For now, I will forgo discussion on America’s presidential election and rather give my thoughts about the recent World Series. By now as most of my readers know, I am a diehard Red Sox fan. The Red Sox Nation have fond memories of Davey Roberts, the Dodger manager: When he stole second base in the 4th game of the playoffs between the Yankees and the Red Sox in 2004, the momentum suddenly changed. The Red Sox came back from a 3 to 0 deficit to beat the Yankees 4 to 3 and become the first team in baseball to ever achieve such a victory.
Let me remind all you Dodger fans that the before they moved to Los Angeles in 1958, the Dodgers played at Ebbets Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn. In the 50’s the Dodgers had a special talent of losing to the New York Yankees and consequently, were referred to by the fitting alliteration: The Brooklyn Bums. They lost to their Bronx rivals in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953. Doris Kearns Goodwin, the historian, who grew up in Rockville Center, New York, told of the loyalty she and her father had as true Dodger fans in the ‘50’s in a book titled: Wait Till Next Year. In those days, this was a repeated mantra for Dodger fans inasmuch as next year would come almost guaranteeing a repeat of same losses to the despised Yankees. Finally, the borough of Brooklyn rejoiced in 1955 when the Dodgers beat their arch enemy to win their very first World Series.
The wheels of fortune turned for the Dodgers when they moved to Los Angeles vis-a-vis their success in World Series. In fact, the last time they played in the World Series against the Yankees in 1981 the Dodgers beat them 4 games to 1. So, this Series generated a lot of excitement, not only because the rivalry would be revisited, but also because both of these teams were considered to be the two best baseball teams in 2024.
As I have pointed out in previous blogs, televised sporting events are the only unpredictable shows. Reality T.V., comedians and other programs, for the most part, are scripted, one of which was The Apprentice that starred our president elect. In fact, the unpredictable nature of in this case, the World Series clash between the Dodgers and the Yankees, provided lots of undue excitement for the fans. It is precisely this that fascinates spectators who watch sporting events.
Although this World Series had several stars, Freddie Freeman’s feats for the Dodgers stood well above the others and, his name now will be associated with the legends of baseball lore. He hit 4 home runs in the first 4 games of the World Series. With the Yankees ahead 3 to 2, Freeman’s home run in the first game of the Series came in the bottom of the 10th inning with bases loaded and two outs. Aaron Boone, the Yankee manager brought in Hector Cortes, a left handled hurler to pitch to the left-handed batter Freeman. The strategy backfired when Freeman sent Cortes’ first pitch out of the ballpark for a game winning grand slam to make the final score of the Dodger win 6 to3.
The Dodgers went on to win the next two games but lost game 4 at Yankee Stadium. Baseball, like all modern-day sports, tracks mostly everything through statistical analyses. In World Series contention, there had been 24 occurrences in the past when one team had won the first 3 games. Of these 24 times, 21 clubs went on to win the Series 4 to 0. Only 3 squads have won the 4th game and now the Yankees would be the 4th team to do so. However, no team in the World Series that trailed 3 to 0 survived a 5th game. In fact, as I pointed out above, the Red Sox was the only team in baseball history to come back from a 3 to 0 deficit in a playoff game by winning games 6 and 7 at Yankee Stadium.
I am quite sure Davey Roberts very well knew this statistic so in game 4 when the Yankees had what appeared to be an insurmountable lead, he kept his best relief pitchers in the bullpen to save them for game 5 the following day. The Bronx Bombers finally started hitting and went on to win that game 11 to 4. I am quite sure that Davey Roberts wanted to finish out the Series the next day rather than to return to Dodger Stadium ceding the momentum to the Yankees after winning two straight games. He understood the peril in risking a 6th game that would have been a first after a team had fell behind 3 games to 0 in Series play.
