Yankees. Dodgers. We know which team you’re rooting against, but who has the better chance of winning?
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
It’s all been leading up to this. After a 162-game regular season and three rounds of playoffs, the stage is set for the World Series, the pinnacle of the MLB campaign. The American League champion New York Yankees (barf) will take on the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers to crown a new champion of Major League Baseball.
As much as I personally detest that the Yankees are a part of this (and am mostly fatigued by the Dodgers as well), I will admit that it’s objectively a pretty stellar matchup. These are two historic clubs and seasoned veterans of October, with the Yankees playing in their 41st World Series and the Dodgers in their 22nd of the modern era. They’ve also faced each other in the Fall Classic 11 previous times, the most of any matchup in MLB history, dating back to their days as crosstown rivals when the Yankees regularly trounced the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Add in the fact that they’re in two gigantic media markets and both teams feature top-shelf superstars — including Mookie Betts, Juan Soto, and presumptive AL and NL MVPs Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani — and this has the recipe for an entertaining series. It should pull in the highest TV ratings for a World Series in many years, much higher than, say, the Orioles and Padres would have, as much as I’d have preferred to see that matchup instead.
So, yes, I’ll be watching. And like most baseball fans, I’ll be rooting against the Yankees as hard as I can.
Links
Then there may be one: The trio of veteran O’s outfielders is shrinking – Steve Melewski
I keep thinking back to when Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays, and Anthony Santander talked about how proud they were to have gone through the Orioles’ rebuild and come out the other side together. Now one is gone and another may soon be. It’s understandable from a baseball perspective, but still kind of a bummer.
Should Orioles extend Eflin? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
I wouldn’t hate it. Eflin is a perfectly capable pitcher, if probably not as good as he looked for the Orioles this year. And he won’t break the bank.
Holliday learned from ups and downs of rookie season – MLB.com
Right at the end of the season, Jackson Holliday ditched his leg kick for a toe tap and proceeded to go 5-for-7. Extremely small sample size, and mostly against a terrible Twins pitching staff, but hopefully it’s a sign of better things to come in 2025.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Two former Orioles were born on this day, including outfielder Tito Landrum (70) and the late Bobby Thomson (b. 1923, d. 2010), best known for hitting “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” for the New York Giants. Thomson ended his MLB career with three games for the 1960 Orioles.
On this date last year, the Orioles claimed lefty Tucker Davidson off waivers from the Royals. Davidson spent all season at Triple-A Norfolk before the O’s called him up for the next-to-last game of the season, which he won, and then DFA’d him. Davidson is the only pitcher ever to appear in just one game in his Orioles career and earn the win.