- Mark Dolliver

With baseball's World Series now under way (and the Philadelphia Phillies up one game to none following last night's series-opener victory), who are baseball fans rooting for? And who do they expect to win the championship? A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted earlier this week yields a split verdict.

A plurality of baseball fans surveyed, 47 percent, said they expect the New York Yankees to win the World Series. Thirty-two percent said they think the Phillies will win, with the rest declining to make a pick. But 49 percent want the Phillies to win, while 31 percent want the Yankees to do so.

Among people who want the Phillies to win, 47 percent acknowledged that it's primarily because they're rooting against the Yankees. By contrast, just 16 percent of those favoring for the Yankees conceded it's mainly because they're rooting for the Phillies to lose. (Mets fans, you know who you are.)

Yankee partisans were more confident than their pro-Phillies counterparts. Among those rooting for the Yankees, 79 percent believe their team will win the World Series. Among those who favor the Phillies, 55 percent think their team will win.

Finally, the survey posed the question: "How depressed will you be if your team does not win the World Series?" Just 5 percent said "very depressed," with another 6 percent saying "somewhat depressed." The vast majority said they'd be either "not very depressed" (34 percent) or "not at all depressed" (54 percent). Pro-Yankee respondents were more likely than pro-Phillies respondents (16 percent vs. 9 percent) to say they'd be depressed if the team they favor does not win.