November 3, 2025 • 25 mins
Ken Rosenthal talks about the Dodgers winning the 2025 World Series over the Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto falls agonizingly short, while LA's grit stands tall. (Top of show)
(11:59) Ken also explores the unfilled manager openings.
Head to Superpower.com and use code TAKE20 at checkout for $20 off your membership. Live up to your 100-Year potential. #superpowerpod
(14:46) Inside Dish ranks the Top 5 World Series matchups Ken has covered.
(21:49) Grillin' Ken answers your live questions, including if Cody Bellinger is a Dodgers fit, what Pete Alonso's market will look like, and if Kyle Tucker's health is a free agency factor.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to everyone, to the normal addition, the normal Monday
edition of Pair Territory. We are back home. As you
can see here. No more housekeepers barging into the room,
no more telephones ringing off the hook. And no I
couldn't get up in the middle of the show to
get the phone off the hook. Okay, I saw all
the comments. I see everything booths. We're gonna do a
(00:23):
World Series recap. We're gonna talk about my favorite World
series of all time. I might not be in my
best voice coming off a month on the road and
cross country stuff, but hey, we're gonna do it. We're
gonna recap the World Series, not necessarily in a traditional
way where you go game by game, but kind of
talking about each team. And that's what I want to do.
(00:43):
To start with the lead today, talk about each team,
where they are, what they accomplished, and where they go
from here. And I'm gonna start with the Blue Jays.
And obviously, if you're a fan of the game, even
if you're a fan of the Dodgers, feel for the
Blue Jays and you can understand the heartbreak that they
(01:04):
experienced after what was coming to be or what was
looking to be their first World Series title since nineteen
ninety three. They had a three to nothing lead in
the third inning on the Baschett home run. In Game seven,
they had a lead with two outs to go in
the ninth, a one run lead, and yet they did
not win. They lose Game seven in eleven innings. Of course,
(01:25):
we all know how it turned out, and you saw
perhaps afterward, the reports from the Blue Jays clubhouse how
the players were crushed. Ernie Clement talking about how he
had cried for an hour. Max Schurz is saying that
he's forty one and he never thought he could love
baseball this much. That, as you could see even from
watching the games, was an unusually close team, a team
(01:48):
that came together in a way that previous Blue Jays
teams had not, a team that achieved things that previous
Blue Jays teams had not, and a team that, yes,
was so close. In fact, I got a text from
a friend of mine who works for the Blue Jays
after Game seven, shortly after, and he said, Hey, no
(02:08):
team has ever come this close to winning a World Series.
I'm shattered, and you can understand that, and you can
certainly understand the sentiments of everyone involved. I even saw
a post on x a collection of tweets from some
of the wives and girlfriends of the Blue Jays saying
how special this whole experience had been, how close everyone
had gotten It was and will remain in the memory
(02:31):
of those who root for that team. A special team
didn't end up winning the championship, but still special. Now,
the Blue Jays were gallant in this series, nothing short
of that. They were inspiring with the way they played,
and you can make the case that they were the
better team. Now. Caleb Joseph, the former catcher who now
works for Rogers Sports, that had that comment that got
(02:53):
some blowback, but I understood where he was coming from.
He said, it's going to sound like sour grapes, but
I think the better team did not win this series. Now, yes,
people are gonna jump on that, and Kiyo Hernandez had
a cute response to that. But the bottom line is this.
While the Dodgers won the series, they were outscored thirty
four to twenty six. The Blue Jays out hit them
(03:15):
two sixty nine to two oh three. They all played
them in most of the games, they didn't win. It's baseball,
That's what happens sometimes. And of course Yoshinobu Yamamoto was
the great equalizer, wins in three of the games, Game two,
Game six, and then of course the incredible performance in
Game seven on zero day's rest. He was on hours rest,
(03:36):
not day's rest. So an impressive performance by the Blue Jays.
And I say this all the time, and I say
it especially if to Yankee fans who complain about no
titles since two thousand and nine, as if a World
Series title is their birthright. It is so hard to win.
It is so hard to win a World Series. It's
so hard to win a baseball game period, a major
(03:57):
League game. Managers will say that all the time. It's
hard to win a major League game. Only one of
the thirty clubs ends up as a champion. We know that.
And in this particular case, the Blue Jays were up
against the team that was really good and a team
I'll get to in a second. And yes, for Blue
Jays fans, for people who wanted to see the Dodgers lose,
(04:18):
it's easy to bemoan the missed opportunities. Jeff Hoffman giving
up the home run to Rojas ikf not getting a
big enough lead, off third base. We can debate whether
he should have had a bigger lead. I'll trust whit Merrifield,
who tweeted basically that he did the right thing. You
don't want to get doubled off there or backpicked there. Whatever.
We can debate all this, but no game is ever
(04:40):
decided by one thing, by one umpire's call, by one play,
by one anything. The Blue Jays in the last two
games went four for twenty six with runners in scoring
position hit any in those situations. And maybe this is
a whole different story. So for the Blue Jays, obviously
you understand why the players are upset and why they
(05:02):
feel the way they do. And you know, also when
you were a team in Major League Baseball, the roster
in one year is not going to look the same
as the next year. The twenty twenty six Blue Jays
will not look the same as the twenty twenty five
Blue Jays. We know this. Bobaschet is a free agent.
Possible they could resign him at second base, I guess
possible if he wants to do that, Not sure he does.
(05:25):
Max Scherzer free agent, Chris Bassett free agent. One of
the beautiful things about this team was the mixture of
veterans like Schrzer and Bassett and youngsters like Treya Savage
and everything in between. Some guys like Ernie Clement, who
had been released by other teams. Nathan Lucas, a guy
who also had gone through a lot ten years in
(05:47):
the minor leagues, thought about retiring all these great stories,
and they all came together from different parts of the
baseball universe and formed this extremely appealing and competitive team.
