#3: What are you rooting for?
Now that baseball is back, baby
Hi, it’s Hannah, writing this while watching meaningful baseball for the first time in five months!
(To be even more specific: I was writing that while Austin Wells was hitting a lead-off home run for the Yankees. And now I’m writing this while learning that parenthood has made me a total sucker for videos of grown-up fans handing over a ball they caught to a nearby kid.)
For the first season of The Bandwagon — back when it was a digital video series — every week I picked a different team to root for, extolling what made them rootable and relevant in that moment. When we returned for season 2, we realized we couldn’t just run back the same team/episode format. But rooting is just the confluence of affection and wanting. It’s a version of ownership or identification that retains the yearning. And you can feel that toward all sorts of things in sports.
So today, we asked a bunch of friends around baseball and the internet to answer one simple question: Other than a team, what are you rooting for this season? (We told them to keep answers to two sentences. Some people listened.) Let’s see what they had to say …
Doug Glanville, MLB analyst at ESPN, co-host of Starkville, author of Welcome to Glanville
I am rooting for the world to see how the game of major league baseball is an example of the strength found in a beautiful tapestry of diversity. Of culture, of talent, of minds, of skills. My favorite part of playing was coming into spring training and just meeting new teammates who came from so many places, yet we had to hone in on one goal as a team…and come together.
Kevin Brown, ESPN and Orioles broadcaster
As a fan, I’m rooting for stolen base numbers to keep soaring. As a broadcaster, I’m rooting for myself to “accidentally” call the A’s the “Sacramento A’s” or the “why aren’t you in Oakland anymore A’s” as often as possible.
Britt Ghiroli, The Athletic senior writer
I want the teams that actually tried to win. Give me the Royals in the playoffs. The dodgers too, of course. The Mets! I don’t want a plucky team with a $50 mil payroll. I want the front offices who went big to be rewarded. I am tired of GMs talking about wins per dollar. No one should get to wear an efficiency crown!
Ryan Nanni, writer of Assigned and host of the Shutdown Fullcast
Elly De La Cruz steals 100 bases.
Vlad Guerrero Jr. makes the Blue Jays wish they had locked him up in the offseason.
Josh Gondelman, comedian and author of That’s Marvelous!
Oh, it’s the same thing I’m rooting for every year: The Yankees to lose. I want every bad thing to happen to that team that doesn’t involve physical pain inflicted on the players. Embarrassment, heartbreak, etc. (Is this too close to cheering for the Red Sox? It does feel related.)
Lance Brozdowski, Marquee Sports analyst and pitching extraordinaire
I'm rooting for hitters this year. No matter what Manfred does, pitchers will continue to develop kick-changeups, splinkers and death balls, all with the intent of pushing the league's slugging percentage further below .400. A swing (pun intended) in the other direction would benefit the sport, even if I'm a pitching guy at heart.
Ellen Adair, actor, screenwriter and avid Phillies fan who actually sent in NINE things she’s rooting for. You can read the whole thing on Bluesky.
Zack Wheeler has been owed a Cy Young since 2021; I expect the voters to deliver one, with compound interest. Wheeler’s been holding up his end of the bargain, I should point out.
Patrick Dubuque, managing editor of Baseball Prospectus
I'm rooting for someone to steal 100 bases for the first time since Vince Coleman. I want them to be so obvious about it that broadcasters can't stop counting the disengagements every time he's on base, and go for it even though everyone in the stadium knows he's running.
but also:
Craig Goldstein, aka Crogl, editor-in-chief of Baseball Prospectus
After coming tantalizingly close last year (you'll never guess who it is), I will once again be rooting for a 100 IP pure relief season.
Dani Wexelmen, host and on-air reporter at ESPN, SNY, and SiriusXM
I'm rooting for the underdog. For the prospect who makes an immediate impact. I'm rooting for starters to go 7 innings again and shove. I'm rooting for the best season we've ever had. I'm rooting for more outlandish quotes from Tito Francona and Aaron Boone. And a little more trash talking. Makes our game spicier.
ok but, like, which prospect
Cam Smith is easy to root for as a person and to succeed. He's never played right field. They need his bat. I'm fully supporting him.
Joe Sheehan, baseball newsletter OG
Health. We’ve lost so many stars’ prime seasons to injuries lately. Give me one year of everyone I want to watch on the field.
Jess Whitney, senior content producer, MLB social
Other than the Dodgers, I'm rooting for the NL West California teams to be exceptional - baseball is better when the giants & padres are good. Also, I'm rooting for Lawrence Butler.
Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic senior writer, FOX field reporter, Foul Territory insider, person who will have to be at the NLCS
I am rooting for chaos in whatever form it might take. The Dodgers losing in the Division Series. An A’s-Rays ALCS. Bring me all the insanity!
Bobby Wagner, podcast producer at The Ringer and cohost of Tipping Pitches
The return of a bona fide villain in Major League Baseball. The Yankees have been a watered down Evil Empire for over a decade now, but now the Dodgers have become the real thing.
Alex Bazeley, has a real job and also cohost of Tipping Pitches
Give me a spicy AL West showdown, complete with the Rangers’ veteran-heavy roster bouncing back from a World Series hangover year, the Mariners’ rotation proving they’re baseball’s next great pitching dynasty, and the Astros holding on during their twilight years.
Rodger Sherman, author of the Read Rodge newsletter
As a Yankees fan with terrible facial hair, I'm hoping to find out what exactly defines a "well-groomed" beard. I'm also hoping "not having beards" is why they haven't won a World Series in 17 years, but I'm less optimistic about that.
And now for the unplanned Pirates(!) section:
Gary Apple, pre- and post-game host for the Mets on SNY
I am really excited to see how Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes builds upon his NL Rookie of the Year season. He has the look and the stuff of a generational talent. I think it's good for the game for a small market team like the Pirates who haven't won a World Series in over 45 years to get the sort of attention that Skenes can bring them.
Pat Gallen, CBS Sports Philadelphia Anchor/reporter.
I am rooting for Paul Skenes to throw a baseball through owner Bob Nutting’s office window so hard that it scares him to his core and he immediately sells the Pirates to someone who: A. Cares, B. Wants to field an actual contending team instead of doing the opposite every year, C. Enjoys the fine city of Pittsburgh and its lovely stadium
Mike Trout to hit .312 with a 1.000 OPS, 43 HR, 103 RBI, 103 walks and win the MVP award in the American League (and if its not too much make the playoff and win a game). Essentially, I would love to see him stay healthy and give us one more Troutian season, because at 33, he’s sadly running out of time to do it.
Sam Miller, author of the Pebble Hunting newsletter
A few years ago I realized that Andrew McCutchen's career was nearly over, that he only had 45 WAR, and that I was definitely going to vote for him for the Hall of Fame anyway. I now root constantly for his compiling years to be many and productive, and I'm especially rooting for him this year to eclipse 50 WAR — probably the minimum threshold for a credible BBWAA candidacy.
Alex Kirshner, writer and podcaster at Split Zone Duo, Slate and Opta Analyst
I am rooting for Bob Nutting to sell the Pittsburgh Pirates. Failing that, I am rooting for Paul Skenes to make baseball fun again in Pittsburgh at least once every five days.
Of all teams!
Liz Benn, most recently Mets director of major league operations, competitive Canadian, better pitcher than you
More really cool custom gloves. Beyond just customizing by having something embroidered, but cool designs, textures, colors, etc. (And embroidery is cool too when it’s things like the ghost fork logo on Senga’s gloves.)
Stephen Nelson, ESPN and Dodgers broadcaster
I’m rooting for a ton of competitive division races and parity to help mitigate the discourse about impending CBA doom. The league is in a healthier place than some owners and fans want everybody to believe. I want competition to highlight that fact.
Jake Seiner, assistant sports editor at the AP and Hannah’s husband, who merited inclusion not because of nepotism but because he had such a good answer
Someone (Max Scherzer?) is going to get pissed at an umpire and mock him with the ABS head-tapping signal. It's going to prompt the funniest ejection in MLB history.
Ben Lindbergh, writer/editor at The Ringer, co-host of Effectively Wild
An oasis of normality, mostly. Something mercifully, stubbornly incombustible amid the many literal and figurative fires in the news—and, possibly, the last calm we can count on before a work-stoppage storm.
R.J. Anderson, CBS Sports baseball writer
I just want everyone to have fun.
David Roth, editor and co-owner at Defector
I am hoping to be surprised. Baseball generally delivers on this, both because I am a simple man who is easily impressed and because no one really understands what is going to happen. But what I mean in this case is less about wild things happening than a team or player figuring stuff out on a timetable that no one expected and becoming impossible to assess in the process. I want to be wrong about some stuff. Just not the Mets.
Now a section where, each week, Zach or I will share a little bit about something *other than baseball* we’re fans of lately. We’re calling it …
Rooting Around
Cameron Winter in early spring
by Zach Crizer
A couple weeks ago, I was sitting on a bench in the lobby of The Public Theater in the East Village. A man zig-zagged through the room and approached. He could have, for all intents and purposes, been me. I figured he was eyeing the other half of my red vinyl cushion.
