{shortcode-e72adacca6a6f922699f4329702d77d3ba05fa04} As their teams prepared to face off for Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night, fans of the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals gathered on campus and in bars around Harvard Square, excited and optimistic for the upcoming competition.

Anticipation for the Series is heightened this year because Major League Baseball’s 2015 postseason featured teams that have historically performed poorly in the playoffs, including eliminated division champions Chicago Cubs and Toronto Blue Jays.

“From the fan perspective, it’s good that baseball is finally no longer just three or four teams competing every year,” Royals fan Zack W. Royle ’17 said. “It used to just be the Yankees winning every year—baseball wasn’t interesting for other fans.”

Neither the Mets nor the Royals have won the World Series in several decades—the Mets last won in 1986 and the Royals in 1985.

“They’re perpetual underdogs,” Mets fan Oliver W. Kim ’16, a Crimson editorial writer, said of his favored team. “They’ve been pretty disappointing throughout their history, but they’ve had these moments of magic and electricity, which are just captivating.”

“I always say that this is the year for the Mets, but this time I was surprised that I was right,” said Daniel J. Kenny ’18, also a fan of the New York team. “After all the humiliation that the Mets and Mets fans have suffered over the past few years, this [is] extra satisfying.”

Royals fans, too, are excited, albeit surprised, about the team’s recent success.

“After experiencing so much ineptitude from the Royals in the beginning part of my life, my expectations are always pretty low,” Royals fan Max W. Sosland ’19 said. He said the team winning the World Series would “be a dream come true.”

Campus fans of the eliminated Cubs and Blue Jays, meanwhile, are disappointed by their losses, after following their teams closely. Blue Jays fan Dylan K. Wile ’19 said he watched every playoff game in his “reasonable grasp.”

Emma V.R. Noyes ’18 went home to Chicago to watch the final game of the Cubs’ playoff series earlier this month. She recalled the incredible disappointment that plagued fans after the team was swept by the Mets.

“By the end of the first inning, you could feel the energy drop,” said Noyes said, a Crimson magazine writer.

Ever optimistic, however, campus Cubs fans expressed confidence in their future prospects and pride in their team.

“It’s been 108 years now, but I think next year might be the one,” Cubs fan John S. Acton ’17. “If not next year, one of the next few.”