It will not be easy for them next year. We
know that they play in perhaps the game's most competitive division,
the Al East, and again it will be a different
look for their roster. But the Blue Jays, in my mind,
(06:10):
should be nothing but proud all right. Now, onto the
World Series champions, the Dodgers. I was critical of them
in the Athletic after Game five, when they went down
three games to two, I wrote about their deficiencies, offensive deficiencies,
defensive deficiencies, bullpen. They did not look good, and really,
in many instances this season they did not look good.
(06:31):
They had stretches where they did not hit, including in
the World Series, actually including the final three rounds of
the playoffs. They had stretches where of course they had
players out with injuries, more injured days list or more
days on the injured list than any team this year.
They had kind of a struggle for a team that
was expected or thought perhaps to win one ten, one
(06:52):
hundred and twenty games. They won ninety three, didn't have
home field advantage for the series because the J's won
ninety four. So the Dodgers were obviously a team that
we all expected to be good, but they do have
at this point a position player group that is aging.
And when you watch this series, a reasonable person could
(07:13):
have concluded that the J's were the better team. Now
didn't end up that way. They didn't win the series,
and that's because the Dodgers showed something, particularly in Game seven,
but also in Game six, in coming back the way
they did in those two games that championship teams show.
And they are the back to back World Series champions
first time since the ninety eight to two thousand Yankees.
(07:35):
For a reason, what they did in winning the final
two games on the road was pretty rare in World
Series history. It's happened thirty three times, I'm sorry thirty
two times now where a team was down three to
two going on the road in a best of seven
World Series only nine times nine out of thirty two
have those teams one and the Dodgers became the ninth
(07:57):
with what they did in Game seven. In Game seven,
let's face it was their tour de force, and Yamamoto
played a huge role, of course in all this. They
don't win the World Series without him, okay, but Game
seven featured so much To really recommend the Dodgers, I
guess would be kind of a bad phrase, but you
know what I'm saying, so much that showed you who
(08:20):
they were. Home runs in the eighth, the ninth, and
the eleventh inning, four starting pitchers contributing all of them
on short rest to some degree or no rest in
Yamamoto's case, Guys like Miguel Rojas stepping up, Justin Ropeleski
and Mia she and two younger pitchers stepping up. They
got contributions in the World Series from all over the place.
(08:40):
So for all the money they spent, you see the
bullpen and what they did in the final game. Actually
I shouldn't call it the bullpen. It was kind of
like the starter's turned relievers, including Shan for that matter,
and what they accomplished in this game Yamamoto. My gosh,
two to two thirds scoreless innings. It was just brilliant.
It was a tour de force. Honestly, a classic example
of if you're going to knock off the champ, you
(09:03):
better knock them out. And the Blue Jays didn't. They
didn't knock them out. The Dodgers obviously prevailed. Now, as
we've discussed on the show many times, lots of people
complain about the Dodgers. Lots of people say, well, when
you spend nearly four hundred million, you should win. And
I understand the argument. We've talked about that, and we've
(09:24):
talked about how the disparity between the big money teams
and the lesser revenue teams in baseball is an enduring
problem for the sport. We may disagree about how to
solve it. I don't know that anyone can say it's
something that should not be addressed. It should be addressed
in a better way, or more meaningful way than it
is now. This has been an issue for a long time.
(09:46):
It goes back to the Yankees in the fifties, for
heaven's sake, and we'll see in the next labor negotiations
how this all plays out. But for all that, and
this is what I wrote after Game seven, you have
to admire what the Dodgers accomplished, the sacrifices their players made,
particularly in Game seven, the guy's pitching on short rest, Rojas,
(10:09):
who had been benched for the first five games, coming
out in Game six and then seven, doing what he did.
You have to admire what they did as a team
and the commitment to winning that the players showed, and
for that matter, the commitment to winning that their front
office and ownership showed as well. The manager, Dave Roberts,
remember early in his postseason career, frequently came under scrutiny.
(10:31):
This was perhaps his finest hour, going to Rojas in
Game six, dropping Mookie Betts to the number four spot,
moving Will Smith up to the number two spot. All
of these things seemed to work out. His pitching decisions
seemed to work out as well. Yes, he had expensive
starting pitchers in his arsenal for Game seven, but those
(10:52):
guys got the job done. And again you have to
admire what they are accomplishing, what they have scomplished, and
just kind of what they built there. I know they
spend all the money they do so to the Mets,
so to the Yankees, so to the Phillies. Blue Jays
were fifth in payroll. Lots of teams spend money, the
Dodgers not only spend money. They have maybe the best
(11:15):
form system or one of them. They do well internationally.
They figure things out as far as just beyond even
spending money on big time players will climb. That's a
guy they picked up. They have these guys that they
kind of figure into the mixed and then they get
the most out of them. This is why they win championships.
(11:35):
And I dare to say even if we were in
a salary cap era, they'd still be winning championships because
they are. Arguably, and other teams will tell you this.
The team that runs the best, the team that is
run the best. They runs most efficiently, most intelligently. They
just do things correctly. All right. That's the World Series.
We're gonna have more. I want to tell you where
(11:56):
I rank this World Series among my personal top five.
But I also want to get into the remaining managerial openings.
We've got the padres still open. Remember that has not
been filled yet. Albert Pooholes and Ruben Diebola reportedly the
finalists there Pool Holes. Of course, the great Hall of
Famer Ruben diebla pitching coach with the padres and a
(12:17):
guy who is well respected. That would be an interesting choice,
right pool Holes is here Diablas here are two different
kinds of guys. Then you have the braves and the rumor.
