We now know that the World Series will be waged between the Dodgers and the Yankees. I am sure that makes the TV execs happy, as it involves two major media markets.
I did a quick dip into history. If my research is correct, the Dodgers and Yankees have played each other in the World Series eleven prior times (1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1963, 1977, 1978, 1981). The Yankees have wone 8 out of those eleven match-ups
I don't know if that is a record for two teams facing each other in the World Series (that would have taken more research on my part) but it certainly feels like it should be. There aren't that many teams that have even appeared in the World Series 11 times, much less play against the same team!
Yes, it's a record. The runner-up is Yankees-Giants, who have met in the World Series 7 times.
My partner and I have bet a very nice dinner in a local restaurant. I lost our regular season bet, as I foolishly agreed to bet that the Dodgers' record would be 10 games better than the Yankees' - that's costing me a nice bottle of wine. I should know better than to make bets with someone who consistently comes out ahead betting on horse racing.
They had an impressive run, and they'll be back next year. Your billionaire is quite rightly willing to spend what it takes to put the best possible players on the field. (I have zero patience for whining from small market fanbases - if the Padres can field a great team, so can all the rest.)
These few days before the WS starts are a sad foretaste of the off season. I looked up Australian baseball and the Arizona fall league. The Aussies don't start till mid November, but the Arizona fall league is up and running. I'm going to see if I can stream a game later on today.
It wasn't his first thought, but my partner said it changes the equation a little bit, asking rhetorically: "How loud is the stadium going to be in the first game when they put his picture up on the Jumbotron?"
Fernando Valenzuela is one of the reasons the Dodgers are the organization they are today. The fan base was still very white before Fernando. The Dodgers weren't stupid -- they were looking for a Mexican star, and they found one. Attendance could have fallen off after the 1981 strike, but Fernando helped the Dodgers defeat the Yankees in the World Series, and Dodgers attendance in 1982 was the highest it had ever been. Today when you go to Dodger Stadium the stands are full of Latino fans, abuelos and abuelas old enough, like me, to have seen him play, and young families, parents bringing their kids because their parents brought them to see the Dodgers.
The Dodgers did him dirty. Tommy Lasorda always left his pitchers in too long (I yelled at the radio about that so many times!), and Fernando got used up. He threw well over 100 complete games, including game 3 of the 1981 World Series, when he threw 140-something pitches -- for comparison, Clayton Kershaw has thrown something like 25 complete games in 16 years. He threw a no-hitter in 1990, his tenth full season with the Dodgers, and he hit over .300 that year, but he didn't look good in spring training in 1991 and the Dodgers released him, just before his contract and his paycheck for the year would have been guaranteed. The guy in the clubhouse who gives out jersey numbers didn't let new players wear #34, but the Dodgers didn't officially retire his number till last summer. I'm just glad they managed to honor him while he was still alive. He looked thin, when he had always been chubby when he was young -- he was a very private guy, so no one knew at the time if he'd lost weight on purpose or because he was sick. A few weeks ago he stepped back from doing commentary on the Spanish-language broadcasts because of illness.
I was a freshman at Occidental College in Los Angeles when Fernando came up, seeing Dodger games for the first time, after years of listening to Vin Scully on the radio. It was magical. And now he's gone. He was 63.
I have to say, though, it would be more fun if the Yankees would put up more of a fight. It's been Soto and Stanton and look out below. Judge has a long, cold, bleak winter ahead of him if he doesn't start hitting. And if anyone had predicted a week ago that they'd blow the game Cole started and the Dodgers would chase the next two starters in early innings, I wouldn't have believed them.
As I understand it, LA is doing this as a "bullpen game"--not using a regular starter. They have had some success with doing that even in the playoffs, but the conventional wisdom is that a "bullpen game" is usually seen as favoring the competitor.
On the other hand, the Yankees are starting a pitcher who has been in a grand total of 36 games in his whole professional career (29 of them in 2024). For an elimination game. That is an awful lot of pressure on a relatively inexperienced pitcher.
The Dodgers have had three bullpen games already this postseason, with great success in two of them. Their bullpen shut out the Padres in game 4 of the NLDS, which was an elimination game for the Dodgers. They lost game 2 of the NLCS to the Mets when Landon Knack gave up five runs in the second inning; Knack is a rookie starter, and I wonder if he would have done better if he'd started instead of being brought in in the second. The Dodgers bullpen then was successful in game 6 against the Mets, the clincher.
The Dodgers opener tonight, Ben Casparius, has never started a major league game in his life. He made his major league debut August 31 in relief. But they've got four chances to win one more game, and they're out of healthy starters.
