There is certainly still a chance (mathematical) that Cleveland and the Mets can make a good series out of their matchups prior to the World Series. But as of this writing on Thursday afternoon Oct 17, the Mets will have to clean up their game defensively and start their bats producing again. Even if they rediscover their magic sauce, down two games to one, they'll have to win it in LA.
As for the Yankees-In-Guardians series (I've decided that since most of us folks of a certain age can't help calling them Indians, let's at least reclaim the
first syllable of the old name, OK?), Cleveland's lack of starting pitching has really been exposed. I hope home-cooking allows at least one win and more chances for us to marvel at Steven Kwan, their great left fielder/leadoff man who has made Oregon State proud (in ways that the Orioles' Adley Rutschman could not duplicate this season).
Here's the back story on why a Yankee-Dodger World Series is my least favorite of any Fall Classic. I think my character was definitely shaped (warped?) by growing up a New York Giant fan when the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers were seemingly in every World Series - to be exact, 1947, 1949, 1952-53, 1955-1956. As a National League fan, I pulled for the Dodgers in the World Series, but it certainly wasn't like rooting for your team.
1955 was the only World Series the Brooklyn Dodgers ever won. The outrageously entitled Yankee fans still insist that blip happened only because Mickey Mantle was injured. In a wound in the heart that still exists in most of the Flatbush Faithful older generation, almost exactly two years after Johnny Podres shut out the Yankees in Game 7, the Dodgers were on their way to Los Angeles.
The Giants accompanied the Dodgers to the West Coast settling in San Francisco. To give you an idea of how much of a blow the departure of the historic NL franchises meant to NYC fans, the Yankees with the NYC market all to themselves drew fewer fans in 1958 than they did in 1957. It didn't stop the Bronx Bombers from avenging their 7-game 1957 World Series loss to the Milwaukee Braves by overcoming a 3-1 games deficit in 1958 to beat the Braves.
Fortunately with expansion, a Yankee-LA Dodger WS matchup hasn't happened that often and the LAD in 1963 and 1981 actually won two World Series
over the NYY. But the Yankees did beat the Dodgers in back-to-back 1977-1978 World Series. I
I remember 1977 painfully because the Orioles won 97 games in the first year of free agency. They lost Reggie Jackson to the Yankees and Bobby Grich and Don Baylor to the Angels, but they stayed in the pennant race until the last weekend of regular season.
On Friday night as I watching the Tigers' lefty John Hiller beat the Yankees at the second incarnation of Yankee Stadium, the Red Sox eliminated the Birds at Fenway in a slugfest. I was watching the score throughout the game whenever the scoreboard deigned to show it. Shortly after the Tigers won, I looked at the scoreboard and it read "Bost 12 Balt 8 - F".
It turned out it was fake news. As I was coming home in the subway, a fan told me that final score was 12-11 and Al Bumbry had made the last out with tying run on second. How much disappointment can a fan take?! The next afternoon, the Orioles eliminated the Red Sox. Elliott Maddox, only briefly with the Orioles, insouciantly caught the last out, a routine fly ball to center.
I was so bummed out that I vowed not to watch the World Series at all. During Game 1, I went to see Win Wenders' neo-noir movie "The American Friend". But when every time I glimpsed the mustache of actor Bruno Ganz I thought of Thurman Munson, I decided, "If the Yankees are still on my mind at the movies, I might as well watch the games." I did but with little passion. Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs in the final game. Ho-hum.
47 years after that 1977 World Series, I think I've attained A LITTLE philosophical distance from my earlier self. I don't really hate any of the players on NYY/LAA. And I find it amusing that the boobirds at Yankee Stadium will have to cheer at the success of their targets in recent years who are really producing now, Gian-Carlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, and Alex Verdugo (a former Dodger who will have extra incentive against LAA).
You never know in baseball so I hope that the remaining LCS games have some memorable moments. Like the last two games of the Cleveland-Detroit division series. When David Fry's pinch-hit home run silenced Detroit's Comerica Park in Game 4 forcing a return to Cleveland's Progressive Field for Game 5.
And Lane Thomas, former Cardinals farmhand and Nats outfielder, hit a grand slam off the brilliant southpaw Tarik Skubal, this year's likely AL Cy Young winner.
Two pitches in succession turned around Skubal's season. First, a bases loaded HBP to Jose Ramirez and then Thomas' line drive HR that gave Cleveland the lead they would not relinquish. It pays to watch the game closely - things can happen in a twinkling.
I heard a wonderful story from a friend whose mother-in-law lives in an assisted living facility in Cleveland. She was dutifully going to 4p Saturday Mass when the game was not yet final. The service was delayed slightly to make sure the team had won and then it opened with a nun on piano playing a rousing version of"Take Me Out To The Ballgame".
Speaking of rousing performances, how about that WNBA final between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx! On their sixth visit to the finals as a WNBA charter member, the Liberty need one more victory either Fri night Oct 18 or back home in Brooklyn on Sun night Oct 20 to earn their first title.
This series has not been for the weak in heart. The Liberty blew double-digit leads in the first two games at home, salvaging a split. The Lynx led all the
way in Game 3 until they didn't late in 4th quarter. Only a 28-foot straight away jump shot by Sabrina Ionescu kept Game 3 from going into overtime.
Another star from the Northwest like Steven Kwan, Ionesco, the former Oregon Ducks sensation, gave credit to her preparation for her ability to sink
that shot. It reminds me of the saying I once saw in the Tampa Bay Rays clubhouse or maybe on one of the their T-shirts:
"Champions Are Made When Nobody Is Looking."
That's all for now - stay positive, test negative, still my mantra, and take it easy but take it.