With the braves not rumor, but it's been reported that
they've been waiting on Danny Lehman, the Dodgers bench coach,
and we'll see if that happens. Alexanthopolis, when things are
(12:37):
written with him as president of Baseball Operations, rarely do
they come true. Usually he's got something else cooking. But
we'll see if they hired Danny Leman. We've seen some
unorthodox hires here Tony Vaiitello and San Francisco Blake Petera
in Washington. Leman would be an unorthodox hire too. He's coached,
but would he be able to command that room in Atlanta.
(12:59):
I'm not sure. It didn't play in the majors or
anything like that. So I'll have more to say after
this hire or process is over about just what I
think of what's going on. I kind of said it
the other day, the fact that Brandon Hyde and David
Ross are not even getting sniffs here. That bothers me.
I don't think that's right. So we have those two
jobs open in San Diego and Atlanta. We have another
(13:22):
job open as well in Colorado. We're still waiting for
the Rockies to name their president of Baseball Operations. And guys,
it's November three. Yea might want to get going on this.
The GM meetings are next week. You kind of need
to have a clue here. Put someone in place, all right.
We'll talk more about that as well. But coming up
in the inside dish my Top five World series, FTFAM.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
If you want more information about Superpower, I have real
life customer Eric Kratz with us right now to explain
how you're basically getting the pro experience available for everyone.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Is the price, and that is that's a discount from Superpower.
That's a discount from everywhere. You get so much information
from your lab test results. Christmas is coming up here soon.
You can give this gift to somebody else. Health is
the gift that keeps on giving.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Your blueprint activated with Superpower. Not only did Superpower reduce
that price to what Kratz is talking about, just one
hundred and ninety nine dollars, but for a limited time,
ft FAM gets an additional twenty dollars off with code
take twenty. Head to Superpower dot com and use code
tak E twenty at checkout for twenty dollars off your membership.
After you sign up, they're going to ask you how
(14:34):
you heard about them and make sure you mentioned FT
to support the show. Stop only reacting to health problems
and start proactively improving your health based on real personalized
data with Superpower.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Well were well well Wealth? Today, I want to talk
about my top five World series since I became a
baseball writer. I became a baseball writer in nineteen eighty seven,
so this is a long time. Obviously, not as long
as some of the younger writers on The Athletic would
say when they joke that I've covered the World Series
in nineteen oh three, and I'm right, no, no, no, none
(15:09):
of that. But I have covered a lot of world
series and I do have a top five, and I
want to get into where twenty twenty five ranks in
that top five. It certainly is in there, is it
the top Well, we're all guilty of recency bias, right,
so I want to be try or I want to
try to be as fair as possible here in ranking
my top five, So number five, I will start with
(15:29):
twenty eleven, the Cardinals defeating the Rangers. Now, this was
a memorable World Series, in large part because Game six
was one of the great games of all time, ending
on the Dave David Freeze walk off. The Texas Rangers
were in much the same position the Blue Jays were
the other night, and they didn't get it done. And
there were two one run games in this series. That's
(15:50):
not that many. Some of the games weren't very close,
but Game six was an all time classic. So that's
why I've got twenty eleven as my number five. Seven
games all the series that I'm going to mention here
went seven games, So twenty eleven that ranks as number five.
As we go up the list, what's next, Oh, some
people might say, twenty sixteen's only number four. Well, I'll
(16:14):
tell you why, and you'll see why as I go
forward in this list. Now, this obviously from a standpoint
of historical impact, twenty sixteen was certainly higher than number four.
In my career, the Cubs won the World Series for
the first time since nineteen oh eight the Indians at
the time called the Indians were trying to win one
for the first time since nineteen forty eight. The Cubs
(16:35):
went back to Cleveland down three games to two, just
as the Dodgers did against the Blue Jays here. And
I'll never forget interviewing Jason Kipness of the Indians that
time on the field after Game five. Remember the Guardians
were up. Indians were up three games to two, and
I say, hey, man, you're close. Actually they were up
three games to one at this point. I believe they won.
(16:56):
The Cubs won the final three games, and I said
to Kiptens, you need one win to win the World Series,
and he kind of teared up, stand down on the
field at Wrigley And it didn't happen. The Cubs won
the final three games, and obviously Game seven was an
all timer, and we had the rain delay and all
the different things that happened in that game. There were
(17:17):
three one run games in that series, including Game seven.
You remember the Raji Davis game tying two run homer
of Earldist Chapman in the eighth inning. You remember it
going to extra innings, the rain delay, the Jason Hayward speech,
all of it. It was amazing and still only number
four for me, number three on my all time top
(17:37):
five list all times dating back to nineteen eighty seven. Yep,
Dodgers over Blue Jays. This World Series, in this World
Series obviously was really good. Now, there were only two
one run games. Both of the extra inning games were
run run the others. Not all of them were that competitive,
though most were competitive into the later innings. What made
(17:57):
this series so memorable for me, and maybe why it
should even rank higher, are the memorable performances, the historic
performances we saw. And I'm talking about what Otani on
base nine times in Game three. I'm talking about Yasavage's
twelve strikeouts in Game five, a record for a rookie
in the World Series. Vladimir Guerrero unbelievable postseason in general,
(18:20):
three ninety seven batting average in the postseason, a no
ps of nearly thirteen hundred, brilliant defense, great base running.
He became a different level of star in this World
Series and in this postseason. Ernie Clement finishing the postseason
with thirty hits was brilliant right through the World Series.
Bobashd playing through the discomfort that he did with his knee,
(18:42):
George Springer playing after seemingly being out for this series,
all of these different things that happened, the Rojas, Homer,
and of course Yamamotos So that to me is what
made this series so memorable. The games were good, don't
get me wrong, really good and Game seven was ridiculously good.
