How does someone root in this upcoming World Series when he feels the unfairness of the richest teams fighting for baseball's biggest prize?
My JCS - Jaded Cynical Side - thinks perhaps a sweep by either team might be enjoyable. Because then one outrageously entitled fan base would be
miserable. Calls for beheading underachieving players and non-uniformed personnel would become constant and hilarious.
The late great college baseball coach Bobby Winkles - who was less successful managing in MLB - once said, "Half the fun of baseball is laying blame."
I remember vividly the days of my yout' (as Casey Stengel would pronounce it) when cartoonist Bill Gallo in the NY Daily News would name a hero and a goat after every game.
However, as readers of this blog know by now, I have a PBF persona - Pure Baseball Fan. In these stressful times with the end of Daylight Savings Time coming on Su Nov 3 at 2A and Election Day two days later, here's my wish for a well-played series with more heroes than goats.
Although the Dodgers have many weapons starting with Shohei Ohtani at top of order, their starting pitching is in disarray. And the Yankee offense though it has sputtered at times is formidable.
It is hard to beat the symmetry of Juan Soto's season. On Opening Night in Houston, he threw out from right field the game-tying run at home plate.
Then in the 10th inning of the ALCS clincher at Cleveland, he climaxed a long at-bat against reliever Hunter Gaddis with a three-run HR.
lt was pure Soto exuberance that JCS LeeLow would call cockiness. Soto just turned 26 and will sign a hefty long-term contract from some team in off-season. Probably the Yankees I would say, but he and agent Scott Boras are likely to string it out for a while.
Two Bronx Bombers have LAD connections, one direct and one indirect , LF Alex Verdugo, often a target of home boobirds, has come up big at least defensively, the most underappreciated and necessary trait in any winner. Verdugo was originally signed by the Dodgers and was included in the trade to Boston that brought Mookie Betts to LAD. Verdugo may have extra incentive in this WS.
So may Gian-Carlo Stanton who is from just north of LA and yearned to play for his home town team. But as author Dan Taylor explained in his
wonderful book about scout George Genovese, A SCOUT'S REPORT, the Dodgers let him slip to the Marlins in the second round of the 2007 draft.
They used the lame excuse that they thought Stanton preferred to play football for USC.
Like Dave Winfield, Stanton could have starred in any major sport but he loved baseball most of all. Injuries have taken a toll during his career and he can be pitched to, but he provides a fearsome presence not far behind Soto and Aaron Judge in the batting order.
At the right time, he's locked in both physically and mentally. He told Bryan Hoch of mlb.com that the moment Yankees won the pennant, he turned off his cell phone.
PBF LeeLow wishes no harm on other well-paid players that seem like good guys like Betts and Judge. Each has a vulnerable side that they are willing to express to the public. Both have had post-season slumps and have felt that they are letting their teams down. By the end of the LCS's, though, they wre showing signs that their transcendant talent was coming back to the fore.
Since the Yankees have played very well on the road this year, I see them in 6 at LAD.
One Live Movie note to stoke the baseball hot stove league fires:
Aviva Kempner's "The LIfe and Times of Hank Greenberg" will be shown at the New Plaza Cinema, 35 W 67 west of Central Park West:
F Oct 25 615P
Su Oct 27 230P
Sa Nov 2 1245P
That's all for now. Always remember: Take it easy but take it, and Stay Positive Test Negative!