Off-day World Series thoughts

 

As a Dodgers fan, I haven't said much about the World Series while it's been going on. So on the one-year anniversary of the Dodgers winning the World Series over the Yankees, and while this year's Series teams are traveling back to Toronto (boo!), I'll write about it a little.

 

First, Game 2 and Game 3 -- the two most interesting games in the Series, per me -- are now two of my most favorite World Series games in my almost 50 years of watching the Fall Classic. Yoshinobu Yamamoto's complete-game victory on Game 2 was marvelous, and while not very unusual in the annals of World Series starting pitchers, the performance was a rarity in the last 20 years and a call-back to pitchers like Hershiser, Reuss and Sutton. Very exciting.

 

Game 3 was even better -- a repeat of Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, filled with so many wonderful, exciting moments that it was difficult to remember them all. I thought I would only be able to watch Game 2 of the whole Series, thanks to my work schedule. But Game 3 went so long that I came home when it was in the 10th inning and proceeded to watch the next eight innings!

 

As far as the other three games, well, those are the Dodgers I've known from the regular season. Somebody said, "I wasn't aware the Dodgers' bullpen was that bad." Yeah. That's what I've been screaming about all season. I wasn't making it up.

 

As far as the hitting, it hasn't been there for the whole Series except for select moments. I'm sure the Blue Jays pitching has had something to do with that, but the Dodgers should have hit Kevin Gausman more than they did, and a pitcher I didn't know existed even a month ago shouldn't be able to shut down a team of MVP veterans. The Dodgers hitters are in one of their rough patches I saw crop up repeatedly in 2025. 

 

They could come back but I won't be too upset if the Blue Jays win Game 6 or 7. When I listed the playoff participants in order of preference at the start of the postseason, the Blue Jays were third (below the Mariners). They haven't done a lot to make me dislike them, although I don't know how some of these guys are doing what they're doing. I just don't watch the American League a lot.

 

The most aggravating part, per usual, is the social media rooting. It's about 90-percent anti-Dodger, and while I have no issue with Blue Jays fans rooting against the Dodgers, or even fans of traditional enemies of the Dodgers rooting against them, I am realizing I can't handle fans with no dog in the fight expressing their preferences over and over. Why do I have to hear what a Mets or Mariners fan thinks of my team's pitcher? How do I shut that off? I'm not voicing my opinions on their favorite teams' offseason moves.

 

But I know that's just me. I used to be able to watch my team in the World Series without hearing any rooting outside of a couple family members or co-workers. I want to go back to that. The next time the Dodgers are in the postseason, I'm probably going to turn off social media. 

 

Finally (I realize this is a lot of words without card pictures), the postseason for a fan of a World Series team is a mental drain. I know this will make fans of the Pirates or Rockies break out tiny violins, but this a real issue, first-world problem that it is.

 

Rooting for your World Series team takes a month-long commitment now. That's a lot. There's a wild-card series, a divisional series, a championship series and a World Series. This takes up all your free time and makes you distracted at work sometimes. For a whole month. You squeeze in dinners and errands and obligations around the big game, and there are so many big games now.

 

For all of my rooting time in the '70s and '80s, this was a two-week rush, two weeks out of your schedule. It was fun, like a nice vacation in the fall, and then you got back to regular life. The postseason now turns fans of the teams that get the farthest into month-long baseball zombies, where only one thing matters. That's fun for a couple of weeks, it gets a little tiring around Day 20 and things start to back up. I've been sick for a week, I should be going to bed early, not standing in my living room for 8 extra innings.

 

I can only imagine how it is for players. Yes, it's thrilling, exciting and you wouldn't want to be anywhere else, but that kind of commitment has to take its toll. And, I admit, after the Dodgers have reached the World Series three times in the last six years, I'd be not-so-secretly happy if I don't have to mark off the entire month of October next year.

 

Listen, I'm so distracted it's affecting my card purchasing. I have bought what has got to be a record number of doubles for one month. Three of them arrived today when I accidentally ordered 1970 Fleer World Series cards instead of the three 1971 Fleer WS cards I needed. 

 

But, soon, it'll all be back to normal and we'll be whining about no baseball until March.

 

Anyway, here are a few current cards of current Dodgers that arrived recently that are not dupes.

 

 

Yeah, that's it. There are a few others, but they're either older Dodgers or not on the current postseason squad.

I tried to add a few cheap Ohtani cards, too, in my first purchases since naming him my current favorite player, but all four of them were scooped out of my cart. Note to self: don't let Ohtani cards sit in your cart for more than 12 hours.

 

I'll get back to some more serious card buying soon when I'm not juggling so much. 

 

Obviously, I'm hoping for a Dodgers comeback. But I'm also looking forward to that Twins-Reds World Series next year.