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Five bandwagons to jump on if your favorite MLB team's season is over

Mike Oz

Let’s say you root for the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants or Toronto Blue Jays, a few teams that entered the season with legit World Series aspirations. If that’s you, September baseball isn’t treating you well, sorry. Their seasons are done, for all intents and purposes. Heck, the Giants were officially eliminated from postseason contention Thursday night.

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If you ask me, you’re completely within your rights as a baseball fan to adopt another team to root for during the stretch run and the postseason. Don’t act like you’ve been an Indians fan your whole life or anything, but if you want to see them break that long World Series drought and keep that 15-game winning streak alive, go for it.

So on this week’s installment of Open Mike, I’m helping you Adopt-A-Team folks figure out which bandwagon to jump on from now until the World Series. Keep in mind, please, that things can change quickly for teams in the wild-card hunt (especially in the AL) so the even a team like the Texas Rangers is in a much better position today than they were when we filmed this video.

Why not pull for the Brewers, nobody expected them to make it this far. (AP)
Why not pull for the Brewers, nobody expected them to make it this far. (AP)

That being said, here are five teams you might want to consider adopting:

• Cleveland Indians: As mentioned above, the AL Central leaders are incredibly hot right now and they haven’t won a World Series since 1948. Close last year, though — about as close as you can get without winning it. If you wanted to see the Seahawks win the Super Bowl again after blowing it at the one-yard line, then root for the Indians.

• Los Angeles Dodgers: The most front-running frontrunners will go here, because even despite the recent dry spell the Dodgers far and away have baseball’s best record. The Dodgers have been World Series-winless since 1988, so it’s not like they’re the Patriots. But please do report any San Francisco Giants fans you see saddling up with Kershaw & Co. They’re violatin’.

• Seattle Mariners: They’re not looking like a great playoff pick at the moment (four games out of a wild-card spot), but maybe that’s because you’re not rooting for them. You can’t snap the longest MLB playoff drought with just people in Seattle on the bandwagon.

• Milwaukee Brewers: They’re the “We’re not even supposed to be here” postseason contender and they’re just three games out in the NL wild-card). So if you want to root for the team that, on paper, has no business even sniffing a playoff spot, here you go. They’re such an unexpected contender that a beer company is giving away 15,000 free tickets to rally the city. You gotta root for beer, right?

• Houston Astros: A lot of hearts will be with Houston this year, as Hurricane Harvey took a toll on the city. The Astros, the AL West leaders, look like a legit World Series contender ready to pull on America’s heart strings. Don’t act like you’re immune to a feel-good story. And an Astros win would definitely be one.

PREVIOUSLY ON OPEN MIKE:
• Why the Mets should call up Tim Tebow
• Why Players Weekend is the MLB idea in a while

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!