Best Bandwagon Teams of the 2000's

Credits to bleacherreport.com

It has been a week since my Atlanta Braves got eliminated in the MLB Playoffs. However, this did not stop me from watching the remainder of the playoff games last week. If you love the sport, watching it does not end after your team gets eliminated. You either watch it for entertainment’s sake or you root against your team’s rivals. I had both reasons when I watched the League Championship Series as Atlanta and Boston’s division rivals, namely Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees, were battling it out. Actually, both teams were pegged to duke it out in the World Series just like last year. Their lineups were just loaded. And their opponents? A bunch of teams who struggled to even reach the playoffs. The Texas Rangers never won a home game in the postseason prior to this year’s ALCS. Nobody expected the San Francisco Giants to reach the playoffs as San Diego was in a comfortable lead some months back. The San Francisco Giants’ last World Series appearance was in 2002 when they suffered a heartbreaking Game 7 loss to the Anaheim Angels. Both teams never won a World Series trophy. The Giants did but they were not yet situated in San Francisco then.

I first got to watch the Game 1 of the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers. The Yankees had their probable Cy Young Winner, CC Sabathia, in the mound and I expected them to crush the Rangers who just had little rest from their five-game series against Tampa Bay. Then, the unexpected happen. CC Sabathia struggled to find the strike zone as he walked batters, gave up a home run and was even down by a huge deficit early in the game. The sluggers of New York were also rusty. Even the analysts were astounded. If they expected a pitcher to have 30 more pitches than the other, it would not have been Sabathia. The huge lead had the Rangers and their fans complacent to the point that they forgot to boo A-Rod and Mark Teixeira. Nolan Ryan was comfortably chatting with George Bush and Texas seemed to coast to a Game 1 victory.  Then, 8th inning arrived. C.J. Wilson was exhausted after giving up a run. They had to replace him with Darren Oliver who walked the next two batters. This ensued a huge Yankee rally that was good enough for the comeback win. Using Bill Simmons’ term, Texas just experienced a stomach punch game. They thought everything went right. The announcers were stating that it was history taking place for them as it will be their first postseason home win. Just when they thought that things were finally right, they got hit out of nowhere. In the final innings of the game, you can read the words “Oh no! Here we go again!” etched in their faces.



I thought that huge loss was the last straw for the Rangers. The Yankees have shaken off their rust and the Rangers are just too demoralized coming into the next game. The Rangers gave away a five-run lead in two innings! Some teams score five runs in two games and these are sufficient for them to win those two. I did not seem to mind though. After all, we are headed to another Yankees-Phillies duel, right? I would have preferred the Yankees to advance because they have a better shot in beating the Philadelphia Phillies.

For some weird reason, fate went against the titans. Both the Yankees and the Phillies lost last October 16 (October 17 in Manila time). After losing a winnable game, the Texas Rangers bounced back big time as they dominated the Yankees with another five-run lead. This time, they kept it up to the end. On the other hand, the Phillies lost homecourt advantage and eventually went down to a 1-3 deficit after the next three games.

The Rangers may have lost homecourt advantage in Texas but they regained it big time when Cliff Lee started in Game 3. He held the Yankees to zero runs and the once-dominant Bronx Bombers struggled to score. They lost by seven or more runs each in Games 3 and 4. Instead of getting depressed from the Game 1 setback, the Texas Rangers were even motivated to think that they can actually beat the Yankee Empire.

How poetic it was to have A-Rod to be the last man at bat

Both the powerhouse squads fell into 1-3 deficits. They bounced back in their respective Game 5’s.  In the Game 6 of the ALCS, the Rangers got rejuvenated as they returned home. After all, the postseason home losing streak is gone. Once again, the Rangers dominated the Yankees by a five-run lead. Their batters were just red-hot. Their confidence skyrocketed since Game 2. In Game 6, “It’s our time” is what you can read from the Rangers’ faces. As a baseball fan, I was frankly amazed. The usual reaction of teams when they experienced heartbreaking losses like Texas’ Game 1 is to get demoralized. Heck, it made Nolan Ryan to seriously watch the games even if they are leading by more than five runs. But for this year’s Texas Rangers, their determination was unfazed. I loved it when my favorite teams (Ateneo and Duke) won this year but I have to hand it to the Texas Rangers for this year’s feel-good, inspirational storyline (more on this later).

