Tag: Toronto Blue Jays

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.

Win This For Don Mattingly

The World Series is finally here. None of our teams are participating. It’s definitely a different vibe than last year when the New York Yankees were gearing up for their first Fall Classic in 15 years. Now we get the Los Angeles Dodgers looking for a repeat while the Toronto Blue Jays are back after a 33 year absence. On the surface, why would I root for either team? Who outside of Los Angeles wants the Dodgers to win? The Blue Jays eliminated the Yankees. I can’t pull for these teams.

Don MAttingly is why I am rooting for Toronto Credit: Sportsnet

You bet I can. Two words: Don Mattingly

If you are a Yankee fan of a certain age, Don Mattingly was your guy. He is by far the best player in franchise history to never make a World Series. Even as a coach on Joe Torre‘s staff, Mattingly missed out, starting with the 2004 collapse vs. the Boston Red Sox. Now, as the hitting coach of the Blue Jays, he gets to feel the brightest of lights. Though he no longer is a member of the Yankee organization, I want Toronto to win it for Donnie Baseball, the man with rotten luck. He made his big league debut with the Yankees in 1982, the year after the Yankees made the World Series. The playoff drought would last 14 years. In my 50 plus years on Earth, New York finished last one time. The year was 1990 and it was the season Mattingly’s back problems first reared its ugly head. After all the losing and misery, the Yankees made it back to the playoffs in 1995. He hit .417 as the Yanks lost a thrilling five game divisional series to the Seattle Mariners. Retirement beckoned and wouldn’t you know it, the Yankees went on to win four of the next five World Championships. Eventually, he got into coaching the Yankees and managing the Dodgers. You would think that between those teams, Mattingly would have made at least one World Series. You would be wrong.

Don Mattingly’s playing career lands on the doorstep of the Hall of Fame. If his teams made more than one playoff appearance, he would have been enshrined. He was the best player in baseball for a five year stretch. Injuries robbed him of more productive seasons that were to follow. He’s been knocking on the door for the chance at a championship for almost 45 years. I hope the Jays get him to the mountaintop.

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.

Yankees Win: How Long Will the Good Vibes Last?

Phase One is complete for the New York Yankees. They eliminated the Boston Red Sox and now face another American League East foe, the Toronto Blue Jays. I made the point that the Yankees HAD to win this Red Sox series or else they might undergo, as what I like to refer to as, “an organizational earthquake”. The celebration is brief as the Yanks are right back at it on Saturday in Toronto. As much as we love beating the Red Sox (Aaron Boone should be exceptionally giddy), the good vibes the team is feeling could come crashing to a halt by this time next week.

Cam Schlittler pitched the Yanks into the next round. Credit: NY Post

If the Yankees get bounced in this round, will we even be satisfied about beating Boston in the previous round? I would say no. In fact, the only thing we would remember would be Cam Schlittler‘s epic performance in Game 3 and that Aaron Judge had an excellent offensive series. Other than that, there will be the same angst, the same level of frustration among the fansbase that gripped us for a good portion of the second half. The whispers about Boone’s job security will grow to a roar and the calls for Brian Cashman to go will mount even more. Yankee fans are not supposed to celebrate making it to a Division Series, even if they knocked off their most hated rival along the way. This is a team right now that appears to be poised for a return to the World Series.

I felt before the Wild Card round that if the Yankees can beat the Red Sox, they can win it all. That hasn’t changed. My confidence is actually a little bit higher now, thanks to Schlittler’s dominant performance. Beating the Red Sox is huge and I am not going to minimize that. However, losing to the Blue Jays will make the Boston victory hollow……until we see them in 2026.