Would you like the team you root for to have a long stretch of reaching the postseason?

The Game Room
1

In another thread, someone mentioned that people probably wouldn’t want their team to be like the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s - a team that made the playoffs 14 of 15 seasons, made the World Series three times, and won the whole thing once.

I’m of the opinion that the postseason is a month and a half that consists of about 60% luck, and I’d love for my team to consistently make the playoffs. I root for the teams in Kansas City, the Royals and the Chiefs. Both have had recent instances of winning their championships, but not after incredibly long stretches of little success. The Royals went 29 years without reaching the post-season, and the Chefs managed to go 50 years between Super Bowl wins (and 21 years between playoff wins).

2

I’m a Dodgers fan and I’m completely down with their domination recently. I wasn’t happy with Maddenly due to his ignorance of statistical baseball but their on the field performance was great. Replacing him with Doc Roberts was a step in the right direction and I couldn’t be happier with team management. Sure it would be better if we won the World Series but I’ll settle for 105 win a year for the next decade.

The concept that if you don’t win it all you’re a loser is crazy to me. The playoffs are basically random.

I’m also a 49ers fan and I was completely content with the Harbaugh era and it looks like we’re set up for another great run. When I was in high school I made fun of the Bills but now I realize how special that 91-94 run was.

3

In baseball Im an Angels fan (raised in the OC) and 2002 will be branded into my neurons forever. It wouldnt be nearly as joyful if they had runs like the Yankees. In football Im a Raiders fan and those 3 SB wins and those amazing cast of characters were awesome. Im also a Lakers fan and winning championships is expected so not nearly as special.

4

Yes, I would be like it if my team was consistently pretty good. Making the playoffs consistently is a good sign of that.

I am also a Detroit Lions fan. I obviously do not pick teams to root for based on being good.

5

Isn’t that what “rooting for” means? That you want them to win?

6

The White Sox have been around for twelve decades and have never once made the post-season in consecutive years. So if there’s anything to dislike about it, I certainly wouldn’t know.

7

And I don’t think that that person was even a Yankees fan.:slight_smile:

Obviously, he’s one of those fans that place an inordinate emphasis on winning the World Series. Now I am a Yankees fan, and while it would be great to win another series (like they say, you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many rings;)) I’m glad they’re a contender nearly every year. That’s really all any fan should hope for.

8

I am 100% a fair-weather fan. So, yep. I shallowly get most of any contact high off winning, not the simple act of competition. If “my” team(s) isn’t winning or at least reasonably competitive consistently I just don’t watch nearly as much. Sometimes not at all. For example I watched several Warriors games this past season, but after a certain point I shrugged and started deleting them off my DVR unless I read it was a particularly good game for some reason. So I continued to read about them, but I was a lot less interested in watching them.

I mean I like sports, but I’m not genuinely addicted nor particularly loyal to any of them. I’m really more of a mild enthusiast than a fan :p. There are plenty of other things to watch or spend my time on.

9

Answering ‘Yes’ in the poll means you want your team to make it to the playoffs consistently but only once winning a World Series. Have fun with that. And I am definitely not a Yankees fan, and voting ‘Yes’ also means you want your team to beat the Yankees in game 1 and 2 of the World Series in New York, then lose 4 straight to them. Your teams can use better fans.

10

Replace World Series with Super Bowl and I would be ecstatic for 15 straight years in the playoffs and a single championship. The Super Bowl win I might regret …when my week long celebration bender finally ends.

I say again, I am a Lions fan.

11

Wow! I can’t believe so many people want their teams to lose the big games. I want my teams to go all the way every year.

12

Well, of course. Nitpick; Atlanta made it to 4 World Series, not three.

From 1991 to 2005 the Braves won 14 division titles in a row (the 1994 season didn’t get finished; they would have likely finished second but would have won the Wild Card anyway) but “only” one World Series. That’s not a failure to win the World Series enough; it’s a success in winning stuff in the other 13 years. There are 30 teams in the majors (there were 26 in 1991, then 28 in 1993-1997, but close enough) so the AVERAGE team can only hope to win it once every 30 years. Many teams, of course, have never won it at all; Seattle has never even been in one in 43 years, and a number of other teams are still waiting for a title. Some teams have won it, but have waited longer than 30 years.