As for the National League Championship Series, I just got to watch one of the most riveting and dramatic baseball games in my life. Philadelphia drew first blood in the first inning by scoring two. This paved way to an intense batter-pitcher battle in the following innings. There were several occasions where runners got on base but were left there by the end of the inning. The intensity picked up when Sanchez hit Chase Utley with his pitch. The Giants were forced to replace their erratic starting pitcher. This began the clutch pitching by the Giants’ bull pen. How many times did they avoided a run while runners where in scoring position? 849 times? With Philadelphia’s rowdy fans cheering wildly in the background, that was one kind of a spectacle to see San Francisco escaping one inning after another. The ending was even dramatic as Brian Wilson had to go full count with the tying run in the second base. Still not impressed? Here is the end-game stat: On twenty one hits, only five runs were scored. One of those five even came from an error. I am not a fan of both Phillies and Giants but my blood pressure went up in that ninth inning.

This weekend ended with the elimination of the powerhouse teams. The two underdogs were able to complete the upsets by their sheer determination and confidence that they can pull it off. San Francisco just refused to give up even if Philadelphia threatened to seize the lead. Texas overpowered their way with their inspirational antler ritual whenever they try to rally. It was like seeing Anaheim Angels v 2.0 with their own version of the “Rally Monkey.” In cases like these when the Davids beat the Goliaths, it is inspirational to baseball fans like me who just watch to be entertained. In moments like these, I am glad that I continued to watch the games even if my favorite team is not playing. In sports, it is still possible for you to enjoy it even if your team lost it out a long time ago.

This brings us to the term “bandwagon.” Aside from the two reasons aforementioned, “jumping on the bandwagon” is also another thing a fan can do in order to feel happy. This term is often used as a negative connotation to fans who jump ship from one sports team to another until they end up rooting for the eventual champions. Bandwagon fans are usually branded as fair-weathered fans who take the easy way out. There are several kinds of bandwagon fans. Based on my experience, these are the types of bandwagon fans:

A.    Fans who jump ship from one great team to another every year. They do not actually have a team to root for.
B.    Fans who want to root against their rivals due to a) crab mentality, b) they do not want their rivals getting the bragging rights, or c) they just hate their rivals.
C.    Fans whose team is eliminated but they still want to have a rooting interest when they watch. If the team they rooted for wins, they do not brag about it. After all, it was not their team.
D.    A variation of A. The difference is, Type D Bandwagon fans brag that they were rooting for the team since the beginning. Not only are they liars, Type D Bandwagon Fans are douchebags.


As of now, that is all I could think of. Type C fans are tolerable because let’s admit it – it is fun to root for something when you watch sports. Type B fans are understandable (even if it is somehow pathetic at times) because who would want their rivals bragging their prize the following year? Type A is borderline douchebag (it depends on your rooting preferences and the amount of boasting you do after). Type D Fans are 100% douchebags.

In the rest of this write-up, I will be discussing the Best Bandwagon Teams of the past decade. Note that the key term in here is “best” – not “worst.” It might be contradicting for a normally negative term, but I will put some sense into my definition of it later. I thought of writing this because of the emergence of the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants. Their unexpected but inspirational upsets are the kinds of stuff that fuel fans to jump on their bandwagon.

What defines a “good” bandwagon team?

Here are my criteria:
1)    The team should be a starved through the years. Their fans suffered several depressing losses to the point that they have some doubt of their winning capability even if they are in a comfortable lead. This makes for a good bandwagon team because there is a certain risk in rooting for this team and there will be a good buzz should they succeed. Since these teams do not have a rich heritage, a championship would significantly increase their fan population.
2)    Their team had to struggle in the playoffs of that year and should be – in one point – a very unlikely team to win it all.
3)    There is an inspirational story behind the team.
4)    The team had the Cinderella ending that would be discussed as part of the team’s lore for years to come.
5)    The team will enjoy a bigger following for years to come, thanks to that Cinderella season.

