Photo from Google Images
I can count the number of times I’ve cried over a sports loss on one hand. The Los Angeles Dodgers loss to the Boston Red Sox in game five of the World Series made it the fifth time I couldn’t stop the tears.
My families’ team is the Los Angeles Dodgers and as long as they are not playing the Texas Rangers, I root for the Dodgers. Because of my dad, I’ve listened to more Dodgers games on the radio (or on SIRIUS/XM) than other sports team. I prayed to the sports gods during the NLCS that if the Dodgers could not win the World Series, I didn’t want them to win the NLCS. As a Texas Rangers fan, the pain and heartbreak of losing back to back World Series in 2010 and 2011 is a feeling I’d never wish on anyone, especially, my family. My twin brother, Byron, is a die-hard Dodgers fan and when he heard about my prayer to the big sports man, he said he would rather be able to say his team went to back-to-back World Series than not go at all.
He now understands how cruel a game you love can be. Second place in the Olympics is something to cheer about, but there is no second place in baseball. In baseball, you win or you lose and losing the World Series is the hardest loss you can ever experience.
The hurt from losses just doesn’t come from the scoreboard, but from losing players you have watched every day. There are 162 regular season games in Major League Baseball. That’s a lot of time to feel like you know players. The Dodgers roster could see a lot of changes in the off season. Kershaw, Jansen, and Machado just to name a few.
Clayton Kershaw may have pitched his last game in a Dodger uniform. The three-time National League Cy Young Award winner singed a seven-year $215 million contract in 2014 with an opt-out clause that could send him into free agency. The Dodgers are all Kershaw knows and there is mutual love and respect for Kershaw and Los Angeles. Even with Kershaw’s injuries and decline, he’s a Hall of Famer and huge part of the Los Angeles organization both on and off the field.
If Kenley Jansen leaves LA, my mom will be the most heartbroken. She has referred to Jansen as “my Kenley” for years. Say what you want about his World Series stuff, the guy put off heart surgery for a chance to win the World Series. The last four years Jansen has been a shut-down closer and a big reason why the Dodgers played in back-to-back World Series. He just wasn’t the same this last series.
According to Byron, the 2018 World Series MVP is former Red Sox player and 2004 World Series winner; Dave Roberts. There should be a new skipper in LA next season. #FireDaveRoberts was trending on twitter during the game-four World Series loss. Pulling Rich Hill with a four-run lead in game-four was flat out horrible and most likely cost the Dodgers the game and possibly the World Series. For the first time in President Donald Trump’s twitter history, the world all agreed with him as he too tweeted about why Roberts would pull Hill. And then in game-five Roberts pulled Kershaw too late and pulled David Freese who had a home run and a triple! Un-bleeping believable!
Even though I didn’t get to hear Randy Newman’s I Love L.A. play in Dodger stadium, I still love L.A.
To Ian Kinsler and Mitch Moreland, congratulations. Both Kinsler and Moreland were on the 2010 and 2011 Texas Rangers teams.