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2018 World Series - Red Sox v Dodgers

dbecks

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dbecks

dbecks 442

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Two of the biggest payrolls - and most despised franchises - in baseball finally meet in a World Series. (Although they technically met in 1916, but I digress.)

 

The Red Sox have to be the heavy favorites, but anything can happen.

 

Sox in six.

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Vic Mackey
Vic Mackey

It's ending this inning. I can feel it

MaxHorn
MaxHorn

I'm a lifelong Dodgers fan. My grandpa was the original radio engineer for Vin Scully & Jerry Doggett when the Dodgers moved to LA. My mother went out on a date with Sandy Koufax. I moved to Texas

Vic Mackey
Vic Mackey

Good thing you guys don't have Yu this time around for 2 free wins for the opposition haha.

Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted

102 years ago, Babe Ruth and the BoSox beat the Dodgers (then, the Brooklyn Robins).  Ruth threw all 14 innings in game 2 on a way to a 4-1 Sox series win.  

I predict this time around, no sox starter goes more than 5 2/3.  Still not sure what the hell is going on with the Boston rotation.  But they're just playing too well right now.  

I hope it goes 7 for Halloween purposes.  Who goes in game 1 for each team?  Boston has been done since Thursday and even the Dodgers get 72 hours off.  

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Fudge Nuggets

Fudge Nuggets 19414

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55 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

But they might, just might, be the best MLB team in 80 years.  They should win it easily.

 

8 minutes ago, NowThis said:

Boston is f'n overwhelming in all aspects, one of the best teams I've ever seen. 

I've been trying to think of more dominant teams in my time and the only two I come up with are the 1986 Mets (but they got pushed to the limit in the playoffs) and the 1984 Tigers.

That Tigers team never seemed to get challenged in the least.  Of course my memory may be exaggerating things.

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NowThis

NowThis 931

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9 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

 

I've been trying to think of more dominant teams in my time and the only two I come up with are the 1986 Mets (but they got pushed to the limit in the playoffs) and the 1984 Tigers.

That Tigers team never seemed to get challenged in the least.  Of course my memory may be exaggerating things.

what about the Yanks 1996-2000?

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6346

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I've always had a soft spot for the Dodgers because I love Dodger Stadium - went there when I was 8, my first MLB game outdoors, loved it, been back a few times since.

Boston is probably better though...which doesn't necessarily mean they'll win, but I expect them to. 

I just want to see a couple of vintage Kershaw games - that will make this series really interesting. 

 

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Helobious

Helobious 9789

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4 hours ago, phdhorn said:

I hate the Red Sox more than Vic hates buff chicks.
But they might, just might, be the best MLB team in 80 years.  They should win it easily.
Other than that, I'm putting on Dark Side of the Moon instead of Joe Buck during the games.

Yankees won 125 games (including postseason) in 1998. Went 11-2 in the playoffs.

This Sox team is the best team in a decade, easily. Motherfuckers. The Dodgers really aren’t that impressive either. Boston in 4. 

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dbecks

dbecks 442

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The Machado-Red Sox narrative is sure to be an interesting one this series.

I’m still highly skeptical of the “Mookie at 2B” speculations coming from the Boston media, if even only because of the chance of Mookie trying to turn a double play with Machado sliding into 2nd, Ty Cobb-style.

One of the dirtiest players in the game. Fuck that guy.

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NeverMarryAStripper

NeverMarryAStripper 22254

Posted
Posted
I've been trying to think of more dominant teams in my time and the only two I come up with are the 1986 Mets (but they got pushed to the limit in the playoffs) and the 1984 Tigers.
That Tigers team never seemed to get challenged in the least.  Of course my memory may be exaggerating things.

Astros should have taken the Mets in 86
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Pablo

Pablo 500

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13 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

Fuck both of these teams. 

Sox should win, but they'll probably fuck it up and let douchebags like Puig and Joc Pederson get a ring.  

I'm with you, fuck'em both, but I'd rather see Dave Roberts get a ring than Cora. 

LA Dbags in 6.

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FondrenRoad

FondrenRoad 4378

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4 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:


Astros should have taken the Mets in 86

The Red Sox should have also.  Not sure how the 86 Mets are in the convo for best ever.  They had a gaudy record, but their division kind of sucked that year, they could have easily lost the NLCS, and they should have lost the World Series but for Bill Buckner.

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Fudge Nuggets

Fudge Nuggets 19414

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22 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

The Red Sox should have also.  Not sure how the 86 Mets are in the convo for best ever.  They had a gaudy record, but their division kind of sucked that year, they could have easily lost the NLCS, and they should have lost the World Series but for Bill Buckner.

I only brought them up because they clinched their division sometime around Memorial Day.