But the performances, the individual performances, elevated it for me,
(19:04):
even to a higher level. So why isn't it number
two or number one? I'm gonna tell you why number two?
What do we got two thousand and one Diamondbacks over
the Yankees. Now I know some of you might not
have been around back then, but let me refresh you,
young ones. That World Series was played coming off nine
to eleven, so there was an extra emotional element to it.
(19:25):
The country was still grieving and healing coming off nine
to eleven. It was only a month or so later
when the Yankees hosted the World Series, and for the
first time, actually, people outside of New York might have
been rooting for the Yankees because they empathized with what
was going on in New York trying to rebuild and
all of that. This World Series, though, also was one
of the most competitive and compelling ever. Now the Yankees
(19:49):
went down to nothing in Arizona. They were trailing this
World Series to nothing. They go back to New York.
They win three straight one run games, two in extra innings.
This was the time when Jeter hit the hole run
in Game four to become mister November. Young Young Kim
for the Arizona Diamondbacks struggled, We all remember him struggling.
And then it went back to Arizona with the Yankees
(20:10):
up three games to two and the Diamondbacks needing to
win both games at home to do it. They win
Game six. That was a route, but Game seven was
an all timer. Of course, Luis Gonzales the hit off
Marianna Rivera. The end of the Yankee dynasty. They had
won three straight World Series, and this World Series because
of all those things I mentioned, just was elevated to
(20:32):
a higher level. It was really cool, and it was
really emotional, and Randy Johnson of course did what Yamamoto
did Game six starter Game seven in relief. All these
things came into play and it was great. So why
isn't that number one? It's not number one because I've
got another one and the other one is, oh, nineteen
(20:53):
ninety one Twins defeat the Braves four to three. People
don't even remember this one because a lot of them
weren't born. I get it. In this particular World series,
they were five one run games out of seven five
to one run games, including game seven one nothing Smoltz
versus Morris. Smolts went seven, and the third scoreless Morris
went ten scoreless. It was decided on a Gene Larkin single.
(21:14):
If you don't believe me on how great a world
series this was, go look it up. Look up the recaps.
I could not wait to get to the ballpark every
day to cover that World series. The games were that fascinating,
that compelling. So there are my top five. I've got
twenty twenty five at number three. You might disagree, I
understand that, but that's how I saw it.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Bet MGM account holders today, how about in any sport
parlay boost token you can score a bigger payout if
your wager with that token. Hits tokens can be used
on parlays and on same game parlays. Gambling problem or concerned,
there's help called one eight hundred gambler.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
All right, time now for grilling Ken the part of
the show where I take your questions. I've been long,
so we don't have that much time. But let's go.
First question it comes from Michael Pickering sixteen forty three,
who asks Cody Bellinger back to the Dodgers. Interesting question.
There's been a lot of talk already of the Dodgers
(22:16):
signing Kyle Tucker. Well, Cody Bellinger is a really good player,
a left handed hitter like Tucker. He's gonna cost a
lot less, So why not Cody Bellinger back to the Dodgers.
That's a good one. I don't know. I haven't thought
much about it. They're going to do something. They're gonna
sign another bat, and it's going to be a younger player,
and Bellinger and Kyle Tucker both qualify in terms of
free agents as younger players. They're about around twenty nine,
(22:39):
if I don't if I'm not mistaken. So that's an
interesting one. It's something to watch for sure. I don't
know how it ended there with Bellinger. I don't know
what they think of him. Maybe they think differently of
him now maybe he thinks differently of them, and who knows,
But that's an interesting question. All right, let's go to
the next one. Martha Brennan asked for autther Time is undefeated,
So what do you expect the market for Pete Alonzo
(23:00):
to be? Martha, that's a good one too. Now, Father
Time is undefeated, and that's the reason the Mets are
going to be reluctant to extend or to sign Alonzo
into his mid and late thirties. This was the problem
last offseason as well. But Alonzo is an extremely productive
player coming off a great year, and I expect he's
going to do better than he did last year with
(23:21):
no qualifying offer. Will it be the Mets. I'm not
sure it will be the Mets. I have never gotten
the impression their President Baseball Operations, David Stearns, wants Alonso
long term. But we'll see how free agency goes. It
seems to me teams like Boston and others will be
more interested in Alonzo this time around, teams that need
power badly. All right, let's go. I think we have
(23:43):
one more question. Should Kyle Tucker's health history be a
factor in free agency? That comes from Henry? Thus, this
is something I've thought about Henry the last two years.
Tucker has been injured and missed some time struggled because
he was having physical difficulties. I don't know that these
injuries are necessarily chronic. One was I believe what a heel.
(24:06):
They're kind of fluky things. So I don't really expect
him to be looked at as an injury prone player.
He's a guy who's kind of durable before all this,
But certainly this could come into play. I would think
that some teams are gonna maybe have a little bit
of a pause because of the last two years. I'm
just not sure they should. All Right, one more question
(24:26):
before we go. Let's see we've got what y'all think
the Yankees might do. As far as Kyle Tucker's Schooble
in the shortstop position, Robin Soto, they're not gonna get
all of them. Maybe they'll bid for Tucker, although I
don't really see that necessarily happening. Will they trade for
schoobl I don't know that they'll give the Tigers what
they want and shortstop, that's gonna be interesting. They've got Cabaio.
(24:48):
They can use him until Volpi comes off the surgery,
but at the same time, Vulpi long term is a question.
All right, Before we go, I want to say one
more thing. You might have noticed this. On our broadcast,
we thanked our longtime producer of twenty two years at
Fox Sports, Pete mccheska, for his service. He is now
going to do just football, not baseball. It's his choice.
(25:10):
He's going out on top. This guy was the man
who was a producer when I first came aboard in
two thousand and six. He's been incredibly good to me.
