Rooting for a baseball team is not one of the smarter life decisions a person can make. Most of us didn't choose it, of course. It chose us. More's the pity. Every game we watch a group of mostly millionaires, and we are heavily emotionally invested in the outcome of a contest over which we can exert no control whatsoever. Many games, they will lose. In some years, most games, they will lose. And even in the good years, it's probably going to end in heartbreak, leaving the distant dream of maybe next year.
Then you get to next year, and it's this.