Scope: I will just narrow this to the team sports I fully experienced (UAAP, NBA and MLB) in the past decade to avoid inaccuracies and to avoid being a fake know-it-all.

5. Detroit Pistons (2004). I had to contemplate hard between the 2004 Pistons and the 2006 Heat. In the end, I chose the rag tag team of Larry Brown. Going into the 2004 season, Detroit was just slightly average. They entered the playoffs but it was always a bad ending. Grant Hill’s injury in the 90s exemplifies the Detroit Heartbreak.

In 2004, the Pistons suddenly got their golden chance. They were just sizzling in the playoffs. They defeated the Indiana Pacers where the young Tayshaun Prince got the spotlight after he blocked a wide open Reggie Miller. On their way to the championship, the Pistons had to face a superior-on-paper Laker team that was reinforced by future Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton. Due to inexperience and lack of talent, Detroit was the clear underdog.

However, this Michigan-based squad defied all odds by dominating the Hall-of-Fame stacked Lakers. Their teamwork and major emphasis on defense attracted hoops fanatics to root for them. As a lot of people hate the Lakers (just like successful teams), Detroit suddenly received a boost in fan support. I can still remember watching the game in Pizza Hut with my batchmates that year. I think there were more people rooting for Detroit to finish the Lakers. I can bet with you that more than 50% of them were not Detroit fans a year ago. Either way, I cannot blame them. The Pistons were just too fundamentally sound that year (and were underdogs too) that rooting for them was easy.

4. Anaheim Angels (2002). On a single season perspective, this was probably the best bandwagon story except for the first in this list. Anaheim Angels was a baseball team which struggled to reach postseason the past few years before 2002. If my memory serves right, they always had a good showing in the final month before the playoffs only to fall short. The Angels also had a good following from the fans.

Things changed in 2002. The Anaheim Angels finally reached the playoffs as the Wild Card team. Their franchise was ecstatic for this opportunity and what better way to fuel it with their Rally Monkey mascot. The Rally Monkey is the mascot that Anaheim shows when they are about to rally for a comeback win. This is why the Anaheim Angels were the epitome of underdog teams. Underdogs usually get beaten badly at the start only to come back Rocky-style to grab the win. It was surreal to watch this team because the way they bounce back seemed constant. No, let me rephrase that – it was miraculous. It was just perfect to have the team name as “Angels.” Watching the Anaheim Angels that postseason was like watching a Hollywood movie about baseball (uhmm… like “Angels in the Outfield?”) All the wins that Anaheim had against the New York Yankees that year had the Angels trailing at one point of each ballgame.

This miraculous rally continued up to the World Series where Anaheim faced their California rivals – the San Francisco Giants. In Game 6 of that series, the Giants were enjoying a 3-2 series lead and were bound for the 2002 title as they led 5-0 at the seventh inning. If I am not mistaken, some of them were already celebrating that time. I would not have blamed them. Three innings to go and you have a comfortable five-run lead. What are the chances that your opponents come back and beat you and beat you again on the following game? Unfortunately for the Giants, that actually happened. In the 7th inning, the Rally Monkey mascot appeared. Anaheim scored six runs in a span of two innings to force a deciding Game 7. San Francisco even got the lead first in that final game only for Anaheim to get it again and finally win the series.

The 2002 MLB Postseason for Anaheim was one-of-a-kind. I do not know how any sport can rival their comeback victories. People always tout baseball as a boring sport (well, they are right 75% of the time) but we have to note that it is the sport were the biggest comebacks can happen. After all, baseball is not time dependent. One team can score several runs in one inning to catch up whatever insurmountable deficit they are experiencing.

This team could have placed higher if they were able to duplicate the success in the following years. I am not sure if they still maintained a rabid fanbase though.

3. Ateneo Blue Eagles (2002). If you look at the context of things, the Blue Eagles of 2002 were not actually a jumpship team per se. Ateneo was already prominent in the UAAP power struggle in the past couple of years before 2002. They even reached the Finals in 2001. Thus, they already had a strong fanbase prior to 2002. However, circumstances in that season allowed more bandwagon fans to hop the Ateneo train.

