I believe an underrated aspect of baseball is how funny it can be. Errors are silly if they’re happening to the opposing team. A huge cut-and-miss on a pitch that was obviously out of the zone is physical comedy. Even the ludicrousness and absurdity of certain situations — game-tying grand slam in the bottom of the 8th, for one — have humor to them. Without the laughs, sports are a lot more serious and a lot less fun. So, then, what happens when you put a universally hated team in the World Series, whose fans and organization are convinced is destined for greatness after a dry fifteen year spell with no trophies, and they fail catastrophically on the sport’s biggest stage, especially when they had a real chance to keep their hopes alive? You get pure euphoria for everybody else. A euphoria that, for some of us, still keeps on giving nearly two months later.

Could you ever have pictured the Yankees of the 90s and early 2000s doing what the Yankees did in 2024? First, the Yankees of the Evil Empire never voluntarily put themselves in a do-or-die situation the way the 2024 Yankees did. But suppose they had. The Sandman giving up a walkoff Grand Slam? Bernie Williams dropping a fly ball in a critical game? Jeter booting a throw to Brosius? Andy Pettite and Tino Martinez both failing to cover first? All of it is and was impossible. The Yankees have always been the cartoon villain, the winners until they weren’t. In the 90s and 2000s, they were fighters who cared about the game. Brawn and brains. The 2024 World Series was, for the Yankees, all brawn and no brains. The lack of care for the fundamentals of the game was sheer madness, and so damn funny for the rest of us. It felt like a tortoise and the hare moment. It felt like the bad guys were getting their comeuppance, because yes, if you’re not a Yankee fan, then the Yankees are still the bad guys, despite the significant downgrade in baseball decision-making on their end.

Now here come the Yankees fans saying “dOn’t yOu hAvE aNyThiNg bEtTeR tO dO?” Well, sorry, but we disgruntled Red Sox fans do indeed have nothing better to do in the midst of an offseason that followed another empty October. So why not keep rooting against the bad guys? Why not squeal with glee as we see the villain’s Icarian downfall, if we can’t cheer for our own success?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The Yankees losing catastrophically still brings laughter and joy. Papi’s “Da Jankees lose” still makes many giggle every time I hear it. Aaron Boone overmanaging still causes noises of disbelief in the best way. This year, the cartoon villain, despite all their pride and hubris, lost like a cartoon. What’s funnier than that?