Who should you be rooting for if your team isn’t in October?

Postseason baseball is here, and if your team isn’t part of the fun we have some solid reasons to become heavily invested in a team that is.

So, your favorite team didn’t make it to October. It’s okay. Neither did mine. I’m not actually sure where the Cincinnati Reds finished this season. I know they started poorly and fired their manager. Caught fire for a bit after that. And then crashed back down to earth. But hey, Joey Votto’s talent isn’t be wasted or anything.

If your team didn’t make it to October, you’ve come to the right place to find a new team to latch onto. Let’s be honest, we’re all here because we suck at picking a favorite baseball team. Either our parents passed down a lousy team, our friends talked us into cheering for their favorite team because misery loves company, we were born in the wrong city or we had too much to drink one night and made a horrible mistake. Whatever your sports fandom origin story might be, just know that you’re not alone. We’ll get through these playoffs together.

But first, we need a new team. Let’s take a look at our options.

Oakland A’s

If you’ve seen Moneyball you’re probably rooting for the A’s. You watched Brad Pitt turn in his best performance Snatch. You marveled at Jonah Hill’s ability to go from lovable fat kid in Superbad to slim genius. You wow your friends when you tell them, “Did you know Chris Pratt is in this film?”

Some people simply attach themselves to a sports. Moneyball isn’t even the best baseball film about a team in the 2018 Playoffs, but it’s a movie that made over $100 million at the box office worldwide and got great reviews. So, people love it. Personally, I think it ruined baseball as people got too caught up in numbers. But that’s just me. If you like Moneyball, root for A’s. Much like the end of that movie, it won’t have a happy ending.

Other reasons to root for the Oakland A’s

You feel really bad for their football team. You can’t believe they paid Jon Gruden gobs of money, he traded away their best player, and how he’s sulking about needing the one thing he traded away. You refused to root for the Raiders because you’re smart. But you want to throw your support behind a different Oakland team. So, you’re choosing the A’s.

You think the Oakland A’s is the baseball team comprised of writers from The Athletic.

You secretly want to root for the Warriors, but don’t want to be “that guy.” So you go with the A’s and in two weeks when basketball season starts, you parlay your A’s fandom into Warriors fandom. The A’s are basically your gateway team.