Update 10-31-2024 - Dodgers spook Yanks in Five!
I feel a little bad for my friends in the production truck. They must have had dozens of Aaron Judge videos ready and they probably had a camera pointed at Shohei Ohtani in the dugout at all times. After all, he didn’t appear on the field often enough for them to get a lot of live shots.
In Game One, Freddie Freeman had a Curt Gibson moment. Gibson’s dramatic home run in the 1988 World Series is one of the iconic stories in series history. I am sure you have seen the video of Gibsons one-leg swing and triumphant limp around the bases. The camera never leaves Gibson as he celebrates what must be his favorite baseball moment.
In the tenth inning of this year’s Game One, Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam in front of a home crowd that stood and “ran” every step with their beloved hero. Somewhere in the truck someone must have yelled, “get me Ohtani,” because about the time Freeman reached first base the camera had moved to the Dodger’s DH pumping his fists as he emerged from the dugout.
The lesson from expecting the media favorite to be a factor in the postseason reminds me of Tommy Lasorda’s famous quote about baseball’s unpredictable nature. “In baseball and business, there are three types of people. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened.”
What happened was that Aaron Judge, who batted .322 for the year hit 100 points less in the series. Although he seemed to find his swing later in the series, he did not come through in some big moments.
Shohei Ohtani batted .105 and no RBIs. He had one extra base hit, a double in Game One. Ohtani may have been hampered by an injury to his shoulder on an attempted steal in Game Two.
Gerrit Cole was expected to be the pitching star, and he lived up to expectations…except he seemed to be angry at someone all the time. It should have been himself after an unforgivable mental error in the tragic fifth inning of Game Five.
Dodger fans should not have worried. They had Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández, and of course Freddie Freeman. Edman and Freeman are that kind of big-game player and Hernández is the kind of guy you want on your team. He hit 33 home runs in the regular season and drove in 99 runs. Teoscar can go unrecognized in any McDonalds outside California.
By the way, 36-year-old middle reliever Blake Treinen won two games and saved one. In an earlier life Treinen tried to walk on at the University of Arkansas. In a story in Jokermag, Treinen recalls that when he went to talk to Coach Van Horn about trying out, he never got past a secretary and a grad assistant.
So, it was not the “Aaron Judge/Shohei Ohtani Show.” The 2024 World Series belonged to Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and a committee of bullpen guys.
Happy Halloween - LA!
In case you missed this week’s Backroads and Ballplayers Weekly, I revisited the story of the 1934 World Series. This year marks the 90th anniversary of Arkansas’ finest hour in the Fall Classic.
The Gas House Gang, the Deans, and the 1934 World Series
Book ordering information: Link
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