Oh. My. Cat. What a collapse by the Yankees! Ahead 5-0 going into the 5th. Cole pitching a no-hitter up to that point.
Dodgers' K. Hernandez starts the inning with a single. Edman hits a ball to center and Aaron Judge just clanks the catch and the ball falls in. Will Smith hits a grounder to shortstop, who decides to throw to 3rd--and bounces the ball. Everybody safe, bases loaded.
Cole rallies and strikes out Lux and Ohtani, and Betts hits a bouncer to the first base side of the field...and he beats out the throw because Cole neglected to cover first. And up comes Freeman who is down two strikes before hitting a single (and how many of us were thinking he would homer yet again???), then T. Hernandez (also down two strikes) gets a double.
End result, Dodgers tie Game 5, 5-5 in the 5th. Mainly because the Yankees self-destructed with errors and mental lapses.
The Dodgers end up scoring the winning run on...a sacrifice fly. I absolutely love that a series that was remarkable for quite a number of big home runs and grand slams was decided with...a sac fly.
It was kind of an ugly win. The Yankees should be running basic defensive drills all winter long. But I'll take it! And I'm totally with you, @Hedgehog, on the beauty of winning on a sacrifice fly! Fitting after the Dodgers got five unearned runs to come back and tie the game. Just a crazy game all around. First time ever a team came back from being down five runs to win the World Series. Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty recorded just four outs. Blake Treinen, their best reliever, came in in the sixth and pitched 2 1/3 innings (after pitching I think 2 innings the night before), and a starting pitcher got the save on one day's rest -- Walker Buehler's first appearance in relief since 2018 and first save ever.
I haven't watched the game highlights on YouTube yet. I'm thinking of saving that for an anxious moment (say, next Tuesday), but I doubt I'll last that long.
One of my takeaways: this is vindication for Dave Robert; the Dodgers manager has been criticized six ways to Sunday for his bullpen management over the last few years, but no one's criticizing that now. Andy McCullough in The Athletic this morning says he's headed for Cooperstown.
I found this on FB ( hope this is the right thread ;^))
I think the Yankees are saying the World Series was stolen:
1. If the scoreboard operator was more courageous he could have overridden the score.
2. The umpires were obviously a part of a deep state.
3. If the Yankees could only find two or three more runs. That’s all I need. Just two or three runs.
4. The Yankees played a perfect game. There was never more a perfect game. I have people coming up to me with tears in their eyes saying “Sir, I have never seen a more perfect defense in the fifth inning.”
5. The Yankees had the biggest crowd ever. No one has ever seen a bigger crowd.
6. The Dodgers win was alternative facts. With crooked media.
7. The Dodgers had illegal immigrants.
8. I will pardon the fan who nearly broke the wrist of Mookie Betts. He was loving Mookie. He was just a tourist.
9. Next year we will send a slate of alternative Yankees.
10. The scores weren’t counted correctly. We will sue for a recount all the way to the Commissioner.
I probably disagree with the personal and political views of a lot of MLB players. I'll say this, though: they acknowledge their losses. They take responsibility. They try to take a lesson from losing.
Comments
I did a quick dip into history. If my research is correct, the Dodgers and Yankees have played each other in the World Series eleven prior times (1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1963, 1977, 1978, 1981). The Yankees have wone 8 out of those eleven match-ups
I don't know if that is a record for two teams facing each other in the World Series (that would have taken more research on my part) but it certainly feels like it should be. There aren't that many teams that have even appeared in the World Series 11 times, much less play against the same team!
My partner and I have bet a very nice dinner in a local restaurant. I lost our regular season bet, as I foolishly agreed to bet that the Dodgers' record would be 10 games better than the Yankees' - that's costing me a nice bottle of wine. I should know better than to make bets with someone who consistently comes out ahead betting on horse racing.
Thank you! Though it's not exactly a hardship if I lose -- I still get the nice dinner, just not for free.
They had an impressive run, and they'll be back next year. Your billionaire is quite rightly willing to spend what it takes to put the best possible players on the field. (I have zero patience for whining from small market fanbases - if the Padres can field a great team, so can all the rest.)
These few days before the WS starts are a sad foretaste of the off season. I looked up Australian baseball and the Arizona fall league. The Aussies don't start till mid November, but the Arizona fall league is up and running. I'm going to see if I can stream a game later on today.
