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The baseball world is littered with mourning fan bases right now. Yankees fans are wondering if they\u2019re ever going to get Aaron Judge his chance at a title he so richly deserves.<\/a> Phillies fans know their team is running out of time. Mets fans are pretending that baseball is no longer a sport that\u2019s played in public and would appreciate it if you\u2019d stop acting as if it is. There are 26 fan bases who know, for certain, that this isn\u2019t the year.<\/p>\n But there are four remaining, the four teams left in the League Championship Series: You can tell who their fans are by the bleary-eyed humans who keep walking into the door to the boiler room in your office because they\u2019ve been tearing their hair out every night, deep into the morning. If you\u2019re a fan of the 26, these four could use your support. Thus, our annual guide for the unaffiliated<\/a>: If you\u2019re looking for a bandwagon worth jumping on, I hope this year\u2019s League Championship Series Rootability Ranking will help.<\/p>\n As far as defending World Series champions go, the Dodgers are among the more likable ones. Sure, the team is loaded with expensive superstars, but A-Rod and Roger Clemens these guys ain\u2019t. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani are all former MVPs, but it\u2019s difficult to find a person who will say a bad word about any of them. Ohtani, in particular, has elevated himself to Folk Hero of Earth status to the point that when some Brewers fans booed him during Game One of their NLCS with the Dodgers, it felt oddly unwholesome, like pelting Dolly Parton with snowballs. (It\u2019s clear that Ohtani has fully recovered from his pseudo-gambling scandal from 18 months ago<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s amazing what getting a dog will do<\/a>.) You can take issue with retiring Dodger hero Clayton Kershaw\u2019s views on LGBTQ+ issues<\/a>, and the team\u2019s relative quiet<\/a> regarding the ICE presence in Los Angeles and at Dodger Stadium, but if you will cheer only for sports teams who are standing up against totalitarianism, I\u2019m sad to say that I think you\u2019re going to have a difficult time watching sports.<\/p>\n The best reason to cheer against the Dodgers is the obvious one: They just won one of these last year. They have the second-highest payroll in baseball<\/a> (behind only the Mets); it seems like they get every free agent; and while I\u2019m skeptical of ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan\u2019s theory<\/a> that their success or lack thereof could have a concrete effect on whether we have a 2027 season, if they lose it would at least be an argument for the little guy (or at least against the big guy). Bill Simmons once wrote that cheering for the Yankees is like rooting for the house in blackjack. The Dodgers are the house now.<\/p>\n If I\u2019m being honest, part of the reason the Blue Jays are No. 3 on this list is that they\u2019re already down 2-0 in their series with the Mariners with both losses coming at home. No team has lost their first two games of a seven-game series at home and come back to win the series since the 1996 Yankees in the World Series against the Braves. The Blue Jays have a steep climb to say the least: I might be putting them lower simply out of pragmatism.<\/p>\n Yankees fans can quibble with this, but the Jays have undeniable appeal. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the sort of name-brand superstar that teams like the Blue Jays can rarely hang on to and not just that, he\u2019s the son of a Canadian baseball icon already; he essentially grew up as a Jay before he ever played for the team. The Toronto fan base has been rowdy and raucous all season, essentially since a series sweep over the Yankees after Memorial Day gave the Jays a division lead they\u2019d never relinquish. Also, don\u2019t overlook what it would mean for a Canadian team to be the champions of America\u2019s pastime at this specific moment in history. Although Jays fans are not booing the national anthem anymore<\/a>, \u201cO Canada\u201d has never been belted out louder. At the very least, we\u2019d get a cranky Truth Social post about it.<\/p>\n Only baseball could create a creature like Bob Uecker, a famously terrible ballplayer who once said, \u201cI\u00a0had a great shoe contract and glove contract with a company who paid me a lot of money never to be seen using their stuff.\u201d Another time he shagged fly balls during batting practice with a tuba<\/a>. Once he retired, Uecker became a classic guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the broadcaster in the Major League movies, a Miller Lite pitchman, and, of course, the dad on Mr. Belvedere. (He also was a Norm MacDonald obsession<\/a>.) But more than he was anything else, Uecker was a Milwaukeean: He grew up in Wisconsin, played for the old Braves, and was a broadcaster for the Brewers for a stunning 54 seasons. When he died in January, it assured that it would be a year of mourning for the Brewers organization, which loved him so much they all wore jerseys with the name \u201cUeck\u201d on the back for a game this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n It also turned out to be the best year in Brewers history. The Brewers are a classic \u201cmore than the sum of its parts\u201d team, a collection of mostly unknown players who do all the little things right and seem to deeply enjoy playing together. And Uecker is so tied into their mystique that, when they clinched their division last month, manager Pat Murphy actually read a letter from Uecker to the team in the clubhouse, one that seemed to be AI-written<\/a>, a strange but unquestionably heartfelt gesture. (It was weird, though, it should be said.) Uecker actually did win a World Series in his career, with the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals, but the Brewers finally winning one, which they\u2019ve never done, the year of his death would feel like some sort of cosmic justice.<\/p>\n The Brewers have never won a World Series, but the Mariners have never even reached one \u2014 the only team in all of baseball never to do so. That\u2019s enough right there to cheer for them, but then you\u2019ve also got to look at the crowds in Seattle this entire postseason. There are just different beautiful weirdos out there every night. There\u2019s the guy who burst into tears when the Mariners took a lead in Game Two of the ALDS, was comforted by his fianc\u00e9e, and became a local hero<\/a>. There\u2019s the guy who wore a shirt saying he wanted to snag catcher Cal Raleigh\u2019s 61st homer, somehow did, and then took his shirt off to reveal another shirt<\/a> that said he wanted to catch No. 62. Oh, and Cal Raleigh\u2019s nickname is \u201cBig Dumper,\u201d and everyone seems to be totally cool about it.<\/p>\n The Mariners are two wins away from making their first World Series. How do you not cheer for that? And if you\u2019re still on the fence: Here is Ben Gibbard, insanely dedicated Mariners fan<\/a>, singing \u201cCenterfield\u201d to open the Mariners\u2019 2020 COVID season.<\/p>\n I think that might be the most Mariners fan thing imaginable. Go M\u2019s.<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Intelligencer\u00a0Newsletter<\/p>\n Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n