To those who do not know, this was the scenario: Ateneo was experiencing a 14-year championship drought. They may have been tagged as the #1 team by pundits but they soon gave it away as the season unfolded. At one point, the Hail Mary squad fell to a 4-5 Win-Loss record. People were doubting their chances of reaching the Final Four. I can still remember hearing Mike Enriquez poke fun of Ateneo’s fifth defeat on radio that year. On the other hand, the Blue Eagles’ archrivals – the De La Salle Green Archers – were cruising to a potential season sweep. The Greenies were gunning for their fifth straight championship that year.

Suddenly, the Blue Eagles appeared to be rejuvenated in their next games. They went to win the next four before they were scheduled to battle the 13-0 Green Archers. I remember watching that game with my Lasallian friends in Araneta. One of them even poked fun at me that La Salle will easily prevail because of the Cool Cat (Mike Cortez). Since the Green Archers were so dominant, I could not make a comeback. I just kept my mouth shut and watched the game unfold. By some twist of fate, the Ateneo Blue Eagles were suddenly beating the La Salle Green Archers’ asses. The team that once held a 4-5 record ironically handed La Salle its first loss. This ensured a ticket for Ateneo in the Final Four where they defeated the James Yap-led UE Red Warriors twice. Not only was Ateneo having a miraculous rally that year, they even extended it with a Hail Mary buzzer beater by Gec Chia to bring them back to the Finals for the rematch against their archrivals.

The 2002 Finals was one of the most epic duels that I have witnessed. Ateneo won the dramatic Game 1 after Larry Fonacier blocked Mac Cardona twice. La Salle bounced back big time in Game 2 to force the deciding game. Ateneo finished their Cinderella story by dominating the Archers in that Game 3. After fourteen years, the crown goes back to Katipunan. This ensued huge celebrations that had the Blue Eagles guesting in several shows. Our friends from Taft were green in envy with all the media attention that Ateneo was having. It might have been excessive but it was one of those improbable sports stories that will be shared to generations in years to come.

I actually pondered on which UAAP Team makes this list: Ateneo (2002), UST (2006) or UE (2007). UE is out because they failed to win the championship. As for UST, they also had that Cinderella year in 2006 and actually had a more dramatic Game 3 ending. However, their bandwagon ended that year (or in the following year) as their team failed to match expectations. By now, you will surely see some empty seats in a UST game.

As for Ateneo, 2002 was the perfect bandwagon year because it paved way to a strong fan support that exists up to the present time. Coach Norman Black even states that Ateneo seems to always have the homecourt advantage in every game. That was the product of the 2002 championship.

2. Boston Celtics (2008). On a year-to-year basis, this team had the biggest increase in fans that you can make a valid claim that more than 50% of Boston’s fans in 2008 were not Boston Celtic fans a year ago. I would also think that this team sprouted a huge chunk of bandwagon fans who claimed that they were die-hard Celtic fans from the beginning (Bandwagon Fan Type Douchebag alert) because the Celtics boast of one of the richest basketball history ever. These are negative bandwagon assertions, then why does this team rank second in this list?

First of all, the 2008 Boston Celtics pretty much defines a bandwagon team in the purest way (whether it be positive or negative). They were the worst team the year before so I doubt that they had a strong following (other than die-hard fans which mostly came from the 30 year old and up bracket because the last Celtic championship was from the distant past). Furthermore, a good chunk of their fans came from Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen’s fanbase. These two players were always likeable despite leading mediocre teams. Since they come from crappy teams, it was easy for their fans to join the Celtic bandwagon. The last group of bandwagon fans would probably be the fans who just want to root for the sure-win team. With Boston’s Big Three it was easy to imagine them bagging the crown.

