It’s pretty easy this year if you are a fan of the Rangers or Diamondbacks, you roll with your boys. However, most baseball fans don’t root for either team, and unless you have serious money on the Series, you’re probably trying to figure on whom to root for.

Extending one’s fandom beyond our favorite (and likely local) team, we are pretty irrational when it comes to choosing. I know some college fans that would never root for a conference rival whereas others can see their way beyond certain rivalries and cheer for the enemy they know best.

Some fans of professional sports merely root for the laundry, caring little about off-field behavior or on-field comportment. They won’t root for a player that switches teams even if the decision to leave wasn’t the players. Other fans root for the big names or stars. The NBA has always been a star driven league, but when the stars are miserable tools, some fans abandon the sport.

One of the issues facing MLB has been the age of their fans. We are older and most prefer little to no change in the game. The league believes it has to skew younger in order to attract new fans. Unfortunately, the new rule changes are not universally loved. Worse than that, it’s caused something akin to partisan politics. People who have embraced all of the changes take offense that everyone doesn’t love the changes. Previous to the rule changes, fans could disagree about style of play preferences without getting personal and being mortally offended. I’ve witnessed this first hand.

If you’ve read any national publications since the Rangers and Dbacks qualified, we’re supposed to believe that it’s going to be the most unpopular TV series, since Holmes and YoYo and that only true fans outside of Texas and Arizona will watch. And our defection to reruns of Friends wouldn’t be a surprise.

Even if the casual fan hasn’t tuned into the LDS and LCS, but began watching last night, one is likely to find a reason to root for one of the teams. “Stars” are often born on the Series stage-even if we forget their names a couple years later. Likewise, fans can find villains to root against. The why’s and who’s aren’t always rationally chosen, and often it’s the league or TV that directs that particular narrative. Currently, Adolis Garcia is one of those players one either loves or dislikes (hate is too strong a word), and I guarantee the league will push forth his name and likeness whenever possible-regardless of the outcome of the series. Back in 2020, Randy Arozarena introduced himself to the baseball world during the postseason. He became the darling of the series and a face of the new MLB. He’s got a great personality, one too large for Tampa, and skills to boot. However, I wonder how many non-Rays fans have any idea what his stats were this past season. I’d have to look them up to verify how good a season he had. Even after that postseason, he’s not among my favorite 50 current ballplayers.

As I’ve said to people that have asked, I’m rooting for a seven-game series. I’m rooting for individual players on both teams, and I like both managers for different reasons. I love the fact that the first game was an 11-inning affair with no zombie runners on second. I wasn’t a huge fan of 10 walks by Arizona pitchers but accept that it’s a part of the game and was one of the reasons the game played out the way it did.

I expect tonight’s game will provide with a fresh set of heroes and villains and FOX will identify both for us. I trust my own judgement.