The 2020 baseball season ended last night with the Los Angeles Dodgers beating the Tampa Bay Rays by a score of 3-1 in Game Six of the World Series. LA takes the crown, four games to two. Manager Kevin Cash of the Rays will be answering the "why did you pull Blake Snell?" question for the rest of his baseball life, I suppose. The Dodgers celebration was tainted by a positive COVID-19 test on Justin Turner who had to be removed from the game. MLB had gone almost two months without incident, and the playoff bubble had appeared to work beautifully, so the news was a bit of a shock. The virus has a way of defeating the best laid plans, it seems.
The Rays were a spirited and determined opponent and their bunch of "no-names" made some noise on the big stage. Game Four was one of the most fun and interesting post-season games I've ever watched. In fact, it was a good, competitive contest overall and showcased some great baseball. This is a Giants site and I've no enthusiasm for a Dodgers win but I will say that is a very familiar team. I feel like I know every player on the roster! Not just from the regular-season games these last several years but from all the playoff exposure, too. Anyway, I have a lot of friends who root for the blue and I am happy for them. Watching your favorite team win the World Series is a great thing.
I'm not one to put an asterisk on a record or a season. MLB and the MLBPA sat down and figured out the rules for a 60-game season. The Dodgers and Rays dominated that format. MLB and MLBPA sat down again and hammered out a post-season schedule. The Dodgers and Rays dominated that format as well, with LA coming out on top. All a team can do is navigate with the road map they are given regardless if it looks like last year's map or not. The Dodgers are the legitimate champions of baseball.
--M.C.
8 comments:
Considering the astericks that were put on various events in the past, this one deserves multiple astericks. The short season, the pandemic, the new playoff format, the runners on second base to start extra innings in the regular season, the 7 inning games for double headers, (this killed the giants.) the pitcher coming in and face 3 hitter rule. This season deserves and asterick. Not only that, but Kershaw did not have to endure a 162 game season, which usually ended up in exhaustion by October. I am happy for Dave Roberts, and Joc Pederson. Pederson's story about taking care of his brother, (if true) has been a heart warming story. I have some lifelong friends that are dodger fans, and some relatives, and keeping them as friends over all these years has not been an easy task. Go Giants in 2021.
I will remember this year as the year of the Pandemic championship.
I figure since all teams played under the same rules that everything counts the same. I'm really glad we had baseball this year. Even a weird, truncated season was worth it for me.
Opposite effect for me. If you added up all of the partial Games I watched this Season, it might have added up to one full Game. I think that I watched 5 minutes of the Post-Season:
- I'm fed up w/ the stupid in-Game rule changes, especially the futility of the ones which should be speeding up the Games. So, some of this pre-dates the 2020 Season, but it was really amped up this Season.
- I'm fed up w/ the incessant Roster tinkering, so that, if you go out-of-town (or are busy) for a couple of days, you can't recognize half of your own Team, when you get back into town. There's no way to establish a connection w/ your Team, let alone maintain a basic understanding of everyone else. Again, some of this pre-dates the 2020 Season, but it was worse this Season.
- Sorry, but I'm an NL traditionalist - the DH sucks. It doesn't just affect strategy involving the Pitcher's spot in the order, but limits other moves throughout the entire Game, too.
I suspect if they ever get back to a "normal" schedule that we will see a return to more stable roster rules. Obviously with this season there would have to be some adjustments (like the 7-inning double-header and the extra-innings runner) in order to pull the thing off. I suppose that's what I'm impressed by--they pulled it off! I did not expect that. I kept thinking a run of infections would cause it all to collapse.
As far as speeding up the games go, I'm all for that. Unfortunately I think that will mean a pitch clock. For one, the players cannot police themselves. They take all the time they want in the box or on the mound and plate appearances have become too lengthy with all the stepping out and stepping off. For another, I can't see them giving the umps the authority to penalize players for delaying the game. Can you imagine some nameless ump calling out Justin Verlander for taking too long between pitches? I don't see MLBPA giving in to that. So, a pitch clock seems inevitable. At first I was resistant to the idea, but I don't see a way out of that impasse.
My biggest barrier to enjoying the game continues to be the useless TV broadcasts. So much time spent on nonsense like close-ups of the manager and those horrid in-game interviews, not to mention idiots like John Smoltz who only want to talk about themselves. There seems to be a real fear by the announcers to talk about WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON IN THE FIELD and they babble on with dumb stories or try to be funny or try to provide "analysis", all in an effort to avoid the present moment. It's weird--to me sports is ALL ABOUT THE MOMENT.
In Game Four when we saw that crazy ending it took several replays for the TV morons to finally show us how the whole situation unfolded. Anyone in the audience could have watched the whole thing effortlessly from start to finish. The TV audience gets short-changed in those cases. I've always wished we could get more "whole field" views of the plays.
Can you believe the White Sox hired Tony LaRussa? Seriously?
It's clear that MLB is a very conservative place. To have to reach into the retirement bin to find an old manager sends a message to up-and-comers that they aren't ready for the big job. That's a bad move. The sport needs young managers! It also points out that there just aren't that many people who (apparently) have the skills to be a big-league manager. Looks like the Tigers will hire AJ Hinch. Once you are in, you are in, it seems.
I turned on each of the last few world series games late in the game. I watched on 4K TV, and except for those 5 second sponsor breaks within the innings, there were no commercials. The inning was over and one was able to see the field without the commercials or announcer gibberish. If that is what the 4K service is going to deliver, I am all for it.
Is that via MLB TV, or some other service like Dish? I watched the Series on Fox broadcast (off-the-air) TV and so I had to suffer with Joe Schmuck and John Doltz.
I have some 4K channels on my direct TV. channel 105, 106, 107 etc. Maybe a few others. The World Series was carried on our local Fox station, and on 4K TV. I had it on both, but I was only a late inning watcher and preferred it on 4k. For my eyes. I cannot tell the difference between 1080 and 4K, but the fact that it was a different broadcast without commercials, made me favor the 4K feed.
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