Roberts put Jack Flaherty in to face the Yankee ace Gerrit Cole, a repeat of the 1st game in which Flaherty had pitched well making just one mistake in throwing a pitch to Giancarlo Stanton who sent it for a two-run homer. Unfortunately, in this appearance, Flaherty fell behind early giving up 3 runs to the Yankees in the 1st inning on homers by Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm. After giving up another run in the 2nd inning, Roberts pulled him for a relief pitcher. The Yanks added another run in the 3rd inning on a Stanton homer to make the score 5 to 0. Meanwhile, Cole was pitching a no hitter and looked unbeatable. In fact, he had never lost a game when he had an early lead as great as 5 runs and going into the 5th inning, it looked like the Yankees were going to force a 5th game and a return to Dodger Stadium. But the baseball gods had something else to say.
Kike Hernandez started the 5th inning with a single to the opposite field, thus ending Cole’s no hitter. Tommy Edman then hit a routine fly ball to Aaron Judge in center field but it appeared he took his eye off the ball for a split second and dropped it. Most rare as it was Judge’s first error of the season. Furthermore, earlier in the game he had made a spectular jumping catch at the wall robbing Freddie Freeman of an extra base hit and saving a run as Mookie Betts had been on first base. That error made it first and second and no outs with Will Smith coming to bat. He hit a playable grounder to Anthony Volpe who chose to go to third base rather than first base. Hernandez, in running toward third, wisely had blocked the view of Chisholm, the third basemen, resulting in the ball bouncing off his glove after hitting the ground. Now it is bases loaded. Cole gets Gavin Lux to strike out. He now faces Shohei Ohtani. Each time Ohtani came to bat he appeared to wince in pain as it was believed he had partially dislocated his shoulder upon sliding into second base during the second game played in Dodger Stadium. In any event, he was not his usual effective self only getting a single in the three games of the Series played at Yankee Stadium. Cole struck him out too.
Now the Dodgers have bases loaded with two outs and, it appeared that Cole might get out of the inning unscathed. Mookie Betts came up next and hit a spinning grounder to first base. I said to myself that the inning had ended as Cole had successfully recorded five outs when you include the two errors made by the Yankees. But then I watched in amazement Betts running toward first base with Anthony Rizzo fielding the ball and, Cole helplessly looking at Betts run safely to the bag. Cole had made a mental lapse not covering first for what should have been a routine out. Later he said he thought he could field the ball himself but when he misjudged the distance of the ball from him, he forgot to cover first base. Though not scored an error, it was still a miscue, the third of the inning by the Yankees that produced a run making the score 5 to 1. Cole had already pitched through two errors so he may have misplayed Bett’s grounder due to mental exhaustion.
Now Freeman was up. With a two-strike count, Freeman had fouled a few pitches off until he got a good pitch and lined a single to centerfield producing two more runs for Dodgers. Next up was Teoscar Hernandez who drove a fly ball well over Judge’s head scoring both Betts and Freeman and making the score 5 to 5. The Dodgers fell behind in the 6th inning 6 to 5 but in the top of the 8th inning they came back. With bases loaded and none out, Galvin Lux, the ninth batter for the Dodgers, hit a sacrifice bringing the score to a tie once more. Ohtani, who I pointed out did not appear to be his usual self, was rewarded first base on interference by the Yankee catcher, Austin Wells, not only another error by New York, but also what I considered a gift. Now Betts was up and he promptly hit a drive to centerfield that was long enough to easily score a run giving the Dodgers a 7 to 6 lead that they never lost to win the game and the World Series in 5 games.
When the Dodgers came to bat in the 5th inning, the oddsmakers had given the Yankees a 93% chance of winning the game. But the baseball gods saw to it that this would not happen. The Yankees, who throughout the season were able to capitalize on their opponents’ misplays, allowed the Dodgers to do exactly that to defeat them. To quote the famous Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over till it’s over,” and when the game finally ended the Dodgers, those Brooklyn Bums from the past, were victorious.
Dr. Bernard F. Natelson 