The World Series is here and the broadcast networks get exactly what they dream of every year: a battle between the country’s two largest media markets. It will certainly attract many viewers. I’ll be sure to stay tuned, despite the fact that I’m already groaning about the sycophantic behavior of the media spanning New York and Los Angeles.

And to be clear, it has virtually nothing to do with the players who will showcase their skills and change in the coming week. This World Series features a matchup between the likely National League MVP and the lone member of the 50-50 club, Shohei Ohtani, and the likely American League MVP, Aaron Judge, who hit 58 home runs and recorded a remarkable .458 OBP. Judge will be joined by 26-year-old phenom and soon-to-be free agent Juan Soto, who has gotten on base at a .421 clip while hitting 201 home runs in his first seven seasons – two of which were partial. Meanwhile, the top of the Dodgers lineup is a virtual assassin’s row with Ohtani leading the way, followed by back-to-back former MVPs Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. The MVP of the NLCS, Tommy Edman, lurks on the eighth hole.

The pitching is a little rougher for the Dodgers, although Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler plus the bullpen got it done for them against a strong Mets team in the Championship Series. The Yankees boast legitimate starters with two of the ten highest-paid pitchers in baseball, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón, as their aces.

The problem isn’t the talent on the field. It’s that every player I just mentioned, except Aaron Judge and Walker Buehler, started their careers as the hopes and dreams of another fanbase’s future. The best hitter for another team that decided they just couldn’t be bothered to part with the hundreds of millions of dollars they surely have due to the lucrative business of owning a baseball team in the name of retaining generational talent. Okay, maybe the former Cardinals on this list are a little bit below that talent line, but you get the gist – for most people who live and die with a 162-game season for one of 28 other baseball teams, the Yankees and Dodgers are just the annoyingly rich teams laughing at the luxury tax. The Athletics‘s Grant Brisbee put it well earlier this week in his “Hater’s Guide to the World Series”:

Both franchises stare at themselves in the mirror when no one is looking. They also do it when everyone is watching. Monuments and plaques, a well-deserved sense of history that is still exaggerated at the same time. No mascots. Jerseys that have hardly changed in a century.

They insist on themselves. They think they are better than you and your team. And sure, by going to the World Series, that’s technically true, but they don’t have to hammer themselves so hard all the time. It’s much funnier when the history-drunk teams keep getting the title so close and lose year after year.

The only way this World Series could be more annoying is if the St. Louis Cardinals were in it instead of the Dodgers. I don’t want either team to win. The reason there will potentially be so many more people watching this World Series than other possible matchups is because the Dodgers and Yankees have a lot of fair-weather fans who don’t care enough about baseball to watch it for baseball’s sake. I’m not even sure some of these people are baseball fans. They could just be influencers who intuitively sense that a standing-room-only World Series for $1,300 is a place to be seen.

In addition to the superstars mentioned above, there are individual players that I will be cheering for during these matches. There is real joy in seeing Anthony Rizzo play in another World Series – almost as much joy as the attendant heartbreak of not being a Cub for life. I really like former Cubs Marcus Stroman and Mark Leiter Jr. and I want good things for Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jasson Domínguez, who are both excellent young players and dynamic to watch.

On the Dodgers side, there are no former Cubs to cheer for, but still intriguing talent and fun guys, including two who share a last name. Teoscar Hernández signed a one-year deal to show the world that his offensive performance during a year in Seattle was an outlier, and he certainly delivered. The 32-year-old slashed .272/.339/.501 with 33 home runs for the Dodgers and will definitely get paid by someone this season (maybe the Dodgers or the Yankees, I’m sure they like that). Enrique Hernández is 33 years old and has struggled the past three seasons, but the man is electric in October. He has slashed .278/.356/.533 in 239 postseason plate appearances. And no, those numbers are not padded by earlier years in his career. In the 2024 postseason, Hernández is hitting .303/378/.485 with a wRC+ of 145 in 37 plate appearances.

The media and coverage surrounding this World Series will be sickening, but the baseball should be exceptional. Try to focus on the incredible batting and smooth fielding rather than the hoards of bandwagon fans who couldn’t pick Vin Scully or John Sterling out of a lineup. You can view the Yankees World Series roster and the Dodgers World Series roster at MLB.com. I’ll refrain from cheering for the meteor, especially since it would rob us all of what will surely one day be a robust corner in the Hall of Fame. Game 1 starts tonight at 7:08 PM CT on Fox. A game thread will be posted at 6pm CT.