It was the denouement of one of the most exciting and intense moments to exist across all sports – on the biggest stage baseball has to offer: World Series, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Yankees. Both clubs had achieved a total of 90,000 individual moments this season, and now the first game of the final series on Friday evening was coming to a head. The Yankees led 3-2 in overtime, the situation was like this: all the running spots were occupied; If Dodgers hitter Freddie Freeman failed to hit, the Yankees would win. Should he score, his colleague would equalize on the third time and thus continue the game. However, if he sent the ball into the stands, the game would be over immediately – Dodgers win.
Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes threw, Freeman swung – boom! The ball sailed nearly 130 yards to the Dodgers fans on the other side of the stadium, LA won 6-3. It was the first Walk-Off-Grand-Slam-Homerun in the 121-year World Series history.
In game two on Saturday there was exactly the same starting point – just the other way around: 4-2 for the Dodgers in the final period. All spots occupied for the Yankees. Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia threw, no one hit – Dodgers win.
They were two great baseball games, and that sets the tone for a final series that is already causing the greatest possible excitement in the USA.
Dodgers vs. Yankees: The two legendary clubs will play against each other in the World Series for the twelfth time; for the first time in 43 years. It started on Friday evening Best-of-seven-Final series in the largest baseball stadium in the USA on a hill in downtown Los Angeles, on the secondary ticket market at least 1,326 dollars were announced for a ticket for the first game. That’s Taylor Swift level, but they have nothing to say in terms of pop culture or music in this duel. In the preliminary reports, only two songs were playing on a continuous loop: “Empire State of Mind,” Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s declaration of love for the concrete jungle on the East Coast, in which there should be nothing you can’t do – and that West Coast anthem “California Love” to the easy life on the Pacific.
Dodgers vs. Yankees also means: Los Angeles vs. New York. The unforgettable essay “Wear Sunscreen” by Mary Schmich contains a few wonderful hints, such as the fact that you are never as fat as you think. Or that worrying is as useful as solving an algebra equation by chewing gum. Schmich writes that you absolutely have to live in two places: New York City – but get away from there before you become hard-hearted. And in California – but get away before it makes you soft.
Yes, that’s how they’re marketing this series, and you have to let it sink in: These are two clubs that are paying their players a total of $560 million in salaries this year, but the fans should get sentimental and wear their caps with “NY” on them. or put “LA” on it and forget for a few hours up to seven times that there is anything else in the world other than baseball.
What they should think about instead: Which pitchers should be used when and for how long in a maximum of seven games within just nine days? Rule of thumb: A pitcher who throws 51 to 80 times during a game needs three days of rest. 80 to 100 litters: four days. More than 100: five days.
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole is undoubtedly the best hit and point preventer in this final series. He allowed only one Dodgers run in game one, but was replaced after 88 pitches because he might be able to start again for Game 4 on Tuesday. Yankees coach Aaron Boone now brought in his short-time workers. In extra time, he had Cortes – who had not played for five and a half weeks – compete against Ohtani and Freeman instead of the in-form Tim Hill. The result: this Boomwhich they probably heard in New York, 5000 kilometers away.
The duel is both sportingly and socially relevant – it has unifying power
A decision that they debate in the Big Apple like in LA, whether the Freeman shot is even more legendary than that of Kirk Gibson in the first game of the 1988 World Series: same time (8:38 p.m.), same block of stands (306), same result . “I felt it,” said Gibson, who had been watching the game on his cell phone from overtime at his ranch in Michigan.
In game two on Saturday for the Yankees: Carlos Rodón, second best hit and point preventer in this final series. However, he allowed four runs and was replaced after only 63 throws. Dodgers coach Dave Roberts let his pitching ace Yoshinubi Yamamoto throw 86 times, knowing that if the Dodgers win Monday and Tuesday in New York, they might not need him in the World Series. With the Yankees, however, they’re thinking: Can any of our pitchers hold their own against these Dodgers hitters?
These are the sporting considerations before the trip to New York. The social ones are like this: This final series will be just fine because of the exaggeration of the rivalry and the associated reminiscence (the Mexican Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela, a symbolic figure for all Hispanics in LA, recently died) became the only common denominator for Americans in the two weeks before the fateful presidential election. People in this country can’t agree on anything except this: in the middle of the seventh period of a baseball game, everyone, absolutely everyone, stands up and sings the wonderful song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” together. The most beautiful line, and there couldn’t be a better description of the state of this country because it contains a deep longing: “Buy me some nuts and popcorn; I wouldn’t care if I never had to go back (to life outside of baseball) again.”
