Faceman, I think the position you're taking is difficult because it's hard to separate subjective feelings about being an underdog vs objective facts. Subjectively, I think most people would rather be the underdog in almost any competitive situation, all other things being equal, for many of the reasons you state (reduced pressure, more to prove, etc). I know I would. But objectively, the underdog is almost by definition the less talented team, and over time that willl manifest itself statistically as a disadvantage. There are always going to be short-term flukes and streaks. I'm not sure if the recent spate of upsets in the playoffs you cited is significant. But I am confident that if we pulled a long history of WL record in MLB postseason play, the underdog will underperform the favorite by at least 10% (somewhere between 40% and 45% winnng pct over the favorite) in the long run.