Another baseball season has come and gone and even an old curmudgeon like me has to admit that this was a good one. The Astros won their first ever championship and they did it in dramatic fashion, beating the high-profile Dodgers in a riveting seven game series. The Dodgers dominated the regular season, as well as the first two thirds of the post season. When it came time for the World Series, however, the middle of their lineup went into a collective slump, and their metrics-loving manager, Dave Roberts, spit the bit.
The Series was probably lost in game 2 when Roberts pulled his effective starter, Rich Hill after 4 plus innings and began using his bullpen (many of whom will almost certainly face rotator cuff surgery in their near future) with impunity. Then in game 7, when Roberts should have taken a piss-poor Yu Darvish out of the game before facing George Springer, the hottest hitter in the universe, he left him in to deliver a cantaloupe. The resulting three run bomb effectively put a fork in the Dodger’s season.
A word about the announcers: Joe Buck and John Smoltz are a terrible listen. It’s not that they don’t know baseball, but that they are dull as dishwater and humorless to boot. Throw in the timber of Buck’s voice, which is akin to an amplified washing machine, and you can go crazy. It’s as if someone was using a jackhammer outside of your apartment — for 5 straight hours! I’m convinced that the best way to watch these games is at a bar with a TV and a jukebox.
Onwards.
The World According to Keitho 