As expected, the 2008 Celtics delivered the best regular season record and it seemed that the three basketball stars will finally get their first championship ring. However, all good bandwagon teams face adversity. This Boston team was not the exception. They experienced two seven-game series that scared the shit out of any weak bandwagon fan. This was further aggravated when Detroit suddenly got the precious homecourt advantage when they won Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals (the Celtics never won in the road prior to that game). Lastly, most pundits predicted the Lakers to grab the trophy in the Finals as they had the best player (Kobe) with his new sidekick, Pau Gasol, in their lineup. It would have required some fortitude to stay confident for the bandwagon Celtic fans that year.

I was not even a one year old baby when the Boston Celtics had their last championship (1986). They may have a rich basketball history but the winning experience was distant to most of their fans in 2008.

They eventually got their wish when they trounced off the LA Lakers. Beating one’s archrival on the way to the championship is always the icing of the cake in any remarkable sports story.  Speaking of which…

Credits to Boston Globe

1. Boston Red Sox (2004). The Red Sox already had a strong following before 2004 because they previously battled it out with their archrivals in the previous year. But before 2004, it was very tough and mostly heartbreaking to be a Red Sox fan. There was just too much history of failure. They had a long championship drought (86 years… Ateneo had 14 years and was strongly yearning for it that time, what more with 86 years? That’s more than a lifetime to a lot of people). Their owner sold the greatest baseball player of all-time (Babe Ruth) to their archrivals – the New York Yankees. The Red Sox had a string of postseason mishaps from then on (thus giving birth to the Bambino Curse). Their latest occurred the previous year when they lost the deciding Game 7 after leading 5-2 in the eighth inning against – of course, the New York Yankees!

Rooting for the Red Sox was like rooting for Murphy’s Law to happen. Thus, if you were hopping aboard the Red Sox bandwagon in 2004, you should be aware of the huge baggage of dynamites that might explode any moment. 2004 seemed to be heading that way when the Red Sox fell 0-3 against the New York Yankees. When that happens in any sport, most fans just give up. Even die-hard fans accept that their season is over when that happens. To illustrate the fact, only two sports teams (both from NHL) were able to come back successfully from a 0-3 deficit (this was before 2004).

My reaction then was, “Oh no! Not again! Oh wait… shitty things happen every year to the Boston Red Sox. What’s new?” Then, Boston won Game 4. “Ah… the obligatory win. It always happens for pride’s sake.” Red Sox grabbed Game 5. “Two in a row? Why can’t the Yankees just finish the Red Sox? Pinapaasa pa kami. (They are just making us hope for nothing)” Then, Boston tied the series by winning Game 6. “Oh my God! Is this happening? God, please let the Red Sox win Game 7. I know that the Yankees rarely lose in the games that matter (I was too scarred as a fan to root against powerhouse teams because them losing never happens). But if this happens, it would be epic. I have not seen a team bounce back from a 0-3 deficit to win the series in my lifetime.” Then, the improbable happened. The Red Sox won Game 7 and became the first baseball team to rally from a 0-3 deficit. It was astounding to witness it unfold. (I really love sembreaks because I always get to watch baseball’s postseason) It released all the bitterness I had against the Yankees – the team which consistently beat my baseball team in the ‘90s. By the way, 30% of this hatred was already released when Anaheim defeated the Yanks in 2002.

The Red Sox eventually swept their World Series opponents (St. Louis – another team that I did not like) to break the Bambino Curse. After being down to their last loss, the Red Sox never lost another game. What are the chances of that ever happening again? Ateneo’s 2002 run was duplicated by UST in 2006. Anaheim’s inspirational run in 2002 can be repeated by the Texas Rangers this year. Miami Heat 2010 Bandwagon Society is a poor man’s version of the Boston Celtics bandwagon of 2008. NBA had some teams that are similar to the Detroit Pistons of 2004. But, the 2004 Boston Red Sox story? Never going to happen again. What are the chances that a lifetime-long championship-starved team wins a championship after beating their archrivals (and long-time tormentors) by bouncing back from a 0-3 deficit (by winning eight straight)? Yes, it’s never going to happen again.

Some people may have hopped into the Boston Red Sox bandwagon after 2004 (and they were rewarded with another championship in 2007) but the biggest winners of the Top 1 Bandwagon Team Story were actually the die-hard fans who kept believing.