“Sorry,” he said, still standing, “You wouldn’t happen to have an extra ticket would you?”
I chuckled and told him no. I was on the standby list, too. He took out his phone, sat down next to me facing the entrance to the theater’s tiny, club-like music venue. We sat and stared, uselessly taking stock of the line forming to our left, hoping the count to some unknown number would come up a few short.
This isn’t a story of discovery so much as buy-in. I first encountered Cameron Winter in a glowing Pitchfork review in mid-January, put his album on a Spotify playlist, forgot about it for a week or so, then got totally smacked in the mouth. First, it was a song called “Love Takes Miles” that sounds like it might have wafted in from the late ‘60s. Upon paying more attention, “Nausicaä,” a horn-inflected jaunt, infected my brain. Then it was the whole album, “Heavy Metal,” which has nothing to do with the genre heavy metal, and not much more to do with the Led Zeppelin-infused indie rock band Winter fronts, Geese. I told my friend Peter about it in late January, and I elided all description because I didn’t have a good one.
Winter — who’s just 22 years old but has said he listened to Leonard Cohen’s debut album throughout making this one — uses his voice as the predominant instrument, a wail that modulates from lethargic to coolly detached to crazed and desperate. If there were no other sounds on the album at all, I think it would still be great.
There are a few other instruments featured, though, and they instantly became the subject of lore. The bassist was a five-year-old named Jayden. The cellist is a steelworker. The album was recorded in Guitar Center stores across the New York area until they kicked him out and he went to a new one. According to Winter.
Peter had fallen as hard as I did. He was drawn to a sparse track called “Drinking Age” that’s full of long, somehow infinitely expressive notes. Within two days, he messaged that he had sent it to 10 more people. He had also located a live video of Winter playing the song to … almost no one, just voice and keyboard. At that point, I needed to be in one of those small, irreplaceable rooms that got to see Winter play this album before it had won over the throngs who could fill theaters.
His two New York shows on the schedule at the time were at Joe’s Pub, the club-like stage at The Public Theater. It seats 184 people. Tickets were, by this point, gone. Two more shows at a Brooklyn church hit the market with nothing but cryptic Instagram announcements. No dice, just a referral to an app — Dice — for a digital waitlist.
The Public Theater’s web site explains, however, that you can sign up for a standby list on the day of any show. Only in person. One show was on a Tuesday, the other on Saturday. I left work at 4:30 on Tuesday and got in line seven minutes before the box office opened. I was the fourth person in line and, by my eavesdropping estimate, would be the sixth ticket awarded.
They took my name and told me to be back by 9 for the 9:30 p.m. show. So that’s where I was, sitting on the bench. The line of actual ticket holders swelled. Then emptied into the venue. At 9:23, the guy next to me leapt to his feet as his phone buzzed, raced to the box office window and then disappeared into the pub. The minutes drained down, and I was perusing the FAQ page for what would happen if I wasn’t getting in when, buzz.
I had something like an obstructed view seat at a bar half behind a column. But I was in the club. I saw him play for a group I could have counted in my head. And I’d kill to do the same rigamarole, at the same moment, for every band that’s ever meant anything to me.
Stitches/Old Hat/This Old Thing/help us name a section for vintage merch
by Hannah Keyser
Vintage graphic tees are, as far as I’m concerned, a closet staple. Goes with everything and reads as effortless while imparting a variable aesthetic depending on the particulars. The jeans of the torso.
I’ve curated my various internet haunts to show me vintage/second-hand clothing and I’m prone to following whatever is presented to me down into a virtual window shopping wormhole. So I thought periodically I’d drop some links here to stuff that caught my eye.
One thing I’m always low-key on the lookout for is non-team specific baseball tees. I imagine most fans don’t have this particular filter in mind when shopping, but sometimes you want the vibe to be “sports” but not necessarily “strike up a conversation with me about that one heartbreaking loss from last decade” or “ask me where I went to high school cause we might be from the same hometown.”
When I find something that fits the bill, it tends to be one of two extremes. Either:
generic-looking everyman on anonymous team wins unspecified MVP honors.
or, commemorative of that one tournament in Allentown over a span of nine days in August, 41 years ago.
I love them both. Maybe you will too.
Plus, my kid is not even close to old enough to fit into this multi-team bomber from more than half a century ago which is the only reason it’s still available.
Want to talk about what you’re rooting for this season? Join us in the subscriber chat today.
Rooting for teams to develop more Steven Kwan- and Luis Arraez-type hitters. More Ichiro Suzuki, less Mark Reynolds
The hypothetical Mad Max ejection … 🤣