Kevin Kiermaier has always loved a longshot. He went to community college, he was a 31st-round pick, he played for the low-budget Tampa Bay Rays.
“I always root for the underdog, no matter what,” he says.
Well, until this week. It’s hard to pull for David when you play for Goliath, and even Kiermaier—who joined the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline—cannot make the case for his new team as an underdog in this week’s World Series against the New York Yankees.
“It’s two of the top dogs,” he says. “You can’t write it up any better.”
Well, as long as you grew up wearing Dodger blue or pinstripes. If you’re not inclined to pull for the team making its fourth World Series appearance in the last eight years or the team with the most titles in history, you’re left rooting for them to cancel the whole thing.
Want to see the little guy succeed? Your choices are the Dodgers, who spent $1.2 billion this offseason … or the Yankees, the team comedian Joe Lewis once compared to U.S. Steel.
They each finished first in their league, which marks only the fifth time in the wild card era that the top seeds have met in the World Series. They ranked No. 2 (Yankees, $296.7 million) and No. 3 (Dodgers, $266.8 million) in payroll. They boast between them, according to FanGraphs, the No. 1 (Aaron Judge), No. 2 (Juan Soto), No. 3 (Shohei Ohtani), No. 6 (Freddie Freeman) and No. 7 (Mookie Betts) players over the past four years. Judge and Ohtani will almost certainly win their respective league’s Most Valuable Player awards next month.
Sports Illustrated asked members of both teams to explain why unaffiliated fans should fall in love with their band of plucky upstarts. It didn’t go great.
“We kind of feel like the underdogs a little bit,” offers Yankees left fielder Alex Verdugo. “Everybody kind of expected us to beat the Royals and Cleveland, but our mindset is: We’re underdogs. We’re hungry. We expect to win. We haven’t won in New York in a while, so that’s why we feel like we’re underdogs and we want to go out there and prove everybody wrong.”
In a while in this case means 15 years, and that was their 27th title—nearly three times as many as the second-most decorated team, the St. Louis Cardinals, who have 11. Cleveland Guardians fans (two championships, none since 1948) and Milwaukee Brewers fans (never, in 55 years) are seething. But it’s true; the Dodgers won as recently as 2020. They haven’t missed the playoffs since ’12. It’s hard to see them as anything other than a dynasty. Still, Dodgers president Stan Kasten does his best.
“First of all, the amount of injuries we had this year makes this not all the team we were envisioning in spring training, O.K.?” he says. “And we’ve had to adjust on the fly. A lot of our players—a significant number of our players—are new from the middle of the season, O.K.? And yet, somehow, we persevere to the best record in baseball. That’s hard to do.”
Sure, but you had the best player in the sport that whole time.
“They’re the Yankees!” he says. “They’re full of best players, all up and down their lineup.”
Your lineup starts with three MVPs. It’s hard to argue that nobody believes in us.
“We aren’t out there advertising that!” Kasten says. “This is your story. You wanted something for your angle!”
Fair enough, and you have to give him credit for taking a shot. Almost no one else even bothered.
“Honestly, I can’t,” says Dodgers long reliever Brent Honeywell. “I don’t think you can say it about either one of these teams. I think both of these teams know what they’re getting into, and neither one of us can take each other lightly. And I’m excited for where baseball’s at. You get to see guys like Sho. You get to see guys like me.” He laughs and adds, “It’s: Who is the best in the league? And to me, that’s what makes the hair rise on the back of my neck. I want to be known as the best team in the league. I want to see the best of the best go at it, and people should be happy about that. Who cares about payroll? Who cares about any of that stuff? Just the best of the best.”
Yankees closer Luke Weaver agrees. “It’s just gonna be who plays better baseball,” he says. “And at the end of the day, if you’re choosing a team to root for … it’s East Coast–West Coast. Maybe just stick to one side? Or maybe it’s your favorite color? Maybe it’s the type of blue you like better.”
Yeah, these guys aren’t even trying.
“I can’t make a case that anybody’s the underdog,” says Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. “It’s pretty even on both sides. I can make the case that the Yankees will win!” No, thanks. Baseball fans have heard enough of that.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The World Series Without an Underdog.
