For the second straight year, and the fourth time in five years, the Dodgers have reached the League Championship Series.
Many fans -- I have been made very aware -- don't like this. But that comes with the territory when as a fan you're part of an exclusive club for more than one or two years in a row. The Dodgers are the villain.
I know that relatively few on social media will be rooting for the Dodgers. (A lot are rooting for a World Series between the Mariners-Brewers, who are practically the same team). I have tried to add known Dodgers fans to my following list in hopes of balancing out the anti-Dodger content, but the best-case scenario is to avoid social media as much as possible. We'll see how that goes. Social media is great for getting immediate info on plays during the course of a game, nothing else compares.
A lot of the people who comment on this blog aren't part of social media sites, so I'll move on to the card part of the post.
The two LCS matchups actually feature four teams that I generally like. In fact it's been that way since the Yankees have been eliminated. It's about the most angst-free postseason in terms of teams involved since probably 2005. That's 20 years.
We'll see if that holds up -- I admit I liked the Brewers a lot more when they were in the American League. But let's see some fun stuff as a primer (yeah I know the ALCS has started already). Here are some past players who have played for both teams in each LCS matchup.
ALCS: Blue Jays vs. Mariners
The battle of the 1977 expansion teams. These are the first expansion teams I ever knew. This is a series between Steve Staggs and Juan Bernhardt. If you told me back in '77 that these two teams would someday play each other in the LCS and one of them would make the World Series, I would laugh in your face -- for a good 10 minutes, because I was 12.
JOHN OLERUD
Olerud always had distinctive cards because of the ever-present batting helmet. And he got to model it on either coast (and by Toronto's coast I mean Lake Ontario, of course).
WILLIE HORTON
More helmets! Horton appeared with each team in back-to-back years, which was my favorite find when selecting candidates for this post. Not that I wasn't aware of it for the last 45 years. Both teams were very new at the time and seeing a veteran slugger play for both teams in quick succession was fascinating.
JEFF BURROUGHS
Until the Blue Jays started to contend in the mid-1980s, both Toronto and Seattle were known as spots for aging or middling players -- kind of like the Pirates are now (oof). Burroughs was on the downside of his career in the 1980s.
JUAN BENIQUEZ
Because of when I started collecting cards, I think of Juan Beniquez first with the Red Sox, then the Rangers. He's also one of those guys who played much longer than I realized.
TEOSCAR HERNANDEZ
One of the players in the current LCS that has played for at least three of the teams involved. Justin Turner is another one.
Other guys I could have shown if I had all the time in the world: Barry Bonnell, Steve Braun, Bill Caudill, Justin Smoak, Michael Saunders, Leon Roberts, Brandon Morrow, Pat Borders, Darnell Coles, Kendrys Morales, Luis Sojo, Dan Vogelbach.
NLCS: Dodgers vs. Brewers
A "rematch" of the 2018 NLCS that the Dodgers won. I guess that makes it a "revenge series" for the Brewers. Whatever gets you fired up, I suppose.
DON SUTTON
The first player I think of when this combination comes up.
GREG BROCK
And this is the second one. Another seamless transition as Brock was traded to the Brewers from the Dodgers when L.A. finally gave up on him being their next big slugger.
CRAIG COUNSELL
The current Cubs manager now watching the postseason from his barcalounger.
HIDEO NOMO
I am sure Nomo's MLB tour to places like Milwaukee and Kansas City and Detroit would have seemed a lot stranger had I been following baseball much at all at the time.
JODY REED
Another quick transition as Reed is shown with both the Dodgers and the Brewers in 1994 Stadium Club.
Other guys I could have shown if I had all the time in the world: Von Joshua, Zack Greinke, Gary Sheffield, Franklin Stubbs, Willie Randolph, Ellie Rodriguez, Tom Candiotti, Jerry Reuss, Eric Gagne, Yasmani Grandal, Rich Auerbach, Ken Brett, Mike Fetters, Mark Loretta, Candy Maldonado, Jesse Orosco, Randy Wolf
I was rooting for the Cubs last night because I think the Dodgers would have had an easier time with them than the Brewers.
The Dodgers lost all six games they played against Milwaukee this season. I'm not too concerned about that because it happened in July when the Dodgers were a mess. But I do expect this series to go the full seven games (or, the Dodgers could fall apart and it ends in five).
If L.A. can't return to the World Series, that's fine. They had last year. And I still have my memories from that and from other times.
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