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Hacksaw is Back
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“DODGERS BLUE–COLOR OF THE DAY”
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The best team in baseball money could buy.
That’s a cop out about the World Series Champion Dodgers.
How about saying they earned what they were being paid?

The Fall Classic was a classic between MLB’s two flagship franchises.
The Yankees and Dodgers were meeting for the 12th time in the World Series.
New York had won 8-rings, the Dodgers 3-dating back to their Brooklyn days.

The Dodgers are calling this decade of excellence, their ‘Golden Era’..two World Series rings, 3-other Series appearances and a total of 10-NL-West division titles.

This was more than a one-off Dodgers win over the Yankees.  This was a season long drive to the crown, ‘Team Adversity’ getting the win in the House that Ruth Built.  It was storyline after storyline all summer long of a Dodgers franchise overcoming every bad thing that could happen to a team.

And this series carried the day in the USA and in Japan.  More than 20.1M-viewers watched the 9th inning of the Game 5-Dodgers victory here in the US.  In Japan, TV viewership set a record with an average 20M viewers for the entire series..

It was a vindication too for Manager Dave Roberts, getting his 2nd ring to add to all the NL-West titles after the perceived gaffes handling the pitching staffs in prior playoff yearsl

It was a stamp of approval for the Dodgers analytics guys, who put together Bullpen Days, that led to 3-important victories in the haul to get to the Podium after game 5-in Yankees Stadium.

They checked off all the boxes, winning the pennant race and overcoming obstacles that were staggering.

Shohei Ohtani’s 54-home run season started with him being swindled out of 17M by his personal aid.  And yet he focused on MVP like accomplishments.  The Dodgers won the ring even with him going (2-20) in the series, and playing thru the sprained shoulder in the New York series..

Freddie Freeman, the MVP, not only overcame a significant ankle sprain to hit 4-homers in 4-games, he lived thru the nitemare of the near death of his 3-year old son in the midst of the pennant race.

Mookie Betts won his 3rd World Series ring and came back from major injuries and 2-position shifts to excel.

Teoscar Hernandez had a 33-home run season on a 1-year rental contract.

Where would they have been had it not been for the home run heroics of utilityman Keki Hernandez?

And what about the trade deadline deals with clutch multi position player Tommy Edman’s big hit,  and relief ace Michael Kopech saving them out of the bullpen down the stretch.

Max Muncy overcame a horrid start at bat and in the field and recovered from a complex oblique injury.

Will Smith hit timely HRs in the midst of a roller coaster season with his batting average.

Name a pitcher and he was likely on the disabled list.  In fact they went thru 38-pitchers in all during the regular season to get to the post season.

Jack Flaherty was the only starting rotation member to stay off the disabled list.

Yosh Yamamoto missed 3-months with shoulder woes, came back, and grinded thru quality starts that got them October wins.

And then there was Walker Buehler, who was (1-6) with a hideous ERA in season, who told Manager Dave Roberts, ‘get the F— off my mound, in one playoff game as he finished strong.  How strong?  He threw 13-straight shutout innings in the rotation then in the bullpen in closing it out against the Yankees.

Clayton Kershaw is facing surgery this week on his toe and knee.  He never made it to the post season roster.  Veteran Tony Gonsolin never made it back to the roster either.

The team endured 8-surgeries to their pitching staff, including top young arms Gavin Stone, River Ryan, Dustin May and others.

The bullpen brigade survived a month of ERA’s at 6.28-to grab the stretch run by the throat coming out of the pen, choking off rally after rally.  The manager trusted the troops led by Kopech-Evan Phillips-Blake Trienen and others, at the most important time of the year.

The Dodgers were relentless in the face of adversity.

Think back, down 2-games to 1-to the Padres and having to go with a bullpen day in the divisional play.  What looked like a fatal move, led to 8-brilliant innings by 8-relievers that led to the death of the San Diego playoff hopes.

They would not cave when Pete Alonso kept hitting homers in the Mets series,before  taking them out.

And when the Yankees threatened to climb back in the World Series, LA roared back from that 5-0 deficit, scoring 7-runs and winning, in New York.

Yes the Yankees made 3-fatal mistakes on defense that will haunt them all winter long, but the Dodgers kept hitting, whether it was spray hits or  long distance home runs to take the lead, come from behind and then win games.

It might have been ‘improbable’ the Dodgers could do all this.  At times it looked like it was ‘impossible’.  But they piled victory on top of victory and the trophy is theirs.

There was leadership from atop.  They parked their ego at the door to the clubhouse.  It was pure emotion in the dugout and the batter’s box.  It wads ‘fire in their eyes’ pitching.  And they won and won and won.

The best team money could buy, sure.  But the players had to do it when it counted, nothing given to them, but something they earned.

As you flash back to October, the Padres choked it away by not scoring for 24-innings in a row.  The Phillies were ousted in their first series.  Atlanta collapsed under their mset of injuries.  Baltimre-Cleveland came up short of talent in the AL playoffs.

And then there were the Yankees.  Aaron Judge’s failures at bat and his misplay of a line drive that opened the flood gates.  Aside from Juan Soto, the Yankees hit a miserable (.206).  They didn’t win either of pitching ace Gerritt Cole’s two starts in the series.  But it was not just the failures of the Yankees stars.  It was who did it to them.

It was the Dodgers relentless at bats; the ability to string together big innings; the long distance home runs; and the dominant Bullpen Days that bulldozed thru the NY batting orders.

Quite a World Series.  Quite a comeback from the worst case scenario in every corner of the clubhouse and dugout, in season and then again in postseason.

Call them World Series champions.  Color the month of October-Dodger Blue.  They earned their accolades.

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