The Un-Biased Opinion: Do You Root for the Team That Knocked Your Team Out?

It's a crutch in our business to ask people to pick the winners of big games in an effort to add something tactile to the general sports dialogue. "Who ya got?"

We always want to know who people "got" in the big game, but none of us are really held accountable for our choices. Go back and look at every single pick ever made and, unless we're talking about professional handicappers, nobody even remembers who picked which team.

Let me let you in on a little secret: most of us don't have any idea what we're saying. We're all just making some varying degree of an educated guess off of small samples, television highlight reels and a menu of statistically significant metrics.

Some of us are just going with our "gut" when we pick winners. My brother (not a sportswriter) used to pick winners in our family NFL pool by choosing the helmet he thought was the coolest. People have developed worse methods, for sure.

I was asked this week "who I got" in the World Series. Actually, I was asked to give my "un-biased" opinion on which team will win the World Series, framed in context of asking if I was "still bitter" about the Cardinals defeating the heavily-favored Phillies in the National League Division Series.

I've learned that watching your favorite team get upset projects more bitterness and bias on your home nine, not the team that beat them. The fact is, a five-game playoff series isn't going to change my thoughts on the Cardinals organization, its players, its fans nor its manager. I don't think I have more bias for or against the Cardinals than I did two weeks ago. 

Having said that, giving my "un-biased" opinion is impossible.

I was asked if I think the Texas Rangers are the better team or if I am simply injecting my anti-Cardinals bias to pick against them? I wonder if bias works the other way, too. Should I want the Cardinals to win because they beat my favorite team, giving me the chance to explain away a bad loss with, "well, at least they lost to the champs?"

Would we rather have our favorite team lose to the one that wins it all, or would we rather see the squad that eliminated our favorite team crash and burn?

I understand that the media is supposed to be impartial when, as a collective force, it covers a story. That said, it's human nature to have bias in anything we do.

Our own King Kaufman has made the case that access to players and front office personnel (getting the chance to know the real person) actually creates more bias when writing than if you wrote the same story from your couch. I see his point, but respectfully disagree. Being detached from a player can, in many ways, create more bias when writing about him.

Jacoby Ellsbury may be a hard working kid with his head on straight who plays the game the right way and always takes the time to sign an autograph or talk to reporters or help an old lady cross Yawkey Way between innings. But I can't stand the guy, and it has nothing to do with the team he plays for or the way he approaches the game.

I hate that stupid long sleeve he wears. I'm sure it has some healing compression or protective padding or voodoo magic, but I can't stand any baseball player who wears one sleeve with the other arm bare. JUST WEAR A DAMN LONG SLEEVE SHIRT.

I don't have any ill will toward Boston or the Red Sox, but certainly my anti-one-sleeve bias comes into play, even on a subconscious level,  when trying to think rationally about that team. We all have bias. (Don't get me started on Nick Swisher's smiling face, either.)

Most writers have bias, over their own picks. I picked the Rangers to go to the World Series but I did not pick the Cardinals, so I'm "sticking with" the Rangers out of nothing more than my own bias for being correct.

There really is no such thing as an un-biased opinion on anything, so with that in mind, let's tackle the biased notion of whether you should root for the team that knocked your favorite team out.

Obvious rivalries have a lot to do with fans' decision. A Michigan fan would never root for Ohio State to win the National Championship, even if it made their season (and conference) look better. But would Michigan fans root for Penn State in the same situation?

As a Phillies fan, I'd never root for the Mets or Braves to win a World Series, but rooting for the Cardinals might actually help soften the blow of losing in the first round. Last season, the Phillies got taken out by the San Francisco Giants on their way to the World Series. It hurt, and I would shave Brian Wilson's stupid face in his sleep if I thought I could get away with it, but there's an odd feeling of justification after losing to the eventual champs.

If the Giants had lost in the World Series, losing to them in an earlier round might have hurt even more. "Man alive, how could Texas beat that team and Philly couldn't?" For others, knowing that nobody could beat them may not make it better, but it certainly doesn't make it worse.

Now, does that mean that Phillies fans and Brewers fans should be rooting for the Cardinals ­(and Rays and Tigers fans pulling for Texas) if only to make themselves "not feel worse" about their teams losing? I genuinely don't know.

Maybe the answer lies within each of our personal biases. I have more friends who are Cardinals writers than Rangers writers, so should I root for my friends?

Having family members who continually face addiction problems, I have far more respect for the way Josh Hamilton has handled his sobriety than the way the Cardinals deal with alcohol issues in their organization.

That's clear bias that some of you obviously won't have, but is that enough to make me want the Rangers to win?

What about the fan that thinks Albert Pujols might leave St. Louis to come to their city next year? Will winning a title make it easier or harder for him to walk away and start somewhere new? Are you using your own hopes for next season (your own biases) to root one way or another in this World Series?

I don't have the answers to any of these questions, so there's no grand resolution at the end of this column. I do know that, no matter what my job is, it's impossible to prove a truly "un-biased" opinion on anything. I can give an educated opinion, based on small sample sizes, highlight reels and statistically significant metrics.

Using that, and trying to put my biases aside, I think the Rangers will win the World Series. Or maybe that's just me rooting against the team that knocked my team out or rooting for the team I picked to get there all along. Maybe it's all of that.

I'd be interested in your thoughts in the comments, as un-biased as possible, please.