Fernando Valenzuela is one of the reasons the Dodgers are the organization they are today. The fan base was still very white before Fernando. The Dodgers weren't stupid -- they were looking for a Mexican star, and they found one. Attendance could have fallen off after the 1981 strike, but Fernando helped the Dodgers defeat the Yankees in the World Series, and Dodgers attendance in 1982 was the highest it had ever been. Today when you go to Dodger Stadium the stands are full of Latino fans, abuelos and abuelas old enough, like me, to have seen him play, and young families, parents bringing their kids because their parents brought them to see the Dodgers.
The Dodgers did him dirty. Tommy Lasorda always left his pitchers in too long (I yelled at the radio about that so many times!), and Fernando got used up. He threw well over 100 complete games, including game 3 of the 1981 World Series, when he threw 140-something pitches -- for comparison, Clayton Kershaw has thrown something like 25 complete games in 16 years. He threw a no-hitter in 1990, his tenth full season with the Dodgers, and he hit over .300 that year, but he didn't look good in spring training in 1991 and the Dodgers released him, just before his contract and his paycheck for the year would have been guaranteed. The guy in the clubhouse who gives out jersey numbers didn't let new players wear #34, but the Dodgers didn't officially retire his number till last summer. I'm just glad they managed to honor him while he was still alive. He looked thin, when he had always been chubby when he was young -- he was a very private guy, so no one knew at the time if he'd lost weight on purpose or because he was sick. A few weeks ago he stepped back from doing commentary on the Spanish-language broadcasts because of illness.
I was a freshman at Occidental College in Los Angeles when Fernando came up, seeing Dodger games for the first time, after years of listening to Vin Scully on the radio. It was magical. And now he's gone. He was 63.
I have to say, though, it would be more fun if the Yankees would put up more of a fight. It's been Soto and Stanton and look out below. Judge has a long, cold, bleak winter ahead of him if he doesn't start hitting. And if anyone had predicted a week ago that they'd blow the game Cole started and the Dodgers would chase the next two starters in early innings, I wouldn't have believed them.
On the other hand, the Yankees are starting a pitcher who has been in a grand total of 36 games in his whole professional career (29 of them in 2024). For an elimination game. That is an awful lot of pressure on a relatively inexperienced pitcher.
The Dodgers opener tonight, Ben Casparius, has never started a major league game in his life. He made his major league debut August 31 in relief. But they've got four chances to win one more game, and they're out of healthy starters.
Dodgers' K. Hernandez starts the inning with a single. Edman hits a ball to center and Aaron Judge just clanks the catch and the ball falls in. Will Smith hits a grounder to shortstop, who decides to throw to 3rd--and bounces the ball. Everybody safe, bases loaded.
Cole rallies and strikes out Lux and Ohtani, and Betts hits a bouncer to the first base side of the field...and he beats out the throw because Cole neglected to cover first. And up comes Freeman who is down two strikes before hitting a single (and how many of us were thinking he would homer yet again???), then T. Hernandez (also down two strikes) gets a double.
End result, Dodgers tie Game 5, 5-5 in the 5th. Mainly because the Yankees self-destructed with errors and mental lapses.
The Dodgers end up scoring the winning run on...a sacrifice fly. I absolutely love that a series that was remarkable for quite a number of big home runs and grand slams was decided with...a sac fly.
I haven't watched the game highlights on YouTube yet. I'm thinking of saving that for an anxious moment (say, next Tuesday), but I doubt I'll last that long.
One of my takeaways: this is vindication for Dave Robert; the Dodgers manager has been criticized six ways to Sunday for his bullpen management over the last few years, but no one's criticizing that now. Andy McCullough in The Athletic this morning says he's headed for Cooperstown.
I think the Yankees are saying the World Series was stolen:
1. If the scoreboard operator was more courageous he could have overridden the score.
2. The umpires were obviously a part of a deep state.
3. If the Yankees could only find two or three more runs. That’s all I need. Just two or three runs.
4. The Yankees played a perfect game. There was never more a perfect game. I have people coming up to me with tears in their eyes saying “Sir, I have never seen a more perfect defense in the fifth inning.”
5. The Yankees had the biggest crowd ever. No one has ever seen a bigger crowd.
6. The Dodgers win was alternative facts. With crooked media.
7. The Dodgers had illegal immigrants.
8. I will pardon the fan who nearly broke the wrist of Mookie Betts. He was loving Mookie. He was just a tourist.
9. Next year we will send a slate of alternative Yankees.
10. The scores weren’t counted correctly. We will sue for a recount all the way to the Commissioner.
Sure, it's just baseball. But it means something.
(Channeling my inner Miss Piggy): Moi?!?