World Series

Leave a comment Posted on Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Uncategorized, World Series

Blue Heaven

Sports is a diversion and this year with the exhausting presidential political season, boy, do we all need a diversion.

I was born in the same year when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958.  Maybe that connection is why they have always been my favorite sports team.

This week, the Dodgers won their 8th World Series championship against the New York Yankees in five games.

I was too young to appreciate the marvels of the 1959, 1963 and 1965 teams, but I vividly recall the 1981, 1988 and 2020 teams.

This year’s edition may be the most inspiring.   After suffering the most pitching injuries of any other team and losing all-stars Mookie Betts and Max Muncy for months, the Dodgers still managed to have the best record in baseball.  Yet when the playoffs began, they were not expected to win the World Series; they were perceived as the underdogs.

The fact that unlike recent years they had to play meaningful baseball up until the final days of the season to secure a division title kept them on their toes.  There was no time to let up on the gas pedal with the San Diego Padres breathing down their necks (end of the cliches).

At the start of the season, the Dodgers were this year’s overdogs.  With over $1 billion of new contracts last winter, the bulk of that owed to Shohei Ohtani, perhaps the greatest baseball player of all time due to his high achievement as both a batter and a pitcher, the Dodgers were expected to win the World Series before the very first “play ball.”

However, their five-man starting pitching rotation in March was decimated come September.  Only Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the second huge acquisition after Ohtani’s, survived the 162-game season though he missed half of it due to injury; the remaining four starters were lost to season-ending injuries. 

At the mid-summer trade deadline, they signed right-hander Jack Flaherty.  Former ace Walker Buehler took two years to recover from his second Tommy John surgery and pitched poorly throughout this season.  No one gave him a chance of making it onto the postseason roster, but the Dodgers had no one else.

This gave them only three starting pitchers going into the playoffs whereas all the other teams had at least four.  What got them through the injuries was their bullpen, the highest performing of any other team.  

The role of relief pitchers has increased significantly.  In 2024, pitchers threw 26 complete games, an all-time low.  Back in 1975, Oakland A’s pitcher Catfish Hunter threw 30 complete games on his own.  Nowadays, if a pitcher completes six out of the nine innings and allows three or less runs, it is labeled a “quality start.” 

For the Dodgers, their starters barely reached five innings over the course of the season meaning the relief pitchers pitched nearly half of the total innings played.  And that trend increased during the playoffs.  In fact, due to the lack of a fourth starter, they scheduled bullpen games where up to eight pitchers were used to complete one game.   That should not be sustainable, but somehow the Dodgers rode that strategy all the way to a championship.  The Most Valuable Player award should have gone to the entire bullpen.

As the Dodgers ascended each step on their climb up to the title—winning the division, beating the Padres in the division series and the New York Mets in the championship series—their clubhouse celebrations were revelatory.  Their raw comments to reporters unmasked a gutsiness and a love for one another, an intense bonding not seen in recent memory.  Chemistry alone can’t count for success, but matched with each athlete playing for each other, lifting their teammates to another level, it made them unbeatable.

One refreshing aspect to the Dodgers’ championship is that for a change the team with the best regular season in baseball won it all.  In the past 29 seasons, the team with the best record won the World Series only eight times.

Up until 1968, baseball had two leagues:  American and National.  The first-place team in each league faced off in the World Series.

From 1969-1993, a second playoff round was added by dividing each league into two divisions, west and east, which doubled the number of teams eligible for the postseason.

From 1994-2011, a third round (division series) was added by rearranging some teams into a third central division and adding a wild card team from each league resulting in eight teams making it to the postseason.  No longer did a team have to win four postseason games; now it’s 11.

Today, more wild cards teams have been added with 12 out of the 30 teams go into the postseason.  That is why in one respect this year’s Dodgers may very well be the best team they have ever had.  And that’s why if you are a Dodger fan, you should still be grinning.  And if you a sports fan, you should feel validated that once in a while, a sports team that is the best during the regular season does win the trophy.

Seeing these high paid athletes get choked up over a game with a small ball and a long bat, their emotions catching in their throats, underscores that money isn’t everything.  Sports reminds us that joy can be found in myriad ways.  It’s up to each person to go find it.

The Dodgers’ championship is my antidote to whoever wins the election.

Leave a comment Posted on Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, World Series

It’s Time for Dodger Crumble!

As a lifelong Dodger fan, every year I struggle accepting the randomness of Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs where regular season success often doesn’t carry over to playoff success. 

For over a decade, the Los Angeles Dodgers have had a dynasty in terms of regular season victories, having won their division 10 out of the past 11 years, yet only one World Series championship to show for it.

