Rooting for Cinderella

I am a baseball fan- I am a Phillies fan first and foremost, but I have come to really enjoy the sport, watching and listening to a fair amount of agnostic games over the course of the season.

As a fan, I am a firm believer in Sabermetrics, which forces the idea of objectivity. In attempting to look at baseball rationally, you also step away from many of the ideas that casual fans find so interesting- ideas of clutchness are washed away by the concept of Small Sample Size, and you come to see that teams should be built a certain way, and that games are meant to be won a certain way, and teams constructed the right way. Games should be won early, with good starting pitching and good hitting, with bullpens that hold late leads. Winning one-run games and extra inning games is largely a function of luck, that will regress with time, so beware of teams that are winning most of their games that way, as they will not win out that way in the long run.

I recently read an article entitled "The Agony of Rational Rooting", which dealt with just this subject. In it, Nick Piecoro contended that if one were to root rationally, they would root for teams that do it right, such as the Rays to prosper, while teams that are not as smartly managed would struggle. On one hand, I understand its premise- the teams that succeed that way have done it right, and deserve the rewards of having done so- post season appearances and World Series titles. But while it may not be rational, I think I will take Cinderella, for all of the reasons that Sabermetricians loathe.

I love the drama of a one run game, the intensity of a team that just never seems to go away- who can win it all late and close.  It may not be the way to win a ton of games, and teams that find themselves winning this way are not likely to maintain their success over a period of months, let alone from one season to the next.

But really, rooting for Cinderella is about more than that. Cinderella teams breathe hope into fanbases that have not seen it in a long time. As fans, there is so little about the product on the field that we have any say so about. I can not control who the Phillies will sign or trade any more than I can control the rising of the sun or the waves crashing up on the beach. If all of baseball were defined by numbers and rationality, then fans of the Orioles, Pirates, Royals, and A's might as well hang it up at the beginning of the season. Their teams just were not built right, and do not have the parts necessary to be successful.

But every once in a while, somehow they do. And their wins are intense things, loaded with drama, and their stories of winning despite rather than because of logic make them loveable and fun, the stuff of fairy tales. And I love that. Give me the Orioles beating the Rangers to make their first ALDS appearance in 14 years. Give me the spunky A's winning an AL West Title after being down 13 games in late July. Those teams make me believe in miracles

Plus I love seeing hope breathed into a fanbase that has been without it. I remember when the Phillies made it to the Post Season in 2007. Granted, they were not a true Cinderella (although erasing a seven game deficit with seventeen to go is pretty magical), but making it to the Post Season for the first time in fourteen years was a wonderful ride, one that I would love to give to teams that have languished for a long time without. At dinner on Friday night, I saw a man in the restaurant with an Orioles Post Season hat on, and I though a little bit about what a ride this season must have been for him. And even though midnight ultimately came for that Cinderella team, I was glad that those fans got to have that ride.