The World Series Set

So I was at a local watering hole the other day when Boston was playing Tampa and I was wearing my Lakewood BlueClaws hat. While watching the game a guy comes up while wearing a Red Sox shirt and says, what is that hat?

I respond, “The Lakewood BlueClaws, Minor League team in Lakewood New Jersey.”

He asked me who they are affiliated with and I say the Philadelphia Phillies. He then assumes that I am a big Phillies fan I guess and begins to trash the Phillies and tells me the Red Sox will beat them too, just as soon as the Sox beat the Rays.

I just smile and say, whatever.

For most people that know me, they know I was born and raised in St. Louis and cheer on the Cardinals. However, I did work for the BlueClaws for a season so I have a link to the Phillies, so that is why I wear the hat. Plus is just fits my head really good!

So now that the Phillies know who they are going to be playing, since the Rays knocked off the Red Sox, I have to step back and wonder who I will root far. If Boston had made it, I would have cheered for any National League team just because that guy that came up to me I feel represents 90% of Red Sox fans now, arrogant and loud mouthed.

All of a sudden Boston is the best team in the world. Before 2004, that fan would have never walked up to a complete stranger and said that while wearing a Boston shirt.

But I digress, the World Series is set. I do feel I have more of a vested interest in rooting for the Phillies. I worked for a Phillies affiliate and spent two years in the north east and went to a good number of Phillies games.

I have more friends and know more people that cheer for the Phillies and are from the area. In fact, I don’t know one person that is a die hard Rays fan; I know a number of people that jumped on the band wagon though.

However the Rays are the new thing, a young exciting team that nobody every expected to get this far. Just check the Las Vegas odds at the beginning of the season on where the Rays stood.

I wont be distraught if one teams looses opposed to the other, I do hope for a really good series though. So here is to a good series, free of the teams that “everybody wanted.” Two teams with their own stories, own characters and own reasons to win.

I am not going to mention any names, but one sports writer (Mike Freeman) on CBS Sportsline said this series will be as boring as the Tigers and Cardinals. I didn't realize that series was so boring, it had two franchises that met in the World Series many times and two franchises with great baseball tradition.

I don't think this will be a boring series, this is going to be a series with a lot of dramatics, great fan atmosphere, and a tremendous amount of heart on both sides.

Maybe the next time I go out to watch a game for the World Series, I will just wear my Notre Dame hat, that is always a good conversation starter too…. “What are you, a Notre Dame fan or something?”