The last four World Series have been the worst rated ones for television ever, so whatever professional baseball had to do to correct that trend is its own business. A Los Angeles Dodgers/New York Yankees World Series for the first time since 1981 should do the trick, as those are the two largest TV markets in the United States, and it should attract some viewers around the nation—and the world, too … enough for better ratings.

But let’s also look at reality: both teams are in the Top 5 for payroll salary this year, so that means for the 24th time in 26 seasons, the World Series champion will be a big spender. In addition, it means the misery is extended another year now for all those teams that reside in smaller TV markets, i.e. outside the Top 10. Perhaps the only silver lining of this Fall Classic is that the teams aren’t here because they’re cheaters.

[Insert your own Shohei Ohtani betting on baseball joke here. But even betting on your own team is not cheating.]

It certainly is a World Series full of stars: there’s no doubt about that, on both rosters. The Dodgers have been this deep in October several times recently: 2017, 2018, 2020, and now 2024. The Yankees, however, have not played in the Fall Classic since 2009, and that’s the club’s only other World Series appearance in the last 20 years! We know L.A. was cheated in 2017 and 2018, by sign stealers, too, which adds complexity.

So, who do we root for? Honestly, we don’t care who wins. We’d be happy for Aaron Judge; we’d also be happy for Ohtani. These two are special talents, as is Juan Soto—who already won a World Series with the Washington Nationals in 2019. Soto’s impending free agency will be highly discussed, as he will be entering his age-26 season next year and already has compiled more career WAR than cheatin‘ José Canseco. Yowza.

We got to see both Ohtani and Judge play at the Oakland Coliseum this season, and that was a special treat. We do feel the Dodgers are still owed some karmic payback for being cheated out of potential titles in 2017 and 2018. We also know the Yankees have been knocking on the door here recently with seven playoff appearances in the last eight seasons—including three ALCS defeats to the cheating Houston Astros.

Thus, perhaps that karmic payback factor is even, really. Maybe it comes down to which team’s fans always have been more obnoxious, and in that case, we’d have to go with the Dodgers as our rooting favorite. After all, for decades before the mid-2000s, the only fans you’d see show up to any game not involving their own team dressed fully in official garb were Yankees fans—even when their team was nowhere near the action.

We honestly feel New York fans have been humbled over the last 20 years, though, and we seem them as more mellow now. In both those A’s games at the Coliseum mentioned above, the visiting fans from L.A. (August 3) and N.Y. (September 20) were mostly polite and fun to interact with during the specific Friday night games. Again, we would be happy to see either team win. Perhaps once the Series begins, though?

Our emotions will start flowing, and then we’ll know who we’re really rooting for, deep inside our souls. The Dodgers are slight mathematical favorites, and we expect the matchup to go at least six games—for the best TV revenue generation possible. So that is our pick: Los Angeles in six games (but more likely seven).