He's been incredible as a producer, as a leader for
our team. So I thank Pete, and we'll be back
Thursday our normal show, and it will be live. They'll
be live at twelve thirty Eastern, nine thirty fifth, and
perhaps I'll have by voids back of both friends. A
(25:33):
great week, everyone,
Welcome to everyone, to the normal addition, the normal Monday
edition of Pair Territory. We are back home. As you
can see here. No more housekeepers barging into the room,
no more telephones ringing off the hook. And no I
couldn't get up in the middle of the show to
get the phone off the hook. Okay, I saw all
the comments. I see everything booths. We're gonna do a
(00:23):
World Series recap. We're gonna talk about my favorite World
series of all time. I might not be in my
best voice coming off a month on the road and
cross country stuff, but hey, we're gonna do it. We're
gonna recap the World Series, not necessarily in a traditional
way where you go game by game, but kind of
talking about each team. And that's what I want to do.
(00:43):
To start with the lead today, talk about each team,
where they are, what they accomplished, and where they go
from here. And I'm gonna start with the Blue Jays.
And obviously, if you're a fan of the game, even
if you're a fan of the Dodgers, feel for the
Blue Jays and you can understand the heartbreak that they
(01:04):
experienced after what was coming to be or what was
looking to be their first World Series title since nineteen
ninety three. They had a three to nothing lead in
the third inning on the Baschett home run. In Game seven,
they had a lead with two outs to go in
the ninth, a one run lead, and yet they did
not win. They lose Game seven in eleven innings. Of course,
(01:25):
we all know how it turned out, and you saw
perhaps afterward, the reports from the Blue Jays clubhouse how
the players were crushed. Ernie Clement talking about how he
had cried for an hour. Max Schurz is saying that
he's forty one and he never thought he could love
baseball this much. That, as you could see even from
watching the games, was an unusually close team, a team
(01:48):
that came together in a way that previous Blue Jays
teams had not, a team that achieved things that previous
Blue Jays teams had not, and a team that, yes,
was so close. In fact, I got a text from
a friend of mine who works for the Blue Jays
after Game seven, shortly after, and he said, Hey, no
(02:08):
team has ever come this close to winning a World Series.
I'm shattered, and you can understand that, and you can
certainly understand the sentiments of everyone involved. I even saw
a post on x a collection of tweets from some
of the wives and girlfriends of the Blue Jays saying
how special this whole experience had been, how close everyone
had gotten It was and will remain in the memory
(02:31):
of those who root for that team. A special team
didn't end up winning the championship, but still special. Now,
the Blue Jays were gallant in this series, nothing short
of that. They were inspiring with the way they played,
and you can make the case that they were the
better team. Now. Caleb Joseph, the former catcher who now
works for Rogers Sports, that had that comment that got
(02:53):
some blowback, but I understood where he was coming from.
He said, it's going to sound like sour grapes, but
I think the better team did not win this series. Now, yes,
people are gonna jump on that, and Kiyo Hernandez had
a cute response to that. But the bottom line is this.
While the Dodgers won the series, they were outscored thirty
four to twenty six. The Blue Jays out hit them
(03:15):
two sixty nine to two oh three. They all played
them in most of the games, they didn't win. It's baseball,
That's what happens sometimes. And of course Yoshinobu Yamamoto was
the great equalizer, wins in three of the games, Game two,
Game six, and then of course the incredible performance in
Game seven on zero day's rest. He was on hours rest,
(03:36):
not day's rest. So an impressive performance by the Blue Jays.
And I say this all the time, and I say
it especially if to Yankee fans who complain about no
titles since two thousand and nine, as if a World
Series title is their birthright. It is so hard to win.
It is so hard to win a World Series. It's
so hard to win a baseball game period, a major
(03:57):
League game. Managers will say that all the time. It's
hard to win a major League game. Only one of
the thirty clubs ends up as a champion. We know that.
And in this particular case, the Blue Jays were up
against the team that was really good and a team
I'll get to in a second. And yes, for Blue
Jays fans, for people who wanted to see the Dodgers lose,
(04:18):
it's easy to bemoan the missed opportunities. Jeff Hoffman giving
up the home run to Rojas ikf not getting a
big enough lead, off third base. We can debate whether
he should have had a bigger lead. I'll trust whit Merrifield,
who tweeted basically that he did the right thing. You
don't want to get doubled off there or backpicked there. Whatever.
We can debate all this, but no game is ever
(04:40):
decided by one thing, by one umpire's call, by one play,
by one anything. The Blue Jays in the last two
games went four for twenty six with runners in scoring
position hit any in those situations. And maybe this is
a whole different story. So for the Blue Jays, obviously
you understand why the players are upset and why they
(05:02):
feel the way they do. And you know, also when
you were a team in Major League Baseball, the roster
in one year is not going to look the same
as the next year. The twenty twenty six Blue Jays
will not look the same as the twenty twenty five
Blue Jays. We know this. Bobaschet is a free agent.
Possible they could resign him at second base, I guess
possible if he wants to do that, Not sure he does.
(05:25):
Max Scherzer free agent, Chris Bassett free agent. One of
the beautiful things about this team was the mixture of
veterans like Schrzer and Bassett and youngsters like Treya Savage
and everything in between. Some guys like Ernie Clement, who
had been released by other teams. Nathan Lucas, a guy
who also had gone through a lot ten years in
(05:47):
the minor leagues, thought about retiring all these great stories,
and they all came together from different parts of the
baseball universe and formed this extremely appealing and competitive team.
