Published October 9, 2025
Wednesday night I saw several sentences describing the status of the American League championship hunt in Major League Baseball. Three of them have been lightly edited to feature here without taking away from my point(s).
One of the Blue Jays, Tigers or Mariners will be in the World Series this month.
Either the Blue Jays, Tigers or Mariners will be the American League team in this year’s World Series.
One of the Tigers, Mariners or Blue Jays will win the pennant in the American League.
I’ve tweaked them slightly so as not to appear to be picking on any one person. But let’s take a closer look at these. Let’s start by setting aside the first and third ones and focusing on the second version.
Let’s go to the dictionary
Our good friends at Merriam-Webster tell us that “either” means “the one or the other,” “being the one and the other of two,” or “being the one or the other of two.”
This speaks to the longtime practice of editors insisting that “either” cannot be used with three things — only two. Therefore, they’d say, this sentence is incorrectly formed:
Either the Blue Jays, Tigers or Mariners will be the American League team in this year’s World Series.
But hold on. Merriam-Webster also says “either” can be “used as a function word before two or more coordinate words, phrases, or clauses joined usually by or to indicate that what immediately follows is the first of two or more alternatives.”
Are you fine either way? Just two, or two or more? And are parts-of-speech reasons the most important factor in whether someone understands something that has become common usage in all cases?
For what it’s worth, Garner’s Modern English Usage says that “the better practice, for the time being, is to rely on the disjunctive or for a list of many — not either.
So, simply, the Blue Jays, Tigers or Mariners will be the American League team in this year’s World Series.
What about those other two sentences?
Do either of these bother you?
One of the Blue Jays, Tigers or Mariners will be in the World Series this month.
One of the Tigers, Mariners or Blue Jays will win the pennant in the American League.
The point is that we are in unusual territory in baseball. The Detroit Tigers haven’t won the American League pennant since 2012. The Toronto Blue Jays haven’t won it since 1993. The Seattle Mariners have never won it. Those are the only teams who can win it this year.
Many editors object to saying “one of the” three will be the winner. It’s awkward, yes, but increasingly common in informal writing. The objection to potentially phrasing it as “one out of the” three stems from resistance to coupling “out” and “of” that way. So what about …
One team from among the Tigers, Mariners or Blue Jays will win the American League pennant.
Probably better than “one of the Blue Jays, Tigers or Mariners will be in the World Series,” as if we’re referring to a single player from one of those teams. But that argument sounds a little like the one in favor of the Oxford comma in the case where the reader might think JFK and Stalin are/were strippers. Would someone honestly think that?
(You’ll have to look it up.)
So many pet peeves, so little time.
And you think this job is easy?
What, then, is a writer to do?
If I were on deadline, I don’t know how much I’d agonize over it, especially if I knew an editor or two would come behind me and change it to their preference. But there are several ways to make the point.
This is no ordinary American League pennant chase. The champion will be the Blue Jays, Tigers or Mariners.
You’ve never read this sentence before in October: The American League champion will be one of these teams — the Blue Jays, Tigers or Mariners.
Here’s one you may not have seen coming: The Blue Jays, Tigers or Mariners will be the AL representative in the 2025 World Series.
I’m tired and need a nap. Good night and good morning.
Sending love. Protect your peace.
♥
Thank you
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