After 32 long years, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the 2020 World Series Champions. The Boys in Blue have won their seventh title in franchise history. To quote the legendary sports broadcaster Vin Scully, “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”
From 2013 to 2019, the Dodgers and its fans — including myself have suffered through what I call, The October Blues. The Dodgers lost the last game of the season and, like every other sport, the fans don’t care about the regular season, the awards or how many division titles they win consecutively. If the season doesn’t end with a championship, the fans will dismiss the entire year. If not now, then when?
However, this year’s Los Angeles Dodgers season will go down as a remarkable and historic season for the organization, the city of Los Angeles and for baseball fans around the world.
A team that includes two Rookie of the Year winners Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger; a pitching staff that includes rising stars Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin; the next ace in baseball in Walker Buehler; a future first-ballot Hall of Famer and a three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, and three MVPs that include a right fielder by the name of Mookie Betts.
With a lineup card like this, the only thing I could say to myself is “It’s finally going to happen, we’re going to win it all. This is our year!” If not now, then when?
Fast-forward to July, after frustrating and irritating negotiations between the MLB and MLB Players Association on the 2020 MLB season, Dodger fans finally got to witness this team in action. Most importantly, the victory followed Mookie Betts’ signed extension that will keep him in Dodger Blue for a decade.
With that decade comes expectations, coming into the regular season and into the postseason, the Dodgers were heavy favorites to win the World Series. Like I said before, they have three MVPs and a future Hall of Famer — if not now, then when?
Fast forward to October, the moment Dodgers fans have been waiting for — October baseball is here. It’s time for Dodgers baseball!
The Dodgers first faced off against the Milwaukee Brewers and made quick work as they swept them in a best-of-three series to move on to the National League Division Series to face the San Diego Padres.
The Dodgers would sweep the Padres in a best-of-five series which would include a scary ninth inning, a powerful offense and the catch of the year by Cody Bellinger.
In come the red-hot Atlanta Braves, a National League Championship Series matchup that I thought would be a cakewalk. What I thought would end turned out to be a lucky guess.
The Dodgers fell behind the best-of-seven series by losing the first three out of four games. The October Blues are kicking in again, and I could not believe my eyes on what I was witnessing in those four days. Then the Dodgers did something I knew they were the only team capable of doing: they came to win the series. If not now, then when? Not this time October Blues; we are in the World Series!
The fall classic between the Tampa Bay Rays and my Los Angeles Dodgers. This World Series did not disappoint, but there is only one thing I can think about: a fastball thrown on the inside of the strike zone by Julio Urías to secure the World Series.
After being knocked out of the postseason seven years in a row, the Dodgers have won it all and it still feels astonishing. Thirty two years without a title, seven consecutive eliminations and being cheated out of the World Series in 2017 and 2018 will never leave Dodgers fans’ minds.
This year was improbable, yet the impossible did indeed happen. Party like it’s 1988, because the Dodgers are World Series champions!
