We've been on the same team for just a little more than a year
, after Blake joined USA TODAY Opinion, where Thuan has been an editor since 2005. But we've only seen each other at work over Microsoft Teams at the daily Opinion video meeting. Blake lives about 90 miles north of Tampa, Florida, and Thuan lives outside Washington, DC. The only time we've met in person was in late September, when Blake traveled to the nation's capital for an opinion journalism award ceremony.But you don't need to sit next to each other at work to share hobbies, jokes, October surprises. Starting Oct. 23, we'll be sharing the curveball of rooting for opposing sides of the World Series.
Blake is a relative newcomer to the Tampa Bay Rays bandwagon who attended a couple
of home games this year and is a fierce defender of all things Floridian.
Thuan's husband grew up outside Milwaukee and remembers going to Brewers' games. So the Elston household relished watching the Brewers sweep the two-time defending champions Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League Championship, advancing to their first World Series in 44 years.
The Brewers and the Rays, who've reached the World Series for the third time, are two of baseball’s last five franchises that have never won the title. For their fans, this is a dream home run. But for Major League Baseball and broadcast executives, the "small market" World Series is a nightmare for ratings.
Ignore those bigwigs. Laugh at them. Here's why sports fans should tune in to cheer on these magnetic teams playing a historic game:
Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays earned it
In the regular season, the Brewers won a franchise-record and MLB-leading 103 games, and the Rays won an American League-leading 98 games. They beat "big market" foes in the playoffs. They're right where they belong, at the top.
And, contrary to what people living in New York or Los Angeles might imagine, not everyone in America feels a sense of loss if teams from those cities don't play every year.
They're both underdogs – but only in payroll dollars
This is the first World Series between two “low revenue” teams since the Florida Marlins and Cleveland in 1997. Payroll figures obtained by USA TODAY Sports from the MLB Labor Relations Department show that the LA payroll is $338 million, compared with Milwaukee's $143.5 million and Tampa Bay's $98.3 million. And yet ... all the Brewers and Rays do is win.
Isn't that what the World Series is supposed to celebrate?
Baseball is a game of tradition
One of those traditions involves hordes of frostbitten northerners trekking to Florida each spring to complain about local pizza and watch meaningless exhibition games that mostly involve players who'll spend the summer months in the minor leagues.
Since every baseball season begins in Florida, it makes sense for the season to end there occasionally, too.
Embrace the quirkiness of Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field
The Trop has been maligned for most of its 28 years of existence and has been designated for replacement. A hurricane ripped open the roof two years ago. But if the Trop were 100 years old, baseball fans might speak of it with the kind of reverence they show Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field.
It features cowbell-clanging fans, a baseball-colored ceiling that makes routine fly balls adventurous, catwalks that seem to exist for the sole purpose of swatting baseballs out of the sky, and a tank full of honest-to-God stingrays. A "cookie cutter" stadium, it is not.
Brewers and Rays play old-school baseball
If you love 10-9 slugfests where every batter goes to the plate with the goal of hitting a home run or striking out, this probably won't be the series for you. But if you love watching teams bunt, steal bases, execute hit-and-run plays and make the kind of strategic choices that have defined baseball throughout its history, then you should love this.
If you need a home run derby fix, you can surely find that at your local slow-pitch softball league.
Here comes Bud Selig onto his field of dreams
Finally, 92-year-old Bud Selig, MLB's commissioner emeritus who was responsible for bringing the Brewers to Milwaukee in 1970, is scheduled to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the American Family Field.
Set to join him will be Robin Yount, 71, who won MVP in 1982, the last time the Brewers advanced to the World Series, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Brewer.
Imagine how these two baseball icons are feeling anticipating Game 1 in Milwaukee, after waiting these 44 years.
Imagine how proud these two teams are, to defy the conventional spending of big money to chase big dreams. No matter which team wins this World Series, as Brewers and Rays fans, we've already won.
So break out the brats and brews. Or the sangria and Cuban sandwiches. The naysayers will be the ones eating crow when this one is over.
Blake Fontenay is USA TODAY's commentary editor. Thuan Le Elston, a USA TODAY Opinion editor, is the author of "Rendezvous at the Altar: From Vietnam to Virginia."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ignore the haters. Brewers, Rays World Series is must-see TV | Opinion
