After the Cubs lost out to the Brewers in the NLDS, I wasn't sure if I'd stick with MLB through the post-season (but I always do these days).
As a Cubs guy, I mostly follow National League, but was vaguely aware the Blue Jays, over in the American League, were having a great season. I was also aware the Dodgers had loaded themselves up with talent valued the highest in the MLB and some of the best players plucked from Japan on their roster.
You can choose to be jealous of other teams having Shohei Ohtani or enjoy watching one of the best to ever do it get to do his thing. And that's true now of Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound as well. But the team came in at a highly respectable .574 entering the playoffs in a competitive NL West.
The Blue Jays came in with a nearly identitical record of .580, winning one more regular season game than Los Angeles. But the Jays had a shakier team entering the play-offs with injuries and a starting pitcher in Yesavage who started the season in the lowest rungs of Minor League ball and pitched his way onto the mound in the World Series. If you put his story in a movie, no one would believe it.
I always wondered if I weren't a Cubs fan who I'd follow, and I think the answer is probably the Dodgers. There were always likable guys on the team and Dave Roberts is an astounding manager. So when it was up to someone to keep the loathsome Brewers from getting to the World Series, I'm pleased it was the Dodgers who knocked them out.
I started watching the American League with the Mariners/ Jays ALCS, and I have no beef with the Mariners, but I liked the vibe the Blue Jays were bringing, plus movie star Lauren Holly was all over Threads cheering them on, and that was a bit infectious.
Others will do a better job of recounting why the 2025 World Series was special, but it seemed like every game had its own story, and players had their own narratives. Ohtani was proving he was worth his insane contract and the forced change in the rules that allowed him to play both ways.* Mad Max Scherzer seemed to be proving my theory that all pitchers are a little off and pitched astounding baseball at age 41. Honestly, I hope he comes back for another few seasons. George Springer was everyone's villain from his days on the Astros (let it go, fam), and Bo Bichette played through a rough injury. Meanwhile, Mookie struggled on offense while proving moving him to the infield was a great bet.
But coming down to an extra inning in Game 7? That's two teams battling, and that's good baseball.
I know all sports has drama that plays out in the 24/7 coverage across more sports outlets than I care to think about, and the dumbest people in America somehow seem to get talk shows talking sports and creating narratives seemingly derived from a low EQ rating and an inability to understand cause and effect, but sometimes the drama just happens on the diamond, field, court, rink, what-have-you.
In no way do I really care about negotiations or think I know better than people in front offices worrying about payroll and looking at a constellation of stats to inform their decisions. I'm just along for the ride.
If MLB needed a series to show casuals (a dirty word in baseball social media, but the real economic force necessary for any pro sport) what baseball can be, this was a great way to have it all out there on display.
On social media, I don't follow that many sports accounts - most of mine are Cubs-centric for baseball. But MLB take note: 80% of what I was seeing online about the World Series on Threads was posted by women. And not from wives or girlfriends. Librarians, creators, authors.... the people who hit something in the algorithm to wind up in my feed.
You have a huge audience of women as near as I can tell. I know the audience probably skews male to some extent, but there's an audience here you shouldn't ignore.
*it is super weird how announcers on Fox kept acting like no one had ever played both ways when that was the National League standard until 3 years ago.
No one had ever played *every day* and pitched every 5/6 days in the modern game. It's also crazy that Betts never played shortstop until last year and he's on track to win a Gold Glove at SS.
ReplyDeleteI was genuinely confused seeing Betts at SS. But, man, was that the smart move. Ohtani stands to genuinely change the game entirely, but obviously there aren't Ohtanis popping out of the woodwork.
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