A Yankees-Dodgers World Series is Tough on Grumpy Fans, But Great For Baseball

Baseball fans aren't all that different from any other sports fans, meaning there are naturally curmudgeons abound.

When the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers punched their respective tickets to the World Series last weekend, those grumps came out in droves to complain about the matchup. The two most valuable franchises in the sport had asserted themselves above the rest, and certain segments of fans weren't too happy with the implications.

Instead of a Cinderella story, they had to watch two powerhouses buy wins, with one of them picking up a championship in the process. There were claims that MLB had rigged the playoffs to set up the highest-profile matchup possible, pulling strings behind the scenes to get superstars like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge their time in the spotlight for the first time.

Those narratives drew plenty of derision from experienced reporters, analysts and respected ambassadors of baseball. They labeled the complaining fans "fake," and said they represented everything wrong with baseball's insular atmosphere.

In reality, those fans represent everything right about the sport.

To be clear, they are way off base when it comes to calling the postseason fixed. The Dodgers and Yankees were two of the best teams all season long, and they didn't exactly need friendly calls from umpires to win pennants. Outlandish excuses simply come with the territory that Los Angeles and New York operate in.

Instead, what many pundits have failed to recognize is that the hate and vitriol the Dodgers and Yankees have attracted proves just how strong the sport is.

Every sport needs its villains, unstoppable forces to root against. The Dodgers and Yankees may not be everyone's villains, but they certainly are for large swaths of the league.

Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles fans, obviously, hate the Yankees. San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres fans, similarly, hate the Dodgers.

The Yankees are "The Evil Empire," and have been for virtually a century. Nobody is remotely close to their 27 World Series championships, and their fans have rarely let people forget it.

The Dodgers have dominated the National League for over a decade, even if they only have one COVID-era championship to show for it. They have also poached other teams' fan favorites, robbing the Red Sox of Mookie Betts, the Atlanta Braves of Freddie Freeman and the Los Angeles Angels of Othani.

Judge and Ohtani have shattered records previously held by others who must have been someone's favorite player. Same with all the other superstars they've beaten out for MVP honors over the years.

The Dodgers and Yankees are so good that they invite hate. So are their biggest stars, who have massive contracts and have done nothing but beat down on other squads all year long.

So it shouldn't be shocking that the biggest diehard fans root against the Dodgers, Yankees or both. Is a Red Sox fan any less of a baseball fan because they don't want their biggest rival to win a title?

Judge, Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton all making it to the Fall Classic is great for baseball. Their collective star power can help grow the game, from Los Angeles to the Bronx to Tokyo and everywhere else in between.

People concerned with the broader state of the sport should be happy about that, and spend less time chastising fans for being fans.

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