Los Angeles Dodgers – Threeunassisted

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Exclamation Point on the World Series

The end of the World Series always represents a sad time for us. Winter is coming, and with it, a long four months of the game we all love disappears from our everyday conversation. At least we sat together last night and viewed an epic Game 7. Yes, all of us (minus the wife) managed to stay up into Sunday morning (or was it a continuation of Saturday night) to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers finally claim the mantle of repeat champions. The Toronto Blue Jays made it one heck of a show but in the end, a smorgasboard of missed opportunities will haunt the team and their fans for a long time.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is officially a World Series legend. Credit: MSN

Let’s call this year’s Fall Classic for what it was. It was a solid, bordering on excellent World Series with a thrilling finale. That’s it. There is no need to make comparisons to any series of the past, no breathless analysis of a litany of numbers telling us this was or wasn’t better than say, 1991 (it wasn’t; 1991 is the gold standard of a World Series). However, one person’s performance stands above all else and does deserve to be mentioned with all of the October legends of the past: Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Complete games just don’t happen anymore. Yet, there was Yamamoto out there in Game 2, with his team down a game already. He needed to go deep into the game just to give his beleaguered bullpen a breath. What resulted was one of the finest pitching performances we have ever seen. Yamamoto retired the last 19 batters he faced, surrendering only Alejandro Kirk‘s solo home run and walking no one as the Dodgers evened the series. Again, his team needed a big start in Game 6 to fend off elimination and again, the righty delivered with six innings of one run ball. Finally, on the very next night, he was summoned with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning in a tie game and asked to bring Los Angeles home. You know what happened. He ended up going 2 2/3 innings to finish the job and frankly, probably would have pitched another 5 2/3 innings if necessary. In my opinion, in the 11th inning, he pitched around Addison Barger and walked him, knowing he was needing a double play. He did just that getting Kirk with a jam shot that gave the Dodgers the championship. By the way, I called that entire sequence. The kids will admit to that.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s World Series performance is one that even the most hardened of baseball fans would agree is legendary. Three victories in a single World Series is remarkable and has been done now only 14 times. If you are my age and older and can’t appreciate Yamamoto’s accomplishment, I don’t know what to tell you. Cherish this moment because it might be a long time before we see something like this again.

MLB Final Four: How to Root For One

For the first time since 2021, none of our teams are in the league championship series. It’s not a good feeling for us. While we plan on watching both LCS’s and the World Series, the interest in the rest of the season won’t be as intense without one of our dogs in the mix. Believe it or not, I can make a case to root for any one of the final teams left in these playoffs. However, once I go through my review of the Blue Jays, Brewers, Dodgers and Mariners, it is quite clear that there is only one team that gets my vote (and I venture to say that all of us will be rooting for the same team).

Christian Yelich looks to avenge 2018. Credit: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Seattle Mariners: They are the only team in Major League Baseball to have never made the World Series. It’s a great fanbase that plays in a beautiful ballpark. The Mariners have an outstanding starting rotation including a guy who is local to us, Rye’s George Kirby. They have a catcher who hit 60 home runs, for crying out loud. Who doesn’t love to see the Mariner Moose parade around the top of the dugout? Seattle has been talked about for years as a contender that doesn’t have a good offense. That has changed during this run.

Toronto Blue Jays: Impossible to root for since they eliminated the Yankees? Not so fast. There is an adage that says that if you lose to someone in a playoff round, you’d like it to be against the eventual champion. One of my favorite family vacations was a trip to Niagara Falls two years ago, which is only about an hour from Toronto. The Blue Jays have six players on the roster that came from the Yankees, Mets and Phillies. Their matchup against Seattle represents a meeting between teams that both entered the league in 1977.

Milwaukee Brewers: I actually saw a couple of Brewers’ playoff games in person: Games 3 and 5 of the 1981 divisional series at Yankee Stadium. Milwaukee has made one World series appearance, losing in seven games to the Cardinals in 1982. They were baseball’s best team in 2025, winning an MLB best 97 games. The league’s smallest market has also been one of its most consistent, even if the playoff ledger says otherwise. The Brewers face the Dodgers, hoping to have a different result from 2018 when they lost in seven games in this very round. Christian Yelich was the league MVP that year. He would like to be the NLCS MVP this year.

Los Angeles Dodgers: How can you root for the champs? One word: tradition. It oozes through their 100 plus year history. They are one of the winningest franchises in the sport. Other than the occasional Spanish wearing days, the uniform does not change. Dodger Stadium is still majestic, some 60 years after it was built. Peer pressure from MLB Network will force you to root for Shohei Ohtani so you might as well submit to it. We love winners. Why not cheer for the one going for their third championship in six years?

The verdict: It’s not a debate. The Milwaukee Brewers are the clear favorite in our house. There are a number of reasons why we wouldn’t be pulling for the Blue Jays and Dodgers; the losses by the Yankees and Phillies are the icing on the cake. Seattle is a little trickier, just based on the fact they have never been to a World Series. What tips the balance in favor of the Brewers is that I still remember the Yankees losing to the Mariners in the 1995 playoffs. I could get over it except that is the last time Don Mattingly played baseball. After being a small market team that seemingly has to struggle every season, it’s time for the Brewers to finally claim a championship.

Can the Phillies Please Clinch the Division Tonight?

The Philadelphia Phillies clinched a playoff spot yesterday. However, I’d like to call it a muted celebration because the team did not win yesterday’s game against the Kansas City Royals. Instead, they “backed” in by virtue of a loss by the San Francisco Giants. Now the Phils head out on a difficult road trip, visiting the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. It’s real simple: one more victory and Philadelphia repeats as National League East champions.

I expect to see JT Realmuto catching the final out tonight. Credit: Sports Illustrated

For all that is good in the world, and for my sweet daughter Caitlyn, please clinch the division tonight.

Don’t fool around. Don’t drag this out any longer. Hang five runs on Anthony Banda in the first inning and let Ranger Suarez cook. Have Kyle Schwarber boost his MVP credentials with a three run home run in the third inning. Make those notorious Dodger fans leave in the fifth inning instead of the seventh. Let’s have Caitlyn go into school tomorrow in a fabulous mood. If the Phils lose tonight, I will be peppered with things like, “why do we stink” or, “can the Mets catch us” or my personal potential favorite, “we are regressing”. I don’t need such talk at 7: 30 AM and neither does Matthew. I’ll have to play “Dancing on My Own”, the team’s 2022 song, on a loop in order for her to feel better. No offense to the song because I like it but we need to hear it after a win, not a loss.

It’s an hour before first pitch. I’ll make three innings at most. And when I wake up in the morning, I want footage of champagne and beer goggles. It’s not a lot to ask.