Bandwagon Jumping

The past few years I have jumped on a team’s bandwagon for the MLB playoffs. For whatever reason I find myself liking the way a team plays the game so I root for them all the way through. The past few years I’ve supported Detroit, Chicago, and Boston. This doesn’t violate any rules since the Phillies hadn’t been in the playoffs since 1993.

This year was different. The Phillies managed to get hot at the end of the year and the Mets went ice cold. The perfect situation. I could root for the Phillies in October. Unfortunately the bats weren’t prepared for October baseball and now I’m back to my usual position in October.

After the Phillies lost I didn’t just go and search out a team. One of them has to be interesting to me. There has been such a team and that team is the Cleveland Indians. The fact that they are up 2-0 on the Yankees somewhat helped the situation. At least because I’m not going to start pulling for a team on the verge of elimination. The shortest explanation of ‘Why the Indians?’ includes the names Sizemore, Sabathia, and Carmona. The slightly longer answer includes Martinez, Peralta, and Hafner. The rest of the AL teams have been doing this for a few years. I like young upstarts. If you are allowed to call a team young when Kenny Lofton is on the roster. The Indians last made the playoffs in 01, and they were led by Charlie Manuel. I fell that also puts us in the same boat. I don’t remember hearing a lot of complaining about Manuel from his Cleveland days. So either he’s lost it or the Cleveland fans were just in too much pain to yell loud enough for me to hear.

Things are slowly coming in to focus in college football. A few underdogs have emerged with a shot. South Florida being the most obvious. Although they made the FAU game a little interesting. Now it looks like the Big East might be decided in the USF/Cincy game on Nov 3rd. I’m shocked South Carolina is in the Top 10, but that SEC is rough.

One team that I’m pulling for is Arizona State. Their 6-0 start has moved them up to #14. Of course they haven’t played any of the big guns in the Pac10. Their 3-0 conference record come courtesy of wins against Oregon St., Stanford, and Washington St. However, today, their 41-3 win at Stanford seems a lot more impressive. Their upcoming schedule includes Washington, California, Oregon, UCLA, and USC. Make it through that only losing 2 then people will start talking. Its been a few years since I’ve heard much excitement about ASU. Really, I wasn’t aware they’ve had a program since The Snake left. I’d like to see them compete, I’m a fan of any non-Cali team competing for the Pac10 Championship. I’d be almost as excited for Arizona, but they have basketball. Looking into the history books, ASU needs some good years. The school has had only 3 bowl wins (in 8 games) in the past 20 years. Just maybe they can survive this schedule. Or just maybe they’ll lose to UDub this weekend and we’ll forget I ever said any of this.