Funny, I've made some coin on the Brooklyn team this year.

There is also the possibility the Dodgers might have won at least one of their prior World Series appearances if it hadn't been for the other teams cheating. That is a popular opinion around here. But, instead of crying over that, they now have a fair opportunity to prove themselves and let everyone get over it. Kershaw's 1.50 ERA in game one certainly looks more like what he is capable of compared to those last WS outings.

Last night's game was fun to watch as well, but by the time it was over, so was I.

Bottom of the 9th inning tonight: THAT was a Grade A double f*-up! Maybe the Dodgers WS jinx is still intact. Tune in tomorrow, same BAT-time, same bat-channel for Episode 5, The Umpire Strikes Back.

That was one entertaining baseball game.

It really was. I was actually rooting for Phillips. Sometimes the game deserves his kind of hero.

Wasn't counting on the Dodgers to fumble and fully fall apart though.

I always love when a team with a $28M team salary beats a team with a $105M team salary.

Agree. Any owner that want a to buy a World Series can shell out a ton of money and assemble a team of stars and still fall short. Yankees have done this many times. Sometimes it works. But it is nice when teams just build a team and get hot at the right time.

Big market teams should have exorbitant payrolls instead of lining the board of directors pockets. Revenues should be split 50/50. So the Dodgers,Yanks, Cubs etc should be up around 300 million plus per year. Luxury tax kicks in pays the smaller market teams and in turn they would be able to sign higher end talent and keep some of their young stars to help put a stable face on their franchise. I think this would even the competitive balance over time and players would make what their worth. Nobody is paying to see the owners so give it to the guys that earn it.

One last thing I will say is that only a true Astros fan can share my hate for the Dodgers goes back to 1986. I was just a kid then but at that time the Dodgers came in town to play the Astros. Tommy Lasorda was asked what he thought about the Astros being in first place. He said the Astros were just renting it. Well the first game of that series was no disappointment. We were at the game sitting in Centerfield. At the start of the game someone hung a sign in right field.....It was in the shape of a penis and it said Rent this Lasorda! As kid it was the funniest thing I had seen at a game. It was gone by the 3rd inning. So rivalries can be fun. Ok....that sign was probably in poor taste but it was funny.

No denying the talent the Dodgers have but would love to see Tampa win. Just to see Joe Kelly cry sour grapes some more.

I saw that last night. What am I missing here? That was a chain of huge mistakes.

2 outs, runners on first and second, count is 1 and 2, and you’re against a hitter who has done nothing in the past. And you serve up a beautiful fast ball right straight down the pike?? Why? I don’t see anyone commenting on that pitch. Just look at the replays and watch that pitch laser straight down the sweet spot. That has to be the dumbest pitch I have ever seen on 1/2. Who called for that?

Outfielder totally flubs it. We would have been scolded in little league for missing that.

No one comments on the first basemen’s throw to the catcher. That was crap. Why would you throw it over to the opposite side of the plate and make him reach for it over there? Not the catcher’s fault. Terrible throw.

After all that, the icing on the cake was the total crash and burn as the runner came around third. Seriously, run much? That was a crack-up. You could just see the look on his face as he was laying at home plate, laughing to himself. I totally fell on my ass like an idiot, then I got up, and now I won the game!

It was pretty damn entertaining. Not great for Dodger fans, but still, funny as hell.

The real issue I had is why does Robert’s have Jensen in the ninth with the game on the line?
He doesn’t fool many hitters anymore with his low 90 mph cutter that doesn’t have much movement. That was a recipe for disaster.

To many mistakes, and bad decisions made by Roberts last night. Leaving Baez in to long, after giving up the homer. Putting in Jansen to close it, he just doesn’t throw heat anymore. A few base running mistakes, that one by Muncy on 2nd base..then that pinch hit in the 9th..Taylor w the bobble, poor throw to the plate by Muncy..Mookie has to step up and contribute offensively..last night hurt as a dodgers fan, but some rum n cokes after the game helped ease some of the pain..