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Sbbruin

Sbbruin 22117

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23 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

The view and weather at Dodger Stadium are great, the actual park is a somewhere between meh and a dump. 

giphy.gif

 

When was the last time you were there?  The stadium is anything but a dump.  They have invested many tens of millions over the last few years to update it.   The most beautiful place to watch baseball anywhere.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Speaking of positional breakdowns, the Sox infield of Pedroia, Brandon Phillips, Ian Kinsler, and Hanley Ramirez is top notch.  All-Star Brock Holt couldn't even get a spot. 

All due respect to the '88 Dodgers whom I hold a near and dear spot for in my heart for their scruffy underdog defeat of the fucking Athletics (whom I still hate)...this 30 year anniversary ain't your year.  Fuck you, you'll lose.  Go Sox.  But let's go to 7.  

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FondrenRoad

FondrenRoad 4378

Posted
Posted (edited)
16 hours ago, Victorious1 said:

what's the weather in Boston look like for this week and next week?  Typically, cold weather teams have some advantage over warm weather teams but if its only 50's it probably won't matter; 30's might make a difference.

50s during the day.  40s at night.  I would think cold weather would affect both teams equally since both teams play their seasons in the summer.  Most players grow up in warmer locales as well.  Of course, Boston weather can sometimes suck in the summer too, while LA weather is generally awesome, so maybe it can provide some advantage.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 55844

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Stark:

Quote

BOSTON – The 2018 World Series isn’t just a baseball series. To quote one NL executive, it’s “a heavyweight championship bout.”

It’s Dodgers versus Red Sox. And what will that bring us? Maybe the greatest pitching match-up ever! The two most historic World Series venues ever! And a team that took one of the unlikeliest paths to a World Series ever!

Want to know more? Then delve into this very special October edition of the World Series Useless Information Department!

BATTLE OF THE CATHEDRALS

It’s cool enough that this World Series matches two such storied franchises. But you know what’s even cooler? The two ballparks!

You just don’t get a World Series anymore that is staged, in its entirety, in two parks with the history, the nuance and the all-important Cathedral Factor of Fenway and Dodger Stadium. So perhaps you’re wondering: Just how unique is this?

Glad you asked. That’s what we’re here for.

Fenway Park opened in 1912. That means it’s 106 years old. Dodger Stadium opened in 1962. That means it’s 56 years old.

If you’re sitting there reading this with your calculator app handy – and you should know it’s not a real healthy sign if you are – then you already figured out that comes to 162 years’ worth of baseball. And that, friends, makes this a record-setting World Series for combined age of the two ballparks. Here’s the all-time leaderboard, according to Stats LLC:

HIGHEST COMBINED AGE OF PARKS IN W.S. MATCHUP, ALL-TIME
(park’s first year based on first year w/MLB team)

SEASON PARK1 (YEAR) PARK2 (YEAR) COMBINED YRS
2018 Fenway Park (1912) Dodger Stadium (1962) 162
2004 Fenway Park (1912) Busch Stadium (1966) 130
2016 Wrigley Field (1914) Progressive Field (1994) 124
2000 Old Yankee Stadium (1923) Shea Stadium (1964) 113
2013 Fenway Park (1912) Busch Stadium (1966) 108
2007 Fenway Park (1912) Coors Field (1995) 107
1998 Old Yankee Stadium (1923) Qualcomm Stadium (1968) 105
1996 Old Yankee Stadium (1923) Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (196) 103

 

Highest Combined Age of Parks in W.S. Matchup, All-time

 

(park’s first year based on first year w/MLB team

 

SEASON PARK1 (YEAR) PARK2 (YEAR) COMBINED_YRS
2018 Fenway Park (1912) Dodger Stadium (1962) 162
2004 Fenway Park (1912) Busch Stadium (1966) 130
2016 Wrigley Field (1914) Progressive Field (1994) 124
2000 Old Yankee Stadium (1923) Shea Stadium (1964) 113
2013 Fenway Park (1912) Busch Stadium (2006) 108
2007 Fenway Park (1912) Coors Field (1995) 107
1998 Old Yankee Stadium (1923) Qualcomm Stadium (1968) 105
1996 Old Yankee Stadium (1923) Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (1966) 103

Oh, and you’ll notice one more thing. This is the first World Series ever that will be held in two parks that are each 50+ years old. And you know the best part of all? Wouldn’t be shocking if both parks were around for another 50 years!

THE ESSENCE OF ACEHOOD

And now a word about the Game 1 pitching match-up, Clayton Kershaw versus Chris Sale: Awesome.

