By Josh:
With the Cleveland Indians currently leading the ALCS 3-1 and the Los Angeles Dodgers leading 2-1, I started thinking about who would have picked these teams to be leading each of their series?
I picked the Indians to lose in the Division Series and after they proved me wrong there I picked them to lose again in the ALCS. I think most people who follow baseball saw the Indians as the underdog in both of their playoff matchups.
The Dodgers I actually picked to make the World Series but a majority of people saw the Chicago Cubs as the favorite to not only make the World Series but to win it.
Both teams in some ways are the underdogs in their series, but baseball is different than the other three major U.S. sports. In football, basketball, and hockey the top seeds are the clear favorites to make the championships and a majority of the time a 1 or 2 seed from each conference makes it to the championship game or series.
Baseball is different when it comes to the playoffs.
Any team that makes the playoffs in baseball can make a run and win it all. Wild Card teams can win a one game playoff and carry that excitement all the way to a World Series title. Teams with the best record in the regular season can come in looking like Goliath only to be regularly cut down by a David. The ‘underdog’ seems to take on the giants of the game all the time.
This leads me to this question. If ‘underdogs’ win enough that it isn’t a surprise when it happens, then can they really be considered underdogs?
Baseball is truly a sport that once the playoffs begin you can throw out what happened in the regular season. Teams that were offensive juggernauts can suddenly hit under .200 for a series. Closers who only came in for one inning maximum during the regular season are now seen pitching two full innings. Even a teams ace can come into a game in the 9th inning on what was supposed to be an off day and close out a win.
In playoff baseball players suddenly get used in new ways, come into situations they aren’t normally used for, because a loss can mean going home. In basketball your not going to suddenly start your 10th man to shake things up. In football you don’t take your quarterback and put him on defense and in hockey you don’t take your top scorer and put him in at goalie. In baseball though you can do things that you wouldn’t normally do. That is what makes the playoffs so unique, and it is why no team is truly an underdog.