Winners can be losers

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the new Major League baseball World Series Champions after rallying from a five run deficit to defeat the New York Yankees 7-6 and win the best of seven series four games to one. I did watch more of this series than I had in a while. This series was really important for the Dodgers because they have had some of the best talent in baseball but they had trouble in the playoffs. They did win the COVID shortened 2020 season but had to play games without fans and at designated stadiums not their own. Weird year any way you look at it. I know the players, coaches and owners wanted to be able to win a long season and playoffs to show they were the best of the best.

After the Dodgers won there were a few revelers that had to show the love of their team by destroying property. Was it really the victory or the alcohol that brought on the excitement of lighting fires and breaking glass? I didn’t hear of any Yankee fans that were mad enough to riot but maybe there were a bunch but they weren’t arrested because the damage looked more like an improvement. Sorry, I know that New York has some problems and I was pushed to throw out a negative comment. So for all of you Mets and Yankees fans I apologize, kind of.

MVP Freddie Freeman had a great series but so did many Dodger players and they certainly were focused on the prize at hand. There was a play that happened during game four that makes a person wonder what fans are thinking. During the game there was a foul ball hit into the right field area. Mookie Betts, the all everything right fielder for the Dodgers leaped up and made the catch into the stands. A Yankee fan started grabbing for the ball out of Betts’ glove. A second fan grabbed Mookie’s right wrist as the ball flew out of his mitt. The hitter was called out and the fans escorted out of Yankee Stadium. It was a bizarre moment and made one wonder what were these two jokers thinking. Betts isn’t a big guy in comparison to the two goofballs going for the baseball. These are multi-million dollar athletes and Betts could have easily been seriously injured.

The two individuals were not allowed to attend the next game and the tickets were given to more deserving individuals. Honestly these two guys should be banned for life for what they were trying to do because player safety is the most important part of the game.

As fans, we take a lot for granted. Today games televised every day of the baseball season. In my youth there was a game televised on Saturday afternoon and it was usually the Yankees against another American League team. Sometime around 1970 or so they started doing a Monday night baseball game. As I said before, there were no playoff games. The two teams with the best records from the National League and the American League squared off in a best of seven series. I can’t be positive if things would have been different had there been playoff baseball years ago. I’m not sure anyone ever thought about it before baseball expansion.

When there were more expansion teams it made sense for more teams to have a shot at winning it all with a playoff system. If baseball was to survive with a lot more teams and fans they needed to have something to look forward to in late September. We know this format works for the most part when Wild Cards make it to the World Series and a few have been crowned champions.

The baseball game I grew up with has change over the years but the biggest changes came during COVID. Since fans couldn’t attend games in person they could only watch on TV and there were changes made to speed up the game. One was a pitch clock. Another was a limit to how many times a pitcher could throw over to first base to keep a potential base stealer from getting a big lead.

Any game that went into extra innings started with a runner on second base. The 20 -25 inning games have disappeared. So that is a plus.

Free agency is now the headline and what teams needs help and at what positions. Players will be wearing new uniforms next year and most likely a new team will be raising the World Series trophy. Will this season’s losers be next season’s winners? Or vice versa?

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].