NEW YORK — The Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions in a full season for the primary time since 1988. We’ll get to that qualifier in a second, however these Dodgers wished to emphasise how particular this championship is.
Certain, there might be many who concentrate on their monster payroll and that actually helped, however it is a group that was bounced by a Wild Card in 2019, within the NLCS in 2021 by a Wild Card once more in 2022 and by, sure, a Wild Card in 2023. They needed to hear about how 2020 wasn’t a “actual” title. Corey Seager — who was on the Dodgers in 2020 — reportedly obtained fired up about lastly successful a “actual” title with the Rangers in 2023.
On Wednesday evening, surrounded by champagne and streamers, none of that ought to have mattered. However it did.
“It is arduous to win a championship no matter what your group is like,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned after Sport 5. “It is arduous, and there is a cause why there hasn’t been a repeat champion because the Yankees did it. It clearly speaks to the problem, the playoff format, all that stuff.
“I will be within the second, and I will benefit from the heck out of this one. I am positive there isn’t any asterisk on this one.”
Amid the cuddling members of the family and screaming with delight and tears of pleasure, the Dodgers obtained a monkey off their again Wednesday evening. It wasn’t straightforward, to the purpose {that a} group with a ton of beginning pitching depth ended up having to piece collectively bullpen video games within the playoffs. There have been no snide remarks about COVID or a shortened season. There was no asterisk. They’d completed it.
“I do not assume baseball has ever seen a group that has bullpened its manner like this. It had by no means occurred within the playoffs,” Blake Treinen mentioned after the sport. “It is a testomony to the arduous work, the time that [team president Andrew] Friedman put collectively. Have a look at the fellows down there proper now that weren’t even on the group to start out the season and have large roles for us. I might’ve been the one to let you know there’ll by no means be a bullpenning group to win the World Collection. I’m consuming crow.”
Bear in mind, the Dodgers completed the season with a whopping seven beginning pitchers on the injured listing. It is virtually unfathomable {that a} group might survive that and nonetheless win the World Collection.
“We did undergo quite a bit, however I am going to say we nonetheless had one of the best file in all of baseball this yr,” Roberts mentioned. “It wasn’t straightforward, however our guys fought and performed day-after-day the correct manner, performed to win. There was lots of again filling on expertise due to damage, lots of younger gamers minimize their enamel, which is nice. However one factor is that we simply saved going. Even within the postseason, I do not assume anybody had us picked. I do not assume they’d us picked to get out of the primary sequence.
“For us to go on the market and struggle and scratch and claw and win 11 video games in October, that is a credit score to our guys.”
As a result of pitching accidents, yeah, many individuals didn’t predict them to win the World Collection — although I would push again on Roberts claiming nobody picked them — permitting the Dodgers to declare that everybody counted them out, one of many favourite inner motivators of athletes all over the place. Roberts additionally mentioned it whereas hoisting the World Collection trophy.
“Lots of people have been looking for methods to discredit us,” Treinen mentioned. “It was truthful evaluation; our starters have been by way of the ringer.
“Freddie [Freeman] hurts his ankle final sequence of the yr, he was phenomenal within the World Collection for us. [Shohei] Ohtani hurts himself on second base sliding and finally ends up enjoying right here.”
On prime of that, a permanent storyline for these Dodgers was how typically they’d failed within the non-COVID yr playoffs. And the COVID yr title has been discounted many times. It was a 60-game season! Groups did not depart their areas! There have been seven-inning doubleheaders and no followers within the stands and neutral-site playoff video games and all the things else that got here with that godforsaken season!
I’ve completed loads of it myself, considerably dismissing it by utilizing stats that say stuff like “in a full season” to depart 2020 out. It was simply completely different.
And once you pile that on prime of the remainder of their ledger, with successful the division 11 of the final 12 years and making the NLCS within the different one, what actually caught out to so many individuals was the playoff failures. Their legacy was choking, not successful.
The 2024 playoff run ought to change that, even when the Dodgers scoff on the notion.
“I do not care about legacies,” Clayton Kershaw mentioned after the sport. “We do our greatest to attempt to win video games. Once we lose, it isn’t enjoyable and once we win, it is superior. That is the way in which baseball is. Greater than something, you gotta perceive how arduous that is. All people simply writes it off like we’re alleged to be right here and that is not the case. It takes quite a bit to get right here, whatever the expertise degree. All people simply assumes we’re gonna present up and win 100 video games and the World Collection, however you noticed tonight it takes each final man.”
Kershaw is spot on there. The nonsensical concentrate on payroll completely ignores what number of under-the-radar strikes the Dodgers wanted right here and what number of accidents they overcame. Via all of it, they modified the narrative that they can not win a title that counts.
Dodgers World Collection Championship gear now out there