It will not be easy for them next year. We
know that they play in perhaps the game's most competitive division,
the Al East, and again it will be a different
look for their roster. But the Blue Jays, in my mind,
(06:10):
should be nothing but proud all right. Now, onto the
World Series champions, the Dodgers. I was critical of them
in the Athletic after Game five, when they went down
three games to two, I wrote about their deficiencies, offensive deficiencies,
defensive deficiencies, bullpen. They did not look good, and really,
in many instances this season they did not look good.
(06:31):
They had stretches where they did not hit, including in
the World Series, actually including the final three rounds of
the playoffs. They had stretches where of course they had
players out with injuries, more injured days list or more
days on the injured list than any team this year.
They had kind of a struggle for a team that
was expected or thought perhaps to win one ten, one
(06:52):
hundred and twenty games. They won ninety three, didn't have
home field advantage for the series because the J's won
ninety four. So the Dodgers were obviously a team that
we all expected to be good, but they do have
at this point a position player group that is aging.
And when you watch this series, a reasonable person could
(07:13):
have concluded that the J's were the better team. Now
didn't end up that way. They didn't win the series,
and that's because the Dodgers showed something, particularly in Game seven,
but also in Game six, in coming back the way
they did in those two games that championship teams show.
And they are the back to back World Series champions
first time since the ninety eight to two thousand Yankees.
(07:35):
For a reason, what they did in winning the final
two games on the road was pretty rare in World
Series history. It's happened thirty three times, I'm sorry thirty
two times now where a team was down three to
two going on the road in a best of seven
World Series only nine times nine out of thirty two
have those teams one and the Dodgers became the ninth
(07:57):
with what they did in Game seven. In Game seven,
let's face it was their tour de force, and Yamamoto
played a huge role, of course in all this. They
don't win the World Series without him, okay, but Game
seven featured so much To really recommend the Dodgers, I
guess would be kind of a bad phrase, but you
know what I'm saying, so much that showed you who
(08:20):
they were. Home runs in the eighth, the ninth, and
the eleventh inning, four starting pitchers contributing all of them
on short rest to some degree or no rest in
Yamamoto's case, Guys like Miguel Rojas stepping up, Justin Ropeleski
and Mia she and two younger pitchers stepping up. They
got contributions in the World Series from all over the place.
(08:40):
So for all the money they spent, you see the
bullpen and what they did in the final game. Actually
I shouldn't call it the bullpen. It was kind of
like the starter's turned relievers, including Shan for that matter,
and what they accomplished in this game Yamamoto. My gosh,
two to two thirds scoreless innings. It was just brilliant.
It was a tour de force. Honestly, a classic example
of if you're going to knock off the champ, you
(09:03):
better knock them out. And the Blue Jays didn't. They
didn't knock them out. The Dodgers obviously prevailed. Now, as
we've discussed on the show many times, lots of people
complain about the Dodgers. Lots of people say, well, when
you spend nearly four hundred million, you should win. And
I understand the argument. We've talked about that, and we've
(09:24):
talked about how the disparity between the big money teams
and the lesser revenue teams in baseball is an enduring
problem for the sport. We may disagree about how to
solve it. I don't know that anyone can say it's
something that should not be addressed. It should be addressed
in a better way, or more meaningful way than it
is now. This has been an issue for a long time.
(09:46):
It goes back to the Yankees in the fifties, for
heaven's sake, and we'll see in the next labor negotiations
how this all plays out. But for all that, and
this is what I wrote after Game seven, you have
to admire what the Dodgers accomplished, the sacrifices their players made,
particularly in Game seven, the guy's pitching on short rest, Rojas,
(10:09):
who had been benched for the first five games, coming
out in Game six and then seven, doing what he did.
You have to admire what they did as a team
and the commitment to winning that the players showed, and
for that matter, the commitment to winning that their front
office and ownership showed as well. The manager, Dave Roberts,
remember early in his postseason career, frequently came under scrutiny.
(10:31):
This was perhaps his finest hour, going to Rojas in
Game six, dropping Mookie Betts to the number four spot,
moving Will Smith up to the number two spot. All
of these things seemed to work out. His pitching decisions
seemed to work out as well. Yes, he had expensive
starting pitchers in his arsenal for Game seven, but those
(10:52):
guys got the job done. And again you have to
admire what they are accomplishing, what they have scomplished, and
just kind of what they built there. I know they
spend all the money they do so to the Mets,
so to the Yankees, so to the Phillies. Blue Jays
were fifth in payroll. Lots of teams spend money, the
Dodgers not only spend money. They have maybe the best
(11:15):
form system or one of them. They do well internationally.
They figure things out as far as just beyond even
spending money on big time players will climb. That's a
guy they picked up. They have these guys that they
kind of figure into the mixed and then they get
the most out of them. This is why they win championships.
(11:35):
And I dare to say even if we were in
a salary cap era, they'd still be winning championships because
they are. Arguably, and other teams will tell you this.
The team that runs the best, the team that is
run the best. They runs most efficiently, most intelligently. They
just do things correctly. All right. That's the World Series.
We're gonna have more. I want to tell you where
(11:56):
I rank this World Series among my personal top five.
But I also want to get into the remaining managerial openings.
We've got the padres still open. Remember that has not
been filled yet. Albert Pooholes and Ruben Diebola reportedly the
finalists there Pool Holes. Of course, the great Hall of
Famer Ruben diebla pitching coach with the padres and a
(12:17):
guy who is well respected. That would be an interesting choice,
right pool Holes is here Diablas here are two different
kinds of guys. Then you have the braves and the rumor.
With the braves not rumor, but it's been reported that
they've been waiting on Danny Lehman, the Dodgers bench coach,
and we'll see if that happens. Alexanthopolis, when things are
(12:37):
written with him as president of Baseball Operations, rarely do
they come true. Usually he's got something else cooking. But
we'll see if they hired Danny Leman. We've seen some
unorthodox hires here Tony Vaiitello and San Francisco Blake Petera
in Washington. Leman would be an unorthodox hire too. He's coached,
but would he be able to command that room in Atlanta.
