‘Dodgers Capture World Series by Storming Back in Game 5 to Upend Yankees’

Both teams had stretches of greatness on both sides of the game. Home runs. Clutch hitting in late innings. Freddie Fucking Freeman. Innings of unhittable pitching. There’s no question in my mind these are the two most talented teams in baseball. But one team made a bunch of glaring mistakes, throughout the series (and especially so tonight), and the other team made few mistakes at all.

As a lifelong Yankees fan who watched or listened to every inning of the many American League Championship Series and World Series they’ve played in since 1996, I have some experience with the various emotional results of a deep postseason baseball run. There is a new Netflix documentary devoted to one such series that did not end well for the Yankees. This year is not the worst feeling. It hurts. This sucks. But this is not the worst. These two teams were evenly matched talent-wise, but the Dodgers played much better baseball. Objectively they deserved to win. The years that really hurt are the ones when your side plays as well or even better than their opponent but loses the series anyway (usually in game 7) because there is a significant aspect of high-level baseball that comes down to chance. This was not one of those years for the Yankees.

This was a well-earned championship by the Dodgers.

(And at least they got to celebrate this at a nice ballpark.)

★ Thursday, 31 October 2024