new york – The Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions in a full season for the first time since 1988. We'll get to that qualifier in a second, but these Dodgers wanted to emphasize how special this championship is.
Sure, there will be many who focus on their huge payroll and that has certainly helped, but this is a team that was bounced by the Wild Card in 2019, in the NLCS in 2021 and again in 2022. Was bounced by a wild card and yes, by one. Wild card in 2023. They had to hear how 2020 wasn't a “real” headline. Corey Seager – who was on the Dodgers in 2020 – was reportedly excited about winning a “real” title with the Rangers in 2023.
On a Wednesday night, surrounded by champagne and streamers, none of this should have mattered. But it happened.
Manager Dave Roberts said after Game 5, “It's hard to win a championship, no matter what kind of team you have.” The difficulty, the playoff format, all that stuff.
“I'm going to be in the moment, and I'm going to enjoy it. I'm sure there's no asterisk on it.”
Amid hugs and happy screams from family members and tears of joy, the Dodgers got a monkey off their back Wednesday night. It wasn't easy, to the extent that a team with a ton of starting pitching depth had to piece together a bullpen game in the playoffs. No snide comments were made about COVID or the shortened season. There was no asterisk. He did this.
Blake Treinen said after the game, “I don't think baseball has ever seen a team that made its way like that. It's never happened in the playoffs.” “It's a testament to the hard work that [team president Andrew] Friedman put together. Just look below at guys who weren't even in the team to start the season and have big roles for us. I would be the one to tell you that there will never be a bullpenning team that wins the World Series. I am eating crow.”
Remember, the Dodgers finished the season with seven starting pitchers on the injured list. It's almost unimaginable that a team can survive this and still win the World Series.
“We've been through a lot, but I would say we still have the best record in baseball this year,” Roberts said. “It wasn't easy, but our guys fought and played the right way every day, played to win. There was a lot of loss of talent because of injuries, a lot of young players lost their talent, which is good. But a The thing is, we kept going. Even in the postseason, I don't think anyone picked us out of the first series.
“For us to go out there and fight, scratch and claw and win 11 games in October, it's a credit to our guys.”
Due to pitching injuries, yes, many people did not predict them to win the World Series – although I want to push back on Roberts claiming that no one picked him – allowing the Dodgers to announce that everyone Count 'em out, one of the favorite intrinsic motivators of athletes everywhere. Roberts also said this while waving the World Series trophy.
“A lot of people were trying to find ways to discredit us,” Treinen said. “It was a fair analysis; our starting players have been through the ringer.
“Freddie [Freeman] He hurt his ankle in the last series of the year, he was phenomenal for us in the World Series. [Shohei] Ohtani got injured sliding at second base and ended up playing there.”
Additionally, an enduring storyline for these Dodgers was how many times they failed to make the playoffs in non-COVID years. And the COVID year title has been discounted again and again. It was a 60-game season! Teams did not leave their area! There were seven-inning doubleheaders with no fans in the stands and neutral-site playoff games and everything else that came with that goddamn season!
I've done a lot of this myself, somewhat debunking it using statistics that say things like “over the entire season” to give up on 2020. it was just apart,
And when you pile that on top of the rest of their ledger, including winning the division 11 times each of the last 12 years and making the NLCS in the second, what really stuck out for so many people was that playoff run. Was a failure. His legacy was dying, not winning.
That should change in the 2024 playoff run, even if the Dodgers scoff at the notion.
“I don't care about legacies,” Clayton Kershaw said after the game. “We try our best to win games. When we lose, it's not fun and when we win, it's wonderful. Baseball is like that. More than anything, you have to understand that it How hard it is. Everyone writes it off as if we were supposed to be here. Regardless of talent level, it takes a lot to get here. Will win 100 games and the World Series, but you saw it tonight. It takes every last man.”
Kershaw is there. The pointless focus on payroll completely ignores how many under-the-radar moves the Dodgers needed to make here and how many injuries they overcame. Through it all, he turned the narrative around that he couldn't win a title that mattered.