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THOUGHTS REGARDING THE DODGERS WINNING THEIR FIRST WORLD SERIES IN 32 YEARS
One of the prevailing thoughts in my head after learning that SoCal’s premier baseball team had, after eight straight trips to the postseason which resulted in nothing but failure, frustration and disappointment,
Finally achieved what they had been favored to achieve for this past decade,
A World Series championship,
Was the fact that the last time those Los Angeles Dodgers had the right to be called champs,
I had just begun my first year at UCLA after transferring from Santa Monica College, being involved with the Bruin Marching Band,
Which incidentally was, in all places, in a hotel in Oakland after the UCLA football team had beaten Cal in nearby Berkeley; my friends and I were in a hotel room watching Kirk Gibson hit that iconic home run off the A’s’ Dennis Eckersley, the Oakland newspaper the next morning having the headline of “CURSES!”
But enough of that nostalgia road trip! Let’s talk about this Dodger title…
First of all,
Allow me to take some personal bows due to my prediction of how this World Series would unfold as if you had read my previous Dodger post on this blog, you would have seen that I predicted that the Dodgers would win in six games.
Which is EXACTLY what they did!
In other words, I was dead on right!
I’ll take this moment to accept congratulations now…
OK, now that that’s done,
Of course I’m happy for President/General Manager Andrew Friedman and particularly manager Dave Roberts, as after all the abuse that Roberts took from fans, including (admittedly) some from me, for all the mistakes he made in his game decisions which cost the Dodgers titles in previous seasons,
All those critics that were calling for his and Friedman’s dismissal – including me as I did such on this blog a few weeks ago when they were down three games to one to the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS and I stated that they should be let go if the Braves knocked the Dodgers out – need to, for lack of a better way to put it, shut up as those two Dodger leaders finally succeeded in what they were paid to do,
Bring a baseball championship back to Chavez Ravine.
As much as anything else, perhaps more,
This championship, along with the Lakers title a few weeks before, has provided something for SoCal sports fans to feel great about, a highlight to a 2020 that has seen so many bad things happen in this country and the world.
Which has been so needed for the mental and emotional psyche of SoCal folks.
Much like with the Lakers, it’s much too bad that the Dodgers won’t get to have a parade down Figueroa Ave,
But as I suggested to a friend of mine on Twitter, perhaps Los Angeles’ two new championship teams,
Which (by the way) marks the first time that a baseball and a basketball team from the same city have won a crown since, get this,
1988, when – you guessed it – the Dodgers and the Lakers won titles,
Can hold a joint parade and celebration in downtown L.A. sometime in 2021 when a vaccine to stop COVID-19 is available and effective and the coronavirus pandemic is over.
I’ll certainly do my utmost best to be there if such an event comes to pass.
I’m especially happy for such iconic Dodgers as former manager Tommy Lasorda and greatest broadcaster of all time Vin Scully, who get to see their beloved team win a World Series after so many years.
As for how good their chances are of repeating as World Series champs next season,
Their core guys of Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger, and World Series MVP Corey Seager, alone with their young pitchers like Dustin May, Julio Urias – who threw the last pitch – and Walker Buehler, return.
But I honestly don’t want to think about next year right now, as I just want to enjoy something that took so long for the Dodgers to achieve, me typing this while wearing my authentic Dodger cap and watching the championship coverage on MLB Network and Fox Channel 11.
I’ll end this post by joining every other Dodger fan – I have been one for over forty years – in saying…
CONGRATULATIONS, DODGERS!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!