I’m sure that to the poets and the historians, this isn’t up there with Gibson against McLain, or Koufax against Palmer, or possibly even Clemens versus Smoltz. But statistically speaking, I could argue it’s actually…

The Greatest World Series Starting Pitcher Match-up Ever!

I would make that argument based on this:

LOWEST WHIP, STARTING PITCHERS, LIVE-BALL ERA
1) Clayton Kershaw 1.00
2) Chris Sale 1.03
(min. 1,000 IP)
Source: Baseball-reference.com

So these are two guys with a combined career regular-season WHIP of 1.02. When you take a second to appreciate that Pedro Martinez’s career WHIP was 1.05 and Walter Johnson’s was 1.06, you’ll catch our drift. Match-ups like this, in a World Series, come along, well, never.­

I asked Stats LLC to look into this for us. Here’s what they found:

LOWEST COMBINED WHIP BY WS STARTERS, ALL-TIME*
1) 1.06 – 1911 WS Game 1 & 4 – Christy Mathewson (1.05) vs. Chief Bender (1.07)
2) 1.07 – 1910 WS Game 2 & 5 – Three Finger Brown (1.00) vs. Jack Coombs (1.15)
3) 1.09 – 1913 WS Game 2 & 5 – Christy Mathewson (1.05) vs. Eddie Plank (1.12)
(*WHIP entering game)

But that was a looonnnnnggggg time ago. Baseball back then barely even resembled baseball now. So how about a more recent, more comparable leaderboard from Stats:

LOWEST COMBINED WHIP BY WS STARTERS, LIVE-BALL ERA (1920-PRESENT)
1) 1.10 – 1973 WS Game 3 & 6 – Tom Seaver (1.04) vs. Catfish Hunter (1.15)
2) 1.11 – 1924 WS Game 1 – Walter Johnson (1.04) vs. Art Nehf (1.17)
3) 1.12 – 1974 WS Game 2 & 5 – Vida Blue (1.12) vs. Don Sutton (1.12)

So … see what we mean? Even if Sale and Kershaw aren’t at their absolute career pinnacles in this precise moment, they’re two of the most dominant starting pitchers who ever lived. So when they duel in Game 1, it won’t just be great theater. It will be unprecedented theater.

 FROM 10 UNDER TO THE FALL CLASSIC

Remember back on May 16? C’mon – no, you don’t. Unless you got married that day or something. But the Dodgers remember May 16. They remember it because that was the day their record for the season plummeted to 16-26.

And now they’re in the World Series.

So how rare is it for any team to climb that mountain from 10 games below Mount .500 to the summit of the Fall Classic? Here is how rare:

YEAR TEAM LOWEST POINT
1914 Boston Braves (16 under .500)
1951 N.Y. Giants (10 under .500)
1973 N.Y. Mets (13 under .500)
2003 Florida Marlins (10 under .500)
2005 Houston Astros (12 under .500)
2018 L.A. Dodgers (10 under .500)

So that’s just five teams in history, before these Dodgers came along, that pulled this off. But now, of course, they have a chance to go from 10 under to the parade route. And that’s been done exactly once in the last century!

The only two teams to win a World Series after being 10-plus games under .500 at any point? Josh Beckett’s 2003 Marlins…and Rabbit Maranville’s 1914 “Miracle” Braves.

As I’ve mentioned before when those Braves show up in these notes, if the nickname of your team is “Miracle,” it’s apparently pretty hard to do!

NO PARTYING AT HOME!

My friend, Mike Waters, of Syracuse.com fame, ran a great question by me this weekend:

Has there ever been a postseason in which no team celebrated an LCS, LDS or World Series at home?

He asks, of course, because that exact scenario could happen in this postseason – for the first time in the era of the three-tiered (or four-tiered) postseason.

The Astros, Red Sox, Dodgers and Brewers all clinched on the road in the Division Series. The Red Sox and Dodgers sprayed champagne in the visitors’ clubhouse in the League Championship Series. And that had never happened in any previous postseason, according to baseball-reference.com.

Now as we know you nitpickers are dying to point out, the Yankees did win the AL Wild Card Game in New York. So it wouldn’t be accurate to say that no team has celebrated at home this October. But if you just want to talk series, as opposed to a one-game playoff, there has been just one postseason in the division-play era in which every title was won away from home.

That was in 1975, the Year of the Big Red Machine – when the Reds won the NLCS in Pittsburgh, the Red Sox won the ALCS in Oakland and the Red won the World Series at…Fenway.

THE BOUNCEABILITY CHAMPS

You might remember something about these Dodgers. It was just a year ago that they played in the World Series and lost it. So now they’ll attempt to do something that has been done just four times in the last half-century (i.e., the division-play era):

WORLD SERIES LOSERS WHO WON THE NEXT WORLD SERIES
2014-15 Royals
1988-89 A’s
1976-77 Yankees
1969-70 Orioles

What do all those teams have in common? They all play in the American League. Which means the Dodgers are attempting to become the first National League team to accomplish this since…Stanley F. Musial’s 1943-44 Cardinals!

