October has absolutely delivered thus far for baseball fans. We’ve seen 38 playoff games and hopefully seven more are coming as the Dodgers and Yankees meet in the Fall Classic. We’ve seen plenty of late-inning fireworks and a lot of offense.
So who have been the biggest winners and losers of the October chaos so far? Let’s dive in.
Winners: Baseball fans
Nine days ago, I ran through how amazing the first two rounds of the playoffs had been. Since then, we saw a ton of offense in the NLCS with Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers advancing to their first full-season World Series since 2018. On the AL side, we just saw three incredible games in the Cleveland leg with Game 3 truly being one of the most dramatic baseball games in history. From the eighth inning through the 10th inning, there were four home runs that either tied the game or put a team in the lead, with three of those homers being two-run shots and the last one being a walk-off job. Games 4 and 5 were also dramatic with big-time blows, including Juan Soto’s three-run shot to help win Game 5 for the Yankees. It’s their first pennant since 2009.
There has just been so much drama and the best part is it hasn’t gone into the wee hours of the night/morning. We’ll get to more on that in a second.
Now, I should address that there are large contingents of fans who hate the Yankees and/or Dodgers. That doesn’t mean that all the “real” baseball fans hate this matchup or whatever. These are the teams with the best record in each league and have some of the best players in baseball. It’s great baseball. If you claim to love baseball, this series has the goods.
Loser: The ‘bye’ narrative
Unfortunately, in this era where everything has to be re-litigated the second there’s an upset, there was a narrative growing about the wild-card round bye being bad for the higher-seeded teams who got to rest. Part of the reason was the NL sent two No. 6 seeds to the World Series in the first two years of the current playoff format. Of course, the Astros got a bye in 2022 and went 7-0 on the AL side before winning the World Series in six games, but that got ignored by many people, notably those from the Atlanta area. I discussed it in much greater length here, but the reality was always that the small-sample results did absolutely nothing to prove that the bye was bad.
Here in 2024, three of the four bye teams won and each league sent the No. 1 seed to the World Series.
Obviously, this doesn’t prove that the bye is all of a sudden great, but the people who were overreacting have lost a lot of material for their argument. This is the third World Series in this current playoff format and a bye team will have won two of the three World Series.
Winners: Rod Manfred and baseball brass
Seeing the Rangers win the World Series for the first time last season was pretty awesome. The Diamondbacks had a fun and improbable run to the World Series. It was not, however, a very popular World Series. I don’t necessarily get caught up in the market-size discussion, but it should be noted neither of these teams are small-market ballclubs. The D-backs were just emerging from a rebuild and only won 84 games. The Rangers have a big fan base but take a back seat to their neighbors, the Cowboys. The TV ratings were bad. It only lasted five games, too.
From the perspective of attention across the sports landscape, MLB sure could’ve used a bounce back this season.
If you injected any of Rob Manfred and his inner circle of MLB execs with a truth serum heading into the year, they’d admit that a Dodgers-Yankees World Series would’ve been best for business.
And here we are. This is the most common postseason series, believe it or not. They’ve played in the World Series 11 times before with the Yankees being 8-3, though we haven’t seen the matchup since 1981. This is the first time in MLB history that two 50-plus home run hitters are squaring off in the World Series. Sure enough, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge are both overwhelmingly likely to win the MVP in their respective leagues. That would make this the first World Series with MVPs facing off since 2012 (Miguel Cabrera and Buster Posey).
How many World Series have there been where players the caliber of Juan Soto and Mookie Betts weren’t the best players on their own team? There’s more hardware, too, because Gerrit Cole has a Cy Young and Freddie Freeman also has an MVP, in addition to Ohtani, Betts and Judge.
And, again, these are the one seeds. It’s not like an 83-win Yankees Little Engine That Could made a late run. These two teams have been loaded all year and have fan bases that expected to be here.
This is a monstrous World Series.
While we’re speaking of Manfred …
Winner: The pitch clock
Once the pitch clock was implemented in the spring of 2023, there was a divide. The naysayers thought it would be an absolute disaster (I heard “shitshow” among other things) and there was a condescending attitude toward the people in favor of it. The implication was always something like, “it’s OK to admit you just don’t like baseball that much.” And I’ve discussed before the biggest problem was World Series games ending after midnight or even 1 a.m.
It’s crucial to air ET on weeknights to capture a larger audience and gain more fans. The late-inning action in the playoffs has shown that the most significant moments do not necessarily occur too late. The pace of the game is excellent, with players not taking too long between plays, thanks to the pitch clock implementation.
Unfortunately, some top-shelf relievers, like Emmanuel Clase, struggled in the playoffs despite having successful regular seasons. On the other hand, star power was on full display throughout the playoffs, showcasing well-known players like Judge, Ohtani, Betts, Soto, Cole, and Freeman.
The discussion of salaries often accompanies teams like the Yankees and Dodgers making it to the World Series, but success in baseball is not solely determined by payroll. Under-the-radar moves have played a significant role in the playoffs, with players like Lane Thomas and Luke Weaver making impactful contributions.
Overall, the playoffs have been filled with excitement and unexpected outcomes, proving that baseball is a sport where anything can happen regardless of budgets. The integration of star power, under-the-radar moves, and unexpected heroes has made this year’s postseason one to remember. sentence: Please don’t forget to turn off the lights when you leave the room.