(12:59):
I'm not sure. It didn't play in the majors or
anything like that. So I'll have more to say after
this hire or process is over about just what I
think of what's going on. I kind of said it
the other day, the fact that Brandon Hyde and David
Ross are not even getting sniffs here. That bothers me.
I don't think that's right. So we have those two
jobs open in San Diego and Atlanta. We have another
(13:22):
job open as well in Colorado. We're still waiting for
the Rockies to name their president of Baseball Operations. And guys,
it's November three. Yea might want to get going on this.
The GM meetings are next week. You kind of need
to have a clue here. Put someone in place, all right.
We'll talk more about that as well. But coming up
in the inside dish my Top five World series, FTFAM.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
If you want more information about Superpower, I have real
life customer Eric Kratz with us right now to explain
how you're basically getting the pro experience available for everyone.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Is the price, and that is that's a discount from Superpower.
That's a discount from everywhere. You get so much information
from your lab test results. Christmas is coming up here soon.
You can give this gift to somebody else. Health is
the gift that keeps on giving.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Your blueprint activated with Superpower. Not only did Superpower reduce
that price to what Kratz is talking about, just one
hundred and ninety nine dollars, but for a limited time,
ft FAM gets an additional twenty dollars off with code
take twenty. Head to Superpower dot com and use code
tak E twenty at checkout for twenty dollars off your membership.
After you sign up, they're going to ask you how
(14:34):
you heard about them and make sure you mentioned FT
to support the show. Stop only reacting to health problems
and start proactively improving your health based on real personalized
data with Superpower.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Well were well well Wealth? Today, I want to talk
about my top five World series since I became a
baseball writer. I became a baseball writer in nineteen eighty seven,
so this is a long time. Obviously, not as long
as some of the younger writers on The Athletic would
say when they joke that I've covered the World Series
in nineteen oh three, and I'm right, no, no, no, none
(15:09):
of that. But I have covered a lot of world
series and I do have a top five, and I
want to get into where twenty twenty five ranks in
that top five. It certainly is in there, is it
the top Well, we're all guilty of recency bias, right,
so I want to be try or I want to
try to be as fair as possible here in ranking
my top five, So number five, I will start with
(15:29):
twenty eleven, the Cardinals defeating the Rangers. Now, this was
a memorable World Series, in large part because Game six
was one of the great games of all time, ending
on the Dave David Freeze walk off. The Texas Rangers
were in much the same position the Blue Jays were
the other night, and they didn't get it done. And
there were two one run games in this series. That's
(15:50):
not that many. Some of the games weren't very close,
but Game six was an all time classic. So that's
why I've got twenty eleven as my number five. Seven
games all the series that I'm going to mention here
went seven games, So twenty eleven that ranks as number five.
As we go up the list, what's next, Oh, some
people might say, twenty sixteen's only number four. Well, I'll
(16:14):
tell you why, and you'll see why as I go
forward in this list. Now, this obviously from a standpoint
of historical impact, twenty sixteen was certainly higher than number four.
In my career, the Cubs won the World Series for
the first time since nineteen oh eight the Indians at
the time called the Indians were trying to win one
for the first time since nineteen forty eight. The Cubs
(16:35):
went back to Cleveland down three games to two, just
as the Dodgers did against the Blue Jays here. And
I'll never forget interviewing Jason Kipness of the Indians that
time on the field after Game five. Remember the Guardians
were up. Indians were up three games to two, and
I say, hey, man, you're close. Actually they were up
three games to one at this point. I believe they won.
(16:56):
The Cubs won the final three games, and I said
to Kiptens, you need one win to win the World Series,
and he kind of teared up, stand down on the
field at Wrigley And it didn't happen. The Cubs won
the final three games, and obviously Game seven was an
all timer, and we had the rain delay and all
the different things that happened in that game. There were
(17:17):
three one run games in that series, including Game seven.
You remember the Raji Davis game tying two run homer
of Earldist Chapman in the eighth inning. You remember it
going to extra innings, the rain delay, the Jason Hayward speech,
all of it. It was amazing and still only number
four for me, number three on my all time top
(17:37):
five list all times dating back to nineteen eighty seven. Yep,
Dodgers over Blue Jays. This World Series, in this World
Series obviously was really good. Now, there were only two
one run games. Both of the extra inning games were
run run the others. Not all of them were that competitive,
though most were competitive into the later innings. What made
(17:57):
this series so memorable for me, and maybe why it
should even rank higher, are the memorable performances, the historic
performances we saw. And I'm talking about what Otani on
base nine times in Game three. I'm talking about Yasavage's
twelve strikeouts in Game five, a record for a rookie
in the World Series. Vladimir Guerrero unbelievable postseason in general,
(18:20):
three ninety seven batting average in the postseason, a no
ps of nearly thirteen hundred, brilliant defense, great base running.
He became a different level of star in this World
Series and in this postseason. Ernie Clement finishing the postseason
with thirty hits was brilliant right through the World Series.
Bobashd playing through the discomfort that he did with his knee,
(18:42):
George Springer playing after seemingly being out for this series,
all of these different things that happened, the Rojas, Homer,
and of course Yamamotos So that to me is what
made this series so memorable. The games were good, don't
get me wrong, really good and Game seven was ridiculously good.
But the performances, the individual performances, elevated it for me,
(19:04):
even to a higher level. So why isn't it number
two or number one? I'm gonna tell you why number two?
What do we got two thousand and one Diamondbacks over
the Yankees. Now I know some of you might not
have been around back then, but let me refresh you,
young ones. That World Series was played coming off nine
to eleven, so there was an extra emotional element to it.
