Reviewing this season reveals great similarity to last season in terms of the playoff contenders.  If the playoffs were to start today, seven out of the eight teams would have qualified for their second consecutive playoff berth.  Over in the Sovereign League, you’ll see perennial postseason teams such as Aurora, Crystal Lake and Bakersfield.  Similarly, the Imperial League features several familiar playoff faces as of late, including Charleston, Florida and Manchester.  Rounding out the IL playoff picture is the Pan-Atlantic-leading Arlington Bureaucrats – the only team on this list that did not make a playoff appearance last year.

I have intentionally left one playoff-bound team off this list.  This team is what makes baseball great.  They are the epitome of David vs. Goliath.  While one Arizona team has struggled, another has resurrected itself from the ashes like a phoenix.  Last year’s Cinderella team, the Tempe Knights, are at it again.  They are on the verge of making their second consecutive trip to the playoffs.  Unlike last year, where fans were just excited to see the team make it, expectations are much higher this year.  With a full season of Conan McCullough, the expectation is to slay Goliath. 

This is what we fans live for.  We eat this kind of stuff up.  Underdog teams like Tempe are what make sports compelling, but like a phoenix, time is definitely ticking for Tempe.  In Greek mythology, the firebird phoenix lives a seamless life cycle in which it continuously resurrects itself.  The Knights are faced with a similar situation.  With a payroll over $100 million, the Knights are facing another season of being in the red despite on-the-field success.  Furthermore, the team is saddled with several roster and personnel burdens.  Orlando García is one of the best players in the game – when not sitting on the trainer’s table.  Roberto Rodríguez is slated not to be back next season, and the same can be said for many of Tempe’s pending free agents.  The club, which holds a team option on McCullough for next season, has yet to announce the former Golden Arm’s future with the team.

Most concerning of all will be the future of Markus Hancock.  In 2015, all eyes will be on Hancock.  This is the year where Hancock can explore free agency if he chooses to do so.  Can you imagine if Hancock dons a different uniform?  Imagine the feeling then.  Being a local beat writer for the Florida Featherheads, I certainly know the feeling.  Actually, I experienced first-hand both sides of the coin.  In 2009, Florida fans felt their hearts get ripped out with the departure of Mark Richardson.  In a matter of months, Richardson instantly became Florida’s number one public enemy.  Oddly enough, the state of Florida had no problem welcoming in another villain a year later.  King James announced his plans of taking his act to Miami and therefore instantly became Ohio’s top villain.  A villain in the Midwest, James is South Beach’s white knight. 

Tempe has been battling all season long against the likes of Aurora and Crystal Lake for Sovereign supremacy.  The Knights jostle with these teams for wins and playoff positioning.  In a few years, Tempe could very well be fending off these teams for something more important than home field advantage –  the right to pencil in Markus Hancock every fifth day.  If Hancock were ever to leave Arizona, you can certainly imagine the ramifications.  Just look at the Cavaliers.  The team has failed to reach the playoffs during the post-James era.  Attendance is back down to levels prior to the drafting the Akron native.

If Hancock were ever to leave, there certainly will be some backlash.  Blame it on economic imbalance.  Blame it on the lack of parity.  Blame it on the overall baseball construct.  Blame it on the game’s evil vices. 

The departure of Hancock would rob baseball of one of its greatest stories – the Cinderella story.  For seasons, we rooted for Tempe.  We rooted for Hancock – imploring him to singlehandedly take down one of the Evil Empires.  Hancock is like a comic book superhero – one single man expected to take down a host of villains.  We cheered for Tempe when they made their improbable run in 2011.  We applauded them for acquiring McCullough.  This is the beautiful story of the underdog.  It is why we love Rocky so much.  We love following the underdog.  It is the transformation and evolution of the underdog that captivates us.  It inspires us because, quite frankly, there’s an underdog in all of us. 

So if midnight were to strike on Tempe, who are we to blame?  Who or what should we blame for taking away our most treasured fairytale? 