I always love it when a person with a $20k salary has more common sense and class than a person with a 6 figure salary.

Well, Kershaw didn't have his best stuff tonight, but pitched a workmanlike game and had a lot of help on defense and the bullpen did it's job.

One more to go!

And as far as payroll, there were plenty of high payroll teams that didn't make it this far.

Go Dodgers!

This fragmented season will always have an asterisk after it like Barry Bonds.
In fact, the trophy should be 1/3 rd scale.
At least it will be over by tomorrow or Wednesday. My bet, Wednesday.

If I remember correctly the Angels won that World Series anyway. I was actually at games 2, 6, and 7 and saw Barry crack the homer into the right field tunnel. Game 2, 4 hours, final score Angels 11, Giants 10. I call that the hemorrhoid game. You would too after sitting in one of those plastic left field seats for 4 hours.

I think the only homers I ever saw go further in Angel Stadium were when A-Rod almost hit the left field concession stand the next year, and the Angels DH Brad Fullmer hit one above the tunnel Barry's went into.

And the Dodgers do it. First since 1988.

Major Trivia Time: Tonight was the first World Series game EVER to have more than half the outs made by Strikeouts - - 16 of the 27 Tampa outs and 11 of the 24 Dodger outs, 27 out of 51 total.

Cue up the obligatory Randy Newman...

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Thank the baseball gods, I'm so happy!
Christ! I was a sophomore in High School when Gibson and Hershiser won In 88.

Message from the Blue Freeeek Kingdom.

GO DODGERS!!!!

FINALLY, the Dodgers finish the job. First the Lakers, then the Dodgers! As a Southern CA resident, and lifelong fan of both franchises, nothing feels better, except for new pin day, when that comes occasionally...

however, in the next season for both leagues, the activism will definitely take away from my enjoyment of both teams. While I will be happy if they keep winning, I won't be watching vigilantly as I used to. Ratings are down as hell for a reason. Isolating and alienating your KEY demographic is not a good strategy to develop a brand or foster a growing demographic.

Lets face it, Millennials dont really care about sports...

Fragmented? what for? dodgers won 43 games of a 60 game season. No asterisk here. If anything, the Houston Astros deserve a HUGE asterisk for the cheating scandal in 2017. they deserve their title revoked.

Come on now!!

I give credit to the entire MLB organization for putting their plan together and following through in order to give us fans something positive in this year of total chaos. No asterisks, no down playing the shortened season, the Dodgers are the rightful champions....they earned it. They even had to get through the added layer of playoff rounds. Congratulations and thank you for one of the few good things to happen in 2020

Congrats to the Dodgers, good thing they finished it in 6 with Turner testing positive.

Two major controversies emerged from the game: Turner celebrating, often maskless, with the team and their families; and the decision to pull Snell.

On Turner, I'd say it was foolish, but his and their choice to make. The season is over, the bubble is no longer relevant, it's now a question of not being there for a literally once-in-a-lifetime moment vs. uncertain risk to each person's lifetime. Personally, I'd stay safe and celebrate later, but I totally get that others wouldn't, especially in such an emotionally charged moment.

On Snell, I agree with the critics that it was STUPID to pull him (and I live in Dodger-land). I'm an analytics guy by trade; have been for decades. But I know that analytics isn't perfect, and I've learned and taught others to see when to use it and when to override it. Last night was a classic case of poor application. If your starter is having a "typical" outing and your relievers have been having "typical" save results, then yes, make the move. But Snell was having a significantly above-norm outing, and the relievers had been shakier than average recently. In analytics, the good_ practitioners pay attention to data outliers and factor them into the decision-making. Analytics says, "X% of the time, pulling the pitcher is better" where X is something over 50%. Fine. Maybe X is even 75% here. But that other percent of the time, it's the wrong move. You've got to know when you're likely to be in that other 100-X%. For me, there was enough evidence here that this was a needed exception to the "pull" rule. Too many people treat analytics as if X was 100%; it's not.

