After their third trip to the big stage in the past four years, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally captured their first World Series championship of the twentieth century.
On the line was not only was manager Dave Roberts’ job, but also star pitcher Clayton Kershaw’s legacy. Kershaw has been criticized for his postseason play over his entire career. But with two solid outings in the World Series, as well as breaking the all-time playoff strikeouts record, he managed to silence critics.
Ethan Holesha
Managing Editor
This championship feels especially good after a drought dating back to 1988. Oh, and getting redemption from the 2017 world series loss against a Houston Astros team that was confirmed to have cheated feels pretty good too.
Twenty-six-year-old shortstop Corey Seager won the World Series MVP honors. It’s also worth noting that he took home the NLCS MVP award the series prior; his postseason play was incredible. With World Series stats of a .400 batting average, five RBIs, and two home runs, he was able to lead Los Angeles to victory.
In a hard-fought series, the Dodgers beat a young Tampa Bay Rays team in six games. Breakout rookie Rays outfielder Randy Arozerena had a postseason nobody will ever forget. He managed to break the single postseason home run record with a staggering 10 home runs.
He also managed to break the hits record for a single postseason with a whopping 29 total. It’s safe to say that he’s smelling a contract extension in his near future.
With a shortened 60-game season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this season was a weird one for sure. But anyone saying that this season should have an asterisk next to it clearly doesn’t know baseball.
With a 43-17 record, the Dodgers had the best record in the entire MLB. As we can now see, their dominance carried over into the postseason. They proved themselves as the wire-to-wire best team in baseball this year.
So does this solidify Kershaw as one of the best to ever do it? Absolutely.
An eight-time all star, three-time Cy Young, MVP winner, and he’s only thirty two years old. Now on top of that you can add on World Series champion. He is officially up there with the greats.
Longtime Dodgers third basement Justin Turner also made headlines… but for all the wrong reasons.
Weirdly enough the veteran third baseman was pulled from the series-clinching game in the seventh inning. I’m sure you’re probably wondering to yourself, why would the Dodgers make this move?
Well, it turned out that Turner had COVID. That’s right, and he played. After the MLB was notified, he was immediately pulled from the game. He was then quarantined in a doctor’s office. No problems it seems . . . right?
Well, there were no problems until Turner decided he wanted to get in on the celebration. He returned to the field to join all of his teammates after the win, and even took his mask off for the team photo.
Turner is now subject to discipline under an agreement between the MLB and the players’ association on health and safety protocol. He also became a free agent when his $64 million, four-year contract expired following the victory.
I can understand wanting to celebrate with your teammates possibly one last time, and especially since he was around them for the majority of the game. But I don’t think he made the right decision. Of course, it’s easy to say that now. If I put myself in his shoes, I can’t say that I might not have done the same.
Shifting back to the positives, the Dodgers finally did it. No more memes, no more bashing–they’re finally on top of the baseball world.
With a lot of players likely to return, Los Angeles is already the favorite to win it all again next year. To the delight of Dodgers fans, this is a sight that they may see again soon.