I would not blame anyone.  Perhaps many will disagree with me, but I believe there is one story that is far more compelling than the Cinderella story.  It is the story of the villain.  As much as we hate villains and try to banish them, we need them.  We need them as much as we need the underdog.  Without villains, there would be no underdogs or heroes.  The legacy of a hero is measured by the strength of his adversary.  It is this delicate balance between good and evil that makes people tune into sports.

Without Richardson in Aurora blue, last season’s PEC series would have had far less emotional impact.  There were many noteworthy stories during that PEC, but nothing compared to the Richardson story.  A story revolving around Richardson leading the Featherheads to the Rodríguez Cup would have been nice, but it pales in comparison to the story of slaying the literally “Ice Cold” Richardson and his Borealis.  Down 3-1 in the series, unlikely heroes Taisuke Endo and Tu-an Sima led the way for the underdog team.  For this dramatic story to exist, though, a villain was needed.  Despite that fact, we quickly dismiss the villain.  We wish villains – whether they be a person or an intricate system – never existed in baseball.  We cry for parity.  “Down with the Evil Empires!” we say!  As nonsensical as it sounds, the lopsidedness within baseball is what keeps the underdog-villain dynamic balanced.

The villain is a wonderful creature.  Unlike underdogs, who are loved everywhere, villains are hated by the majority and loved by the minority.  King James is cheered inside the state of Florida and jeered elsewhere.  Small market teams cry for economic equality, whereas large market teams say that this is capitalism at its best.  Villains also have the attribute of being able to turn other villains into heroes.  For quite some time, the NBA’s Kobe Bryant has been considered a villain for a multitude of reasons – whether it be jealousy, legal troubles or simply his antics.  But with LeBron in Miami, Kobe instantly became the hero – not a hero but the hero.  People looked to Kobe as the hero who would dethrone King James in the Finals.  As much as people hate Kobe and the Lakers, the villainous presence of LeBron James is greater.  This is the power of the super villain.  He has the ability to unite an undivided group of people towards the goal of his own destruction.  Seeing Kobe defeat James last season in the LA-Miami finals was instant gratification for most fans.

So as I reflect back upon the current season, I’m not looking at Tempe or The Little Engine That Could over in Kentucky.  The underdogs will always have their fans.  Instead, I’m looking at the teams that will face these underdogs.  I’m looking at the villains that give reason for us to root for the underdogs.  I feel for these villains and I root for them.  I pity their plight.  It is easy being the underdog.  There are no expectations or pressures while playing the role of the underdog.  If you lose, so what?  No one expects you to win.  But if you win, you instantly go from underdog to top dog.  That’s the perk of being the underdog.  Villains, on the other hand, are in a lose-lose situation.  If they win, it is discredited because they are expected to win.  If they lose, they are considered failures.  This is the life of the villain.

This is why I respect the villain.  Being a villain is hard work.  While some enjoy playing the role, many detest being pigeonholed as villains.  Being a villain is an underappreciated role.  Just look at Hollywood.  Action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis get all the glitz, money and glamour, but these heroes would be nobody without a Robert Patrick or Alan Rickman.  Every great struggle needs a Darth Vader or Wicked Witch of the West.  The theatrics of professional wrestling, for example, depend upon the presence of the villain.

So who are this year’s villains?  The Evil Empires in Aurora and Crystal Lake?  What about Florida?  Could last year’s hero quickly turn into a villain in the span of a year?  A championship and recruitment of one of LRS’s most prized possessions most certainly should earn some villainous points.  Could Mark Richardson reprise his role as the ultimate villain?  Regardless of who this year’s villain will be, one is needed.  Every victor needs a villain to slay.  Or maybe this will be the year where a villain wins?  A villain needs to win to solidify its dastardliness.  It needs to establish credibility and build upon its infamy.

The day we witness the death of villains in baseball, the day we conquer economic imbalance, the day we see the fall of the Evil Empires; this will be a very sad day indeed.  It will be a vile day where, paradoxically, we observe the death of the heroic underdog.  That is why I root for the villain.  As with love and hate, heroes and villains are spun and woven together from the same cut of cloth.  The presence of the two allows us to distinguish one from the other.  So with that said, we need the villain to be bigger than the heroic underdog.