname, even if "Brave" carries a greater connotation of respect than simply "Indian." They moved from the majority-black city to the mostly-white suburbs. The facts that Georgia is even considering re-electing Governor Brian Kemp and throwing Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock out for insane former Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker suggests that the State isn't as Blue as the 2020 election suggested.
7. New York Yankees, American League Eastern Division Champions
May Deserve Because: It would make a lot of people I know happy, since I only live only 47 miles away. They have Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole, and many other deserving players. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, the new Yankee Stadium is a fantastic ballpark, and there are easier ones to hit home runs in. And it's New York, the greatest city in the world.
May Not Deserve Because: A drought of 13 seasons might seem like an eternity to Yankee fans, but to most others, it's not so bad. And many Yankee fans, including yours truly, can become insufferable when our team is defending World Champions. The players deserve it a lot more than many of the fans do.
6. Philadelphia Phillies, National League Wild-Card Berth
May Deserve Because: Philadelphia is a great city. It's a liberal city. Pennsylvania is a Blue State. Citizens Bank Park is a great ballpark. It's been 14 years since they last won it all, with a complete turnover of players. It would make a few people I know happy, since I only live only 64 miles away.
May Not Deserve Because: Their fans have been known to be a bit rough. A 14-year drought isn't that bad: Their previous drought was twice as long. And Bryce Harper is generally considered to not be a good guy.
5. New York Mets, National League Wild-Card Berth
May Deserve Because: It would make a lot of people I know happy, since I only live only 51 miles away. Buck Showalter is generally regarded as a good guy but has never won a Pennant. Citi Field is a good ballpark. They haven't won a World Series in 36 years. They have good guys on the team, including Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom and Pete Alonso. And it's New York, the greatest city in the world.
May Not Deserve Because: This is not true of all Met fans, but when they're happy, they have all the arrogance of Yankee fans, but with Jet or Ranger fans' level of justification. So the question, "Have their fans suffered enough?" can be answered with, "Some of them, yes, but by no means all of them." Also, while most of the Mets don't have World Series rings, Scherzer does.
4. Toronto Blue Jays, American League Wild-Card Berth
May Deserve Because: They haven't won a World Series in 29 years. Canada is a liberal country. The idea that Canada does not deserve to win the title in America's national pastime has long since been discredited. (Whether the Jays do deserve it is, as I'm suggesting, a separate debate.) They have several good players who also appear to be good guys, including 2nd-generation major league stars Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette.
May Not Deserve Because: The Rogers Centre is a stupid stadium with artificial turf. The only other real mark against the Jays is that, on my previous visits to Toronto, I found their fans to be a bit nasty. Not "nasty" as in "gross," but as in "mean beyond any arrogance they might have earned."
3. Cleveland Guardians, American League Central Division Champions
May Deserve Because: They haven't won a World Series in 74 years. Progressive Field is a really good ballpark. Willingly got rid of a bigoted team name. Cleveland is a liberal city. It would make Drew Carey happy.
May Not Deserve Because: They held that bigoted team name for 107 years. Manager Terry Francona already has 2 World Series rings. They have no obvious individual player to root for. Ohio is a Red State.
2. San Diego Padres, National League Wild-Card Berth
May Deserve Because: They have never won a World Series in 54 years of trying. The city's last baseball team that went as far as the Pennant was in the Pacific Coast League, the 1967 Padres. They have deserving players in Josh Hader and Yu Darvish, and the much-admired Juan Soto. Petco Park is a nice ballpark. And their fans deserve it after the tease of last season. And anything the Padres achieve in the postseason would be a victory for clean play, because they did it without one single game from the injured, then suspended-for-cheating, Fernando Tatís Jr. It would also make Emma Stone happy.
May Not Deserve Because: San Diego is one of the most conservative cities in the country. The Padres still insist upon foisting the occasional horrible uniform on us. And Soto, however great and popular, already has a ring.
1. Seattle Mariners, American League Wild-Card Berth
May Deserve Because: They have never won a World Series, or even a Pennant, in 46 years of trying. The city's last Pennant was in the Pacific Coast League, the 1966 Seattle Angels. Seattle is a liberal city. Washington is a blue State. T-Mobile Park is a nice ballpark. The fans' arrogance after a 116-win 2001 regular season followed by a postseason failure has been punished enough. It would make Mina Kimes happy.
May Not Deserve Because: No obvious reason. And while Julio Rodríguez is only 21 years old and already an All-Star who has captured non-Mariner fans' imagination, they don't have an obvious "player to root for because he's waited so long for this chance."
There you have it: The team in the 2022 Major League Baseball Playoffs most deserving of winning the World Series is the Seattle Mariners.
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