Look at their win-loss records:

2013    92-70

2014    94-68

2015    92-70

2016    91-71

2017    104-58

2018    92-71

2019    106-56*

2020    43-17 (pandemic-shortened)*

2021    106-56

2022    111-51*

2023    100-62

*best record in baseball

In total, the Dodgers have won 61 percent of their games during this stretch, an amazing long-term stretch of success which makes it heartbreaking when they lose so often in the playoffs.

While people want to believe that the World Series victor is the best team in baseball, all the playoffs really prove is which team plays the best over the course of a few weeks.

This year, three teams—Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves, Dodgers—won at least 100 games.  All three teams lost in the first Divisional round of the playoffs. Winning more games and playing on one’s home field are no advantages or guarantees that the team with the better record will prevail.

For the first 65 years of the World Series, MLB pitted the best teams from the American and the National leagues against one another.  That’s when a team had a 50 percent chance of winning.

From 1969-1993 when there were two divisions in each league, adding a second playoff series, only 29 percent of the teams with the best record won the World Series. 

Over the past 28 years with the addition of wild card teams and another playoff series, only 25 percent of the teams with the best record have won the World Series. 

However, where the wild card format has hurt the best record teams is that fewer of them make it to the World Series.  During the division format, 75 percent made it; during the wild card format, 50 percent made it.

In other words, teams without the best record over the course of a season have an equal chance of making it to the World Series, but a whopping 75% chance of winning it.

This postseason, the American League has the sixth best team, Houston, playing the eighth best team, Texas, while the National League has the seventh best team, Philadelphia, playing the 13th best team, Arizona. You read that right–the team which was almost in the middle of the 30 teams in baseball is four victories away from entering the World Series. That’s madness and puts a stain on the six months of superior play that the other teams accomplished.

It seems that Major League Baseball ensures that an underdog will usually win its vaulted trophy. 

The worst example of an average team being proclaimed as The Best were the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals who won 83 games and lost 78 games, only five games above .500.

So, you see, it is a waste of emotions for fans to hold on to the notion that if their team is the best, they will be champions.

The system is fixed to make sure that doesn’t happen that often.

And that’s baseball.

Maybe it’s time for MLB to inaugurate a new type of trophy that recognizes excellence not just in a three-week period but the six-month period regardless if they win the World Series or not.  Otherwise, the 162-game season diminishes considerably in importance.

Leave a comment Posted on Los Angeles Dodgers, Vin Scully, World Series

It’s time for Dodger anxiety!

I cannot remember when I first became a Dodger fan because I was too young to remember such a thing.  I simply grew up loving the Dodgers through the decades as a boy during the 1960’s. 

Some of my all-time favorite Dodgers include:   Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Don Drysdale, Ron Fairly, Wes Parker, Willie Davis, Don Sutton, Jim Brewer, Steve Garvey, Claude Osteen, Davey Lopes, Tommy John, Reggie Smith, Manny Mota, Al Downing, Dusty Baker, Orel Hershiser, Pedro Guerrero, Mike Scioscia, Fernando Valenzuela, Steve Yeager, Rick Monday, Kirk Gibson, Mike Piazza, Bob Welch, Eric Karros, Brett Butler, Paul Mondesi, Ramon Martinez, Adrian Beltre, Hideo Nomo, Shawn Green, Jeff Kent, Chan Ho Park, Eric Gagne, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Hanley Ramirez, Juan Uribe, Adrian Gonzalez, Manny Ramirez, Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, Yasiel Puig, Justin Turner, Zach Greinke, Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, Walker Buehler, Mookie Betts.

My favorite Dodger of all time, of course, is Vin Scully.

As of this writing, the Dodgers will be playing in their 21st World Series, third in the last four years.  In their history, they have won 6 titles out of 20—a 30% winning percentage.

Here are the top all-time World Series champions in baseball.  The first number is titles won over the total trips with the winning percentage.

Yankees:  27/40, 67.5%

Cardinals:  11/19, 61%

Red Sox:  9/13, 69%

Athletics:  9/14, 64%

Giants:  8/20, 40%

Dodgers: 6/20, 30%

If you are a lifetime Dodger fan, then you know a lifetime of heartache.  The Dodgers have lost the World Series more times, 14, than any other ball club in history.  That is why it is tough to root for them when they make it that far.  Imagine if you are a Yankee, Cardinal, Red Sox or Athletic fan:  about two-thirds of the time those teams win it all.

What’s extra frustrating about the current group of Dodgers is that they have won 8 straight division titles, second only to the 14 straight won by the Atlanta Braves.  However, the Braves did win one title; the Dodgers nada.

The Dodgers should have won the title in 2017 against the Astros since everyone now knows they cheated; even with that dishonest advantage, the Dodgers pushed them to seven games.

In 2018, most people viewed the Boston Red Sox as the superior team so, no surprise, they lost that series 4-1.

