You could hear a pin drop at Yankee Stadium. On October 30, 2024 the Los Angeles Dodgers had just clinched the 2024 World Series with a 7-6 victory in game 5. In the midst of the deafening silence, a few dozen Dodger players and coaches were celebrating on the field like it was 1999. In the stands Yankee fans were in a state of stunned silence. It is always a bit surreal when a visiting team celebrates a World Series victory on the road. On October 30 TV sets throughout the land showed Mookie Betts racing across the diamond throwing hat and glove to the sky. Sheer bliss. As the Dodgers celebrated, Yankee fans mourned. As New York shared in their collective angst, the Dodgers were too busy basking in the glory to even notice the Yankees' five borough nightmare.
Going into their 2024 division series with the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers were reeling from a pair of historic playoff flameouts. In 2022 an epic 111 win season ended with a 3-1 loss to the Padres in the first round. In 2023 the Dodgers won 100 games only to be swept by an Arizona Diamondbacks team that barely made the playoffs. As their series against the Padres loomed on the horizon, the boo birds were waiting in the wings placing their cat calls on hold for a possible third consecutive disaster.
In the 2024 playoffs, the baseball gods graced the Los Angeles Dodgers with a perpetual smile. In the opening round they clinched a five game series against the second best team in baseball-the Padres. (Sorry Yankee fans.) They took the New York Mets in six games and in the World Series they went up 3-0 in a heartbeat. Game one ended with a Gibson style grand slam compliments of Freddie Freeman. From that point onward it was all Dodgers.
With 3-0 as a backdrop the network pundits informed us all that no team that had ever gone down 3-0 in the World Series had ever made it to game six. In the 2024 World Series the Yankees had all the makings of being the first team to achieve that goal. In game four the Dodgers were minced 11-4, and the Yankees were leading 5-0 after three innings in game five. At that point fans of the pinstripes were hoping for an impossible comeback. Bring it back to L.A. and if you win game six all bets were off.
In the top of the fifth the roof caved in on the Yankees. In that inning a series of errors placed the team into a tailspin. Seasoned professionals strangely played like little league washouts. The action started with Aaron Judge muffing a routine fly ball in center field. That mishap was quickly followed by a botched throw to third that resulted in a safe call. With two outs in the inning, a Cy Young pitcher Gerrit Cole failed to cover the bag during a routine grounder to first. Mookie Betts was safe by a mile. When the smoke cleared the Dodgers went into the sixth inning tied 5-5. Yankee fans who had hoped for an impossible dream were suddenly stuck in a collective meltdown. The Dodgers staged a mini rally in the top of the eighth to go up 7-6. Six outs later they were world champs.
In a world of multimillion dollar contracts major league ballplayers are accused of being businessmen and nothing more. Wake up sports fans! Baseball has always been a business. When Babe Ruth was washed up the Yankees gave him a one way ticket to play for the Boston Braves. In the waning moments of his career, Jackie Robinson was informed by the Dodgers that he was being traded to the Giants. Robinson chose retirement over engaging in such a sacrilege.
In the exhibition season major league ballplayers appear to be millionaires engaging in a business enterprise. In the World Series they magically become ten year old boys playing sandlot ball for the first time. In the World Series they play the game because they love the game. They play the game because it is a grand and glorious thing.
The Dodger victory over the Yankees in the 2024 World Series has had a remarkable impact on the collective psyche of Los Angeles. When a World Series is won, jaded adults feel like ten year old kids on Christmas morning. Chronic pessimists relive the type of childhood glee that they felt on the first day of summer school.
Dodgers 4 Yankees 1. Ain't life grand.
W. Palmer Riley