So, I read the OP as asking “would you like your team to win a World Series in the next 14 years?” You’d be insane not to say yes to that question - especially if it’s never happened in your lifetime. As a Blue Jays fan I can tell you the 1992 win was one of the highlights of my life, and as a Raptors fan I can tell you that if I ever doubted my memory of how much that 1992 World Series meant to me, 2019 told me that nope, it really did. It’s something a fan remembers for life, and it brings a certain aura of satisfaction to the whole experience.

13

One of my favorite teams, the Cowboys, used to fit the Braves description. The Cowboys had twenty consecutive winning seasons (an NFL record that still stands) in the 1960s-1980s, but only won two Super Bowls. They were as consistent winners as consistent could be, but almost always seemed to fall barely short on the threshold of a championship.

Another 1990s team was also like the Braves; the Phoenix Suns. In fact, even into the 2000s, the Suns were still consistently good, just could never get past the Spurs or Lakers.

14

One big difference between the Braves and the Suns though.

15

Sure, I’m much happier when the 9ers win the superbowl but the years the make the game and lose are more fun than they years they don’t make the game at all.

In baseball the regular season is much more important and winning 100+ games stretches the fun all summer. Knowing every day when I turn on the game I’m going to get to watch my team win is a lot of fun and on the rare occasions they lose knowing that they won’t lose again tomorrow makes the losses easier. Having a great season like that naturally ended in making the playoffs. Losing in game seven of the world series was hard but I still remember watching that whole series and it was some of the most fun I’ve had. Watching an 18 inning game between two teams I didn’t care about wouldn’t be nearly as memorable. Sure, the cheating bastards won and it would have been better if the dodgers had won but that was 99% of what I could dream about for a season, and then I got 99% of that the next year and then I got 80% last year combined. Over those 3 seasons I’d bet I had more fun than any of the astros fans.

16

Well, sorry, but NO SHIT. Pretty much all sports fans want their team to win it all every year, and if you’re interpreting any of us to be saying otherwise, I think you’re mistaken.

In retrospect, yes, the 1990s Braves were, at a certain level, underperformers, and given how many times that they made the postseason (and the World Series), yeah, probably, they should have won it all more than they did. But, I don’t think that, at the time, Braves fans looked at the start of every postseason, and said, “Oh, sure, we made the playoffs, but we aren’t going to win it all, so it doesn’t matter.”

Once you get to the postseason, weird things happen, and the best team in any given league often doesn’t wind up winning the championship that season. But, if a team makes it to the playoffs, they at least have a chance, and it gives their fans something extra to get excited about. If you don’t make the playoffs, obviously, you have no chance.

I lived through the Packers of the 1970s and 1980s, who were, for the most part, mediocre to terrible. My team had exactly 2 playoff appearance, and only one playoff win, in 20 years.

Over the past 28 years, the Packers have been competitive most of the time, have made the playoffs most seasons, and have two Super Bowl rings. Yeah, maybe they should have more than that, and maybe they’ve squandered some of Aaron Rodgers’ best seasons. OTOH, it’s been a lot better era to be a Packer fan than it was when I was a kid.

17

Nobody said they ***want ***their team to lose. There is no poll option in this thread, “hoist the trophy every single year.”

The choice is, either have many winning seasons but relatively few titles, versus…something worse.

18

What you’re missing is that most teams don’t even get the chance to be in the big games. Since 1991, only six teams have won more than one World Series (and seven have won just one). The only team to have been in more World Series than the Braves in that stretch is the Yankees. Even with just one Series win, the Braves have done far better than most teams in that period.

19

A related question is, before 2004, would you rather have been a Red Sox fan or a Cubs fan? The Red Sox would reach the World Series but lose, while the Cubs would never get there at all.

20

Yes. Florida State football spent years being very competitive but often snakebit. Wide rights or other fluke losses. Still, it was nice supporting a team which I knew would be competitive every year.

How about Liverpool Football club? Haven’t won the Premier League, always a consistent team, amazing season this year and then…