This year, however, most pundits favor the Dodgers to win it all.  Imagine how heartbreaking it would be for them if they don’t. If baseball gods exist, L.A. will win its first championship in 32 years.

Back in 1988, I was studying to become a teacher.  Both the Lakers and Dodgers won championships that year.

This past June, I retired after 31 years.  From 1989 to 2019, the Lakers won 6 championships; the Dodgers not a one.

Laker fans know how long it felt before they won a title, longer than the actual 10 years it took.  Dodger fans have been waiting three times as long for the drought to end.

And that is why whenever there is a Dodger playoff game day, I get the DPA’s:  Dodger Playoff Anxiety.  My mind obsesses about DODGER BASEBALL.  I can’t keep focused on anything.

I read all the stories online, hear all the sports talk shows on the radio, watch the pre-game show on the Dodger cable channel.

And when they start playing ball, I will go from watching it on TV to hearing it on the radio depending upon what is happening on the field.

For example, in last Sunday’s Game Seven against the Atlanta Braves for the pennant, in the later innings, I hid in my bedroom with the radio on when the Braves were batting, then come out to the living room to watch the Dodgers bat.

When the situation is extremely intense, I can’t be still so I drive aimlessly. listening to the game on the radio.

Everyone has a Kirk Gibson story where they were when he hit his famous home run to win Game One against the A’s in 1988.  Here is mine.  I was in my car driving west on the 134 Freeway going from Pasadena to Glendale.  I heard Don Drysdale’s call, not Vin Scully’s or Jack Buck’s.  And, if you have never heard it, do yourself a favor and listen to it:

It will put goosebumps on your arms.

So, Dodger fans, keep your fingers crossed, light some candles and keep your radios handy.

Go Dodgers!

Leave a comment Posted on Houston Astors, Los Angeles Dodgers, World Series

Suffering the Dodger Blues

“As a lifelong Dodger fan, I am in blue heaven.”

That was supposed to be the last line in my column this week, celebrating the Dodgers’ first World Series championship since 1988.

Instead, “I feel Dodger blue” is more apropos after they lost the World Series to Houston on Wednesday.

It has been 29 years since the team’s last appearance in the Fall Classic.   Despite having the best record in baseball and home field advantage through all three rounds, they came up one game short.

The media’s spin is that the Dodgers lost to an offensive juggernaut.  Yet in the three Astro defeats, the Dodger pitching staff limited them to four runs in three games.

Actually, the Dodger and Astro teams were almost identical.

Houston’s team batting average was .230, while L.A.’s was .205.

Houston’s team pitching ERA was 4.64, L.A.’s was 4.45.

While Houston had 56 hits compared to L.A.’s 41, each team scored the same number of runs:  34.

The Dodgers’ three victories were games that they had won without a challenge:  Game 1, 3-1; Game 4, 6-2; Game 6, 3-1.  The Astros’ victories in games 2 and 7 were likewise unchallenged:  5-3, 5-1.

Games 2 and 5 were the battles, exciting for the casual fan, gut-wrenching for the Dodger fan with the team on the losing end both times despite having the lead in the ninth inning of Game 2, and giving Kershaw a four-run cushion then a three-run cushion in Game 5.

The Dodgers should have won five of the seven games.

As horribly disappointed as I am, there were positives that came out of the month-long marathon of playoff games.

For the first time, my youngest son got involved in watching the games, riding the emotional roller coaster that Dodger fans know too well.

The Dodgers put on a show that my whole family sat down to watch together on TV in real time (no DVR-ing).   At jubilant moments, we yelled and jumped up and down; at heart-stopping moments, we turned off the TV.

In following the Dodgers and their October run, I didn’t even get a chance to enjoy Halloween.

I was in a Dodger coma.

Reading every article I could find on the Dodgers, even skimming comments posted on the Houston Chronicle website by Astro fans after their losses, did not satiate my cravings.

On game days, I found it hard to focus on my work.

I would tune in to the Dodger pre-game show on radio, then hear callers voice their opinions after the game concluded.

And I did cross off an item from my bucket list when I got two tickets for my oldest son and I to see the first game of the World Series.

Donned in Dodger jerseys and caps, we sat in the reserved section on the third base side halfway towards the foul pole.   It was a record-breaking 103-degree scorcher of a day; even in the shade, my body glistened with sweat.

The game ended up being one of the shortest played in recent World Series history, clocking in at 2 hours and 28 minutes.

Eight days later, the dream season ended.

Still, the Dodger odyssey gave me a respite from Trump’s tweets, natural disasters, and vans mowing down bicyclists.

And that is the beauty of sports—to take you away from the ugliness in the world and give you hope that your team will win.  For if they do, we are all winners.   And if they don’t, after the dust settles, it was still worth it.

Hey, I got to go to a World Series game with my son.