SEVENTH HEAVEN

One more thing about those (and these) Dodgers! They didn’t merely lose that World Series last year. They lost in a Game 7. So that puts them in position to do something only four teams have done in the history of the World Series:

TEAMS THAT LOST A WORLD SERIES GAME 7, THEN WON THE NEXT WORLD SERIES

2014-15 Royals*
1960-61 Yankees**
1957-58 Yankees
1934-35 Tigers
(*-thank you, Madison Bumgarner!)
(**-thank you, Bill Mazeroski!)

If you paid attention to that previous note, you’re onto the fabulous postscript for this tidbit. No National League team has ever lost Game 7 of one World Series, then returned to win the next World Series. Don’t tell Yasiel Puig!

USELESS INFO OF THE WEEK!         

SHOW ME THE MONEY – The Red Sox had the highest payroll in baseball this year ($229.38 million by season’s end). The Dodgers had the third-highest ($195.07 million at year’s end). So I know what you’re thinking: If you spend almost half a billion dollars, you should be in the World Series.

Good point! But that’s not what I’m thinking. I’m thinking: This has to be the most combined end-of-season payroll dollars ($425.45 million) for any two World Series teams, right? Well, that answer, according to The Athletic’s resident stats-and-info guru, Katie Sharp, is…ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! Absolutely correct!

To find the previous highest, you have to go all the way back to … last year, when the Dodgers ($243.69 million) and Astros ($134.08 million) combined to lay out $377.77 million.

Or we could look at this another way. Last World Series featuring two of the top three end-of-season payrolls? It was the New York-New York Yankees-Mets Series of 2000. Shockingly!

FROM GAME 163 TO THE SERIES – A mere three weeks ago, the Dodgers had to work overtime just to win their own division, beating the Rockies, 5-2, in a Game 163 tiebreaker. Now, of course, they’re still working overtime – because they made it all the way to the last week of October.

So how many other teams in the division-play era have had to play a Game 163 just to survive the regular season, and then kept roaring along all the way to the World Series? Exactly two, Katie Sharp reports!

* 2007 Rockies – beat Padres for NL Wild Card, eventually lost World Series.
* 1978 Yankees – beat Red Sox to win AL East, eventually won World Series.

So if the Dodgers go on to win this World Series, it will be just them and Bucky (Bleeping) Dent in this exclusive club. Anyone see a Yasiel (Bleeping) Puig moment coming in the next week and a half? Just asking.

FROM FIRST TO LAST – Clayton Kershaw threw the very first pitch of the Dodgers’ season, on March 29. Almost seven months later, that same Clayton Kershaw threw the last pitch of the game that clinched the NLCS and sent the Dodgers back to the World Series.

So how many pitchers, since the invention of the LCS, have thrown their team’s first pitch of a season as a starter and then thrown the last pitch of the game that finished off the LCS and sealed their trip to the World Series?

Right you are. That would be none! Until this guy did it. Pretty cool.

STRANGEST BUT TRUEST CRAIG KIMBREL NOTE OF THE WEEK – Finally, weird stuff happens every darned October. Stuff like this, for example

  • Runs allowed by Craig Kimbrel in his 42 regular-season saves: 4 (0.85 ERA)
  • Runs allowed by Craig Kimbrel in his five postseason saves: 5 (7.11 ERA)

Pitch-tipping or no pitch-tipping, let’s all shout our favorite part of this one more time – together:

Baseball!

 

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Bateshorn

Bateshorn 9989

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23 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

giphy.gif

 

When was the last time you were there?  The stadium is anything but a dump.  They have invested many tens of millions over the last few years to update it.   The most beautiful place to watch baseball anywhere.

PNC Park in Pittsburg would like to have a word with you.

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Sbbruin

Sbbruin 22117

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2 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

Notice I said Pittsburg, not Fenway (Although I do love Fenway).

I am aware.  I've have heard PNC is about the best there is.  I would love to do an MLB tour.  I've done a lot of CFB games around the western half of the country, but have only been to Angels, Wrigley, and US Cellular (or whatever Comiskey is called these days).  

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InkaUtexas

InkaUtexas 26836

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Posted
46 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

PNC Park in Pittsburg would like to have a word with you.

Went this summer and loved it. I used to go to Three Rivers growing up and PNC was done right. Great atmosphere, good fans and excellent bars surround it. Hate to say this, but I enjoyed my 6 days in Pittsburg. 

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