(19:25):
The country was still grieving and healing coming off nine
to eleven. It was only a month or so later
when the Yankees hosted the World Series, and for the
first time, actually, people outside of New York might have
been rooting for the Yankees because they empathized with what
was going on in New York trying to rebuild and
all of that. This World Series, though, also was one
of the most competitive and compelling ever. Now the Yankees
(19:49):
went down to nothing in Arizona. They were trailing this
World Series to nothing. They go back to New York.
They win three straight one run games, two in extra innings.
This was the time when Jeter hit the hole run
in Game four to become mister November. Young Young Kim
for the Arizona Diamondbacks struggled, We all remember him struggling.
And then it went back to Arizona with the Yankees
(20:10):
up three games to two and the Diamondbacks needing to
win both games at home to do it. They win
Game six. That was a route, but Game seven was
an all timer. Of course, Luis Gonzales the hit off
Marianna Rivera. The end of the Yankee dynasty. They had
won three straight World Series, and this World Series because
of all those things I mentioned, just was elevated to
(20:32):
a higher level. It was really cool, and it was
really emotional, and Randy Johnson of course did what Yamamoto
did Game six starter Game seven in relief. All these
things came into play and it was great. So why
isn't that number one? It's not number one because I've
got another one and the other one is, oh, nineteen
(20:53):
ninety one Twins defeat the Braves four to three. People
don't even remember this one because a lot of them
weren't born. I get it. In this particular World series,
they were five one run games out of seven five
to one run games, including game seven one nothing Smoltz
versus Morris. Smolts went seven, and the third scoreless Morris
went ten scoreless. It was decided on a Gene Larkin single.
(21:14):
If you don't believe me on how great a world
series this was, go look it up. Look up the recaps.
I could not wait to get to the ballpark every
day to cover that World series. The games were that fascinating,
that compelling. So there are my top five. I've got
twenty twenty five at number three. You might disagree, I
understand that, but that's how I saw it.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Bet MGM account holders today, how about in any sport
parlay boost token you can score a bigger payout if
your wager with that token. Hits tokens can be used
on parlays and on same game parlays. Gambling problem or concerned,
there's help called one eight hundred gambler.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
All right, time now for grilling Ken the part of
the show where I take your questions. I've been long,
so we don't have that much time. But let's go.
First question it comes from Michael Pickering sixteen forty three,
who asks Cody Bellinger back to the Dodgers. Interesting question.
There's been a lot of talk already of the Dodgers
(22:16):
signing Kyle Tucker. Well, Cody Bellinger is a really good player,
a left handed hitter like Tucker. He's gonna cost a
lot less, So why not Cody Bellinger back to the Dodgers.
That's a good one. I don't know. I haven't thought
much about it. They're going to do something. They're gonna
sign another bat, and it's going to be a younger player,
and Bellinger and Kyle Tucker both qualify in terms of
free agents as younger players. They're about around twenty nine,
(22:39):
if I don't if I'm not mistaken. So that's an
interesting one. It's something to watch for sure. I don't
know how it ended there with Bellinger. I don't know
what they think of him. Maybe they think differently of
him now maybe he thinks differently of them, and who knows,
But that's an interesting question. All right, let's go to
the next one. Martha Brennan asked for autther Time is undefeated,
So what do you expect the market for Pete Alonzo
(23:00):
to be? Martha, that's a good one too. Now, Father
Time is undefeated, and that's the reason the Mets are
going to be reluctant to extend or to sign Alonzo
into his mid and late thirties. This was the problem
last offseason as well. But Alonzo is an extremely productive
player coming off a great year, and I expect he's
going to do better than he did last year with
(23:21):
no qualifying offer. Will it be the Mets. I'm not
sure it will be the Mets. I have never gotten
the impression their President Baseball Operations, David Stearns, wants Alonso
long term. But we'll see how free agency goes. It
seems to me teams like Boston and others will be
more interested in Alonzo this time around, teams that need
power badly. All right, let's go. I think we have
(23:43):
one more question. Should Kyle Tucker's health history be a
factor in free agency? That comes from Henry? Thus, this
is something I've thought about Henry the last two years.
Tucker has been injured and missed some time struggled because
he was having physical difficulties. I don't know that these
injuries are necessarily chronic. One was I believe what a heel.
(24:06):
They're kind of fluky things. So I don't really expect
him to be looked at as an injury prone player.
He's a guy who's kind of durable before all this,
But certainly this could come into play. I would think
that some teams are gonna maybe have a little bit
of a pause because of the last two years. I'm
just not sure they should. All Right, one more question
(24:26):
before we go. Let's see we've got what y'all think
the Yankees might do. As far as Kyle Tucker's Schooble
in the shortstop position, Robin Soto, they're not gonna get
all of them. Maybe they'll bid for Tucker, although I
don't really see that necessarily happening. Will they trade for
schoobl I don't know that they'll give the Tigers what
they want and shortstop, that's gonna be interesting. They've got Cabaio.
(24:48):
They can use him until Volpi comes off the surgery,
but at the same time, Vulpi long term is a question.
All right, Before we go, I want to say one
more thing. You might have noticed this. On our broadcast,
we thanked our longtime producer of twenty two years at
Fox Sports, Pete mccheska, for his service. He is now
going to do just football, not baseball. It's his choice.
(25:10):
He's going out on top. This guy was the man
who was a producer when I first came aboard in
two thousand and six. He's been incredibly good to me.
He's been incredible as a producer, as a leader for
our team. So I thank Pete, and we'll be back
Thursday our normal show, and it will be live. They'll
be live at twelve thirty Eastern, nine thirty fifth, and
perhaps I'll have by voids back of both friends. A
(25:33):
great week, everyone,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.