The Good Phight’s postseason rooting guide, through the eyes of a child

Sometimes as adults, we become jaded by the game. We see the players that are on the team and wish that the team we grew up cheering for would embody everything that we believe. We see players making “personal choices” that go against basic science the perceived norm and wish we could just talk to them about that choice.

Wasn’t it simpler when you could just cheer for the laundry without knowing all the of stuff that goes on behind it?

My son is seven years-old. He is a baseball fanatic. He lives and breathes baseball, waking up early each morning with the first question being “What did the Phillies do?” Lately, that question was followed by “What did the Braves do?”, only to see his brain working as he tried to figure out the magic number of both teams. He’s part of this generation that is incredible with technology. He and his twin sister have mastered the art of asking me a question to get me to look up, only see my phone placed in front of my face so they can unlock it using facial recognition. Yes, I do sleep with one eye open at night.

Back to baseball, he is very excited about the postseason opening tonight. He usually can’t make it through games that go past 8:30 (I am very strict about bedtimes), but as he has every day since April Fool’s Day, he will wake up wondering what happened the night before. Since I am no expert and he apparently is, he has wisely been chosen to give us the proper rooting interest guide for this year’s postseason. The following is a list of the teams that we as a Phillies fanbase should root for in order and the reason for their ranking. The quotes are all too real. Thanks, bud.

1. White Sox - “because it is the only team that isn’t really big. It’s not a big winning team.”
2. Brewers - “because I like Wisconsin.”
3. Giants - “because it has the old Phillies manager”
4. Rays - “because I wanted them to win the World Series last year”
5. Cardinals - “because I always liked them and that’s it”
6. Dodgers - “because I like Max Scherzer”
7. Red Sox - “because I like Rafael Devers because he put the Blue Jays out of the playoffs. Also because when Mommy and Daddy went to Boston, they almost died (ed. note: true story)”
8. Astros - “because it’s a cheating team. We don’t like cheaters.”
9. Yankees - “because it’s the Yankees.”
10. Braves - “for all the Phillies fans and because they swept the Phillies to make them miss the playoffs.”

Word for word. Looks like a decent list if you ask me. Not sure exactly what he’s thinking about Milwaukee, but hey - he read a state book and he likes cheese. We talked about Bob Uecker, but it didn’t take. Looking at those final three teams makes me realize I’m doing something right.

And who doesn’t like Max Scherzer?