The Athletic fan poll reveals blatant ignorance with Dodgers-Yankees World Series

Do you remember those Dodgers-Padres combined cap monstrosities from the Seoul Series at the beginning of the season? We wouldn't be surprised if Rob Manfred was wearing a similarly monstrous Dodgers-Yankees cap all throughout October, keeping his fingers and toes crossed for a World Series between the two most popular and storied franchises in baseball.

This is great for Dodgers and Yankees fans, yes, but Manfred's already won and, arguably, so has baseball as a whole. Longtime baseball fans with no rooting interest in the Dodgers or Yankees might disagree, but for the uninitiated, the kids who know the names Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge but not much else about the game? If any World Series were to hook them, it'd be this one.

The Athletic polled readers, asking the question, "Is a Dodgers-Yankees World Series good or bad for baseball?" (subscription required).

An overwhelming 65.8% were on the right track, responding 'yes, a Dodgers-Yankees World Series is good for baseball,' but 19.3% responded 'no' and 14.9% responded 'it's complicated,' which is kinda, sorta, definitely a cop-out answer.

Baseball fans who think a Dodgers-Yankees World Series is bad for the game aren't seeing the bigger picture

Although 65.8% of respondents saw sense, we'd like to have a conversation with the rest. Nick R. said, "Money spoils competition. Sure we have salary caps and luxury taxes, but this was inevitable and playoff baseball missed a lot of excitement this year because of superteams."

Tell that to the 2024 Detroit Tigers. Or even this year's Cleveland Guardians, who gave the Yankees a healthy run for their money in the ALCS a few days ago. Which teams, exactly, would've been more exciting to see playing postseason baseball? Wasn't everyone complaining that the No. 6 seed Diamondbacks and No. 5 seed Rangers World Series last year was one of the least exciting matchups baseball had ever seen?

Of course fans of anyone other than the Dodgers and Yankees are unhappy that their teams didn't make it to the World Series, but the Yankees (although we hate to come to their defense) haven't seen a Fall Classic since 2009. And they technically spent more than the Dodgers this year!

People with no interest in baseball, or those whose attentions have been redirected to football and/or basketball, are watching baseball because these two teams are in the World Series. Everyone's always saying that baseball is dying (even though attendance is higher than ever), and the remedy for that is a star-studded World Series.

Every single MLB owner has a net worth in the billions. Maybe opposing fans should redirect some of this energy to yelling at their owner to spend more instead of complaining about how an objectively good thing for the sport is terrible. Or just say that you hate the Dodgers and Yankees and move along.