CLEVELAND Ohio — Cleveland against the world.
The Progressive Field scoreboard lit up after the Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers Saturday night to clinch a spot in the American League Championship Series.
The scoreboard trumpeted the same slogan in 2016, when Cleveland faced the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, and it felt like the entire country was rooting for the adorable Cubbies to break the Curse of the Billy Goat.
The Cubs were the perennial underdogs.
This year’s foe — the New York Yankees – are the opposite.
The Yankees have won the World Series 27 times, compared to Cleveland’s 2, the last in 1948.
The team’s fans were voted most annoying and the worst behaved, according to a June survey.
Maybe this is an example of why: A guy on Reddit asked, “Why does everyone hate the Yankees? … Is it jealousy? Gloating? Aspiration to be us? Thanks in advance.”
I love this answer from a fellow Redditer: “The Yankees are like that rich kid in high school who got a Ferrari for his first car because his parents bought it for him.”
The Yankees have been the most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball for decades, with a current value of $7.6 billion. Its payroll is the second highest in the big leagues, at $311 million.
The team’s cross-borough foe, the New York Mets, had the highest, at $332 million, and the Dodgers – who are playing the Mets for the National League Championship – have the third highest at $266 million.
Cleveland ranks 23rd, with $109 million. They have the youngest team in baseball.
Why doesn’t everyone root for the underdog?
C’mon, there’s plenty of room on the bandwagon.
I am not a professional sports fan. While I enjoy a good Guardians game with the family, eating dollar dogs and embarrassing my children by dancing to “Hang on Sloopy,” I generally prefer watching my kids’ games, chatting on the sidelines and cheering on players I’ve known since kindergarten.
But playing in the post-season takes on a heady weight. Your team is playing for the pride of your city.
And in our house, we’re crossing our fingers for a Guardians v. Mets World Series.
My husband and son are both huge Mets fans, my husband because his family hails from New York state and my son because A) he loves his dad and B) Francisco Lindor too his big smile there. The Mets are goofy and fun and right now obsessed with McDonald’s purple Grimace character, since they started winning when he threw an opening pitch June 12.
The Mets are New York City’s “loser sibling,” in the parlance of the Netflix rom com “Nobody Wants This,” which 40-something American women are swooning over.
The Mets won two World Series, the last in 1986. In 2000, they lost a Subway Series to the Yankees. Mets fans hate the Yankees.
“It’s easy to root for the Yankees. You have to hate yourself a little bit to root for the Mets,” my husband said. “But everyone once in a while they’re good and it’s worth it.”
New York Mets second baseman Jose Iglesias celebrates on the field after the Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the National League baseball playoff series, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)AP
We lived in New York City for a year, while I was in graduate school, and I hated its smugness, the idea that New York was the island in the center of the world. I couldn’t wait to move back to Cleveland.
I remember my first Indians game, as a 15-year-old in 1995, at Jacobs Field. The energy of those years-long string of song-old games was incredible.
My son was only 8 months old on his first trip to Progressive Field, my daughter a few months younger two years later. Now, the Guardians are as essential to their summers as backyard wiffle ball.
There’s always something eminently goodhearted about the team, an aura of an old-fashioned hero. And this season, they’ve continually bucked the odds.
Let’s hope they can do it again. Use chip on our Cleveland shoulder to rub the smirk off Yankee faces.
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