All my Dodger-fan neighbors are delighted, of course. Plus it sure saved us the problem of when and if game 7 would have been played after Turner tested positive!!

wonder if the league will come down on Turner with some form of disciplinary action

Wait what? I turned it off just after that last fireball pitch that ended the game. So I didn't hear at that point that Turner left the game because of a positive Covid test. So, they find out about the test result right in the middle of the game, apparently? No one knew about it when the game started, but a phone call came somewhere in the middle of the game that said, hey we have a positive result on Turner? And seeing that, they say, hey, you need to get out of here right now and get isolated because you are tested positive and you could infect others? And they send him off the field right in the middle of the game? That makes sense. But, he comes back out after the game is over, with no mask on, and celebrates with everyone all around? That does not make sense. That seems... really odd. And not a very good idea.

Yep, they said they didn’t want to celebrate without him.

Congrats from AZ!

Will be wearing my Don Drysdale jersey and piss off D-Backs fans as usual.

Tuner tests positive. As have many other figures in the sports world. But how many actually got sick? I love how the NFL had a couple of teams with a lot of positives, so what do they do? They postpone the game for a couple days.

Watching all this with everyone's half ass attempt at wearing masks shows me very few healthy, active people will actually get sick from this. Take that with a grain of of salt.

Congrats Dodgers! Glad it's finally over.

Also Arozarena, who pretty much broke all post season power records started the season on the Covid list.

At this rate next year may look similar to this year. Fragmented season, bubbles, no fans at stadiums in states with high numbers etc...
Looking forward to real baseball in 2022 or 23.

Ray's manager went with pure analytics, and lost the big one.
Dave Robert's, after years of bad decisions, finally went with his gut, and rode the hot hand, Urius, to the promised land.

Beutiful!

Been a dodgers fan for 40 years, and to see Julio Urias close the door was just beautiful. Kenley couldn’t do it, but I still admire/respect what he’s brought to the club for years. Being part Hispanic, I felt proud watching Julio after the game w the flag over his shoulders. Brought me back when Fernando ruled the city of angels..this is the best Wednesday in a very long time.,

Urias reminds me of Francisco Rodriguez when he pitched in the 2002 World Series for the Angels. Both young guns had awesome stuff and nerves of steel.

That analytics crap is way overrated.

Yeah for 20 years baseball teams been winning with analytics and one Possibly bad decision last night proves it’s all hogwash!

I think I just that I admire baseball eras prior to analytics (plus there seemed to be way more "unwritten rules.")

Plus... whatever! The A's are still garbage.

Tony Larussa the new White Sox manager, WTF?

I owe you $100

Quoted from SunnRAT:
That analytics crap is way overrated.

Quotes from CrazyLevi:
Yeah for 20 years baseball teams been winning with analytics and one Possibly bad decision last night proves it’s all hogwash!

Analytics works, but has its limitations. Too many non-math people treat the output as gospel rather than as a directional indicator. It's important to know what variables are NOT reflected in any model and keep them in mind before making a final decision.

Same in Pinball, BTW. If the "statistically best" strategy on a game is shot or shot sequence X, but you're really dialed in on Y today and or are tending to brick shot X, you're probably better off sticking with Y. Having a "typical" day? Stick with X.

In both the baseball and pinball cases, a "more robust" model would reflect not only the raw odds of a given strategy outperforming one or more other strategies given "average" shot accuracies but have some sensitivity analysis of how great a deviation from "average" accuracy is required to flip the switch on the optimal choice. For Tampa, how much better an ERA or OBPCT or % K's result says keep the guy out there even if the batters see him a third time. For the pinballer, how much does your "hit shot Y" percentage need to go up (or shot X down) from average before you should go with shot Y vs. shot X?

Nice to watch some spring training games with fans there.

Aaron Boone taking a leave from the Yankees to get a pacemaker put in.

Makes perfect sense

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/coronavirus/white-sox-fans-drink-the-most-of-any-mlb-fan-base-study-shows/2453770/?amp

Cuz it’s the white Sox ?! I think that chi town is great for sports..after ny & la, it’s gotta be right up there