Break It Down!

A couple of weeks ago, I penned a post about Major League Baseball. If you had told me then, that I’d do it again in two weeks, even though I’m not a betting man, I would have wagered you on the subject. At the time, I hadn’t watched a baseball game since the 2020 World Series. By the way, that hasn’t changed. There is, however, a good chance that it will in the next few days.

The World Series begins Friday, featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers from the National League, and the New York Yankees from the American League. If the series goes the distance, and takes the full 7 games, it will start on October 25th, and end on November 2nd. That would be 7 games in 9 days. MLB’s hierarchy is serious about wrapping up the season. After 162 games, plus the playoffs, who could blame them? The Dodgers won that 2020 World Series; the last time I watched a game. As I noted a couple of weeks ago, I grew up rooting for the Dodgers. For the Lakers too, but that’s a story for another day. 

Despite failing to win a hundred games for the first time since the 2018 season, the Dodgers had the best record in baseball this year. Full stop. Nevertheless, the bitter pseudo-historian in me laments the fact the erstwhile Bronx Bombers have owned my beloved Dodgers in the Series. The two squads have met 11 times, the most of any two teams in baseball. The scoreboard reads Yanks 8, Dodgers 3. That includes 6-1 while the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, and 2-2 since they moved to the City of Angels. One of my few pleasant recollections of these tilts is the last time they met, in the strike-shortened 1981 season. LA prevailed, winning 4 straight, after dropping the first 2. I never recovered my passion for the game after the strike season.

The Dodgers, without question, boast a star-studded cast. None shine brighter than Shohei Ohtani. In the off-season, the Blue signed the two-way superstar to a 10-year, $700 million contract. Ohtani played his way to fame as a member of the Los Angeles Angels, with whom he excelled as both a pitcher, and a slugger. He spent this year, his first with the Dodgers, as a designated hitter, and skipped pitching altogether, as he recovered from surgery. To make it interesting, he became the first MLB player to amass 50 homeruns, and 50 stolen bases in a single season.

Let’s be clear though, the Yankees will by no means be an undercard. They have mega-talent, in their own right. While it will be Ohtani’s first World Series, it will also be the debut of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Gleyber Torres.

The Yankees won the National League East and were the American League’s first seed. The best of the East meets the best of the West, fitting, indeed. By clinching a berth in the World Series, the Yankees will be returning to the World Series for the first time since 2009; a 15-year absence. This will be the 120^th World Series. The Yankees have made 41 appearances, winning 27, and the Dodgers have made 21 appearances, winning 7. According to the oddsmakers, the Dodgers are slight favorites. No active MLB players were alive the last time Yankees-Dodgers was a thing. “Coast-to-Coast: Play Ball!”

I’m done; holla back!

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Coast-to-Coast: Play Ball!