Baseball Lessons for Life

Lessons I Learned From the 2017 World Series (and would like to pass on to the Manager of the Year)
Rev. Bill Hofer

Many are touting the just finished World Series as one of the best ever. Maybe so. It did have many exciting moments… but with over a century of baseball history it would be hard to label it the best ever. I think I will remember it as a time when I suffered many a heartbreak. All was not lost, however. I did come away with three valuable lessons for life.
 First, Los Angeles needs to blow up! Think about it. After 911 the Patriots won the Super Bowl. After Katrina the Saints won the Super Bowl. After the Boston Marathon bombing the Red Sox (!) won the World Series. After six years of Rahm Emanual the Cubbies (!) won the World Series! After Harvey, alas, the Astros prevailed. These teams seemed to rise to the occasion as having something special to play for. Los Angeles had some fires get close this summer. San Bernardino had the fairly recent terrorism event. Distant Las Vegas had the mass murder. But Los Angeles is, well, La La Land. It is too laid back. The Dodgers flip-flopped into the playoffs as the team to beat. They were cruisin’ until they ran into a team full of young guns and a City with something to play for. LA needed a catastrophe to pull them out of the humdrum of a long season. None materialized. People need something to play for besides a paycheck, even the biggest in history, especially when you receive it win or lose. 
 Secondly, “Pride goeth before a fall.” Hailed as one of the greatest pitching staffs ever the Dodgers came in with high hopes. More like expectations, even “entitlement.” The Dodgers have a $155,734,572 payroll. Kershaw makes a cool $36 mil (20% of total payroll) and Adrian Gonzalez, $22.5 mil, didn’t get into a single World Series game even though his replacement set an all-time record for strikeouts. They supplemented their “greatness” with the acquisition of Yu Darvish from the Texas Rangers. The Dodgers bought him at the deadline for $10 mil to get over the hump and bring home the prize. Not to win the West, that was in hand (5th consecutive). To win the Series. The Dodgers have the greatest team money can buy. What they don’t have is a championship since ’88. As a free market capitalist I salute these guys with big contracts. I’m available much cheaper, BTW. But you still have to play the game. 
Manager Dave Roberts was understandably confident but his handling of the staff will be second-guessed for years. When asked about going to the pen so early in the first game, and thereafter, he responded with, “You go with the formula that got you here.” As one who never played hardball past High School even I can see the problem. What got you there was Clayton “K”, at $2.25 mil per win, and a host of good starters and great relievers, who appeared to the opposition 4 or 5 times over a 162 game schedule. And great hitters. (More about them below). Once in the World Series, however, the best offense in baseball saw the vaunted LA relievers 7 games in a row. You’re not going to hold a 101-win team at bay long when they see that many pitches. Clayton “K,” @ $26,163 per pitch in Game One, was pulled by Mr. Roberts while still strong and not throwing a single pitch with runners in scoring position. The eventual MVP Stringer struck out 4 times in Game One! Kershaw set a new record with 11 Ks in a World Series game in 5 innings! Visibly upset, Kershaw could only watch as Roberts followed the formula – for disaster. He followed it again with Rich Hill in Game 2. Result: An all- important Houston split. I get that the game has changed - I watched “Moneyball,” too. I understand the use of analytics and not allowing the opposing line up to see your guy 3 times in a game. But strangely Roberts let Houston see his relievers 6 times from the 5th inning of the first game, and the ‘Stros clobbered them. The Astros have seen Darvish before, too. Lots of times, in fact, as a division rival Ranger. They didn’t need to see him 3 times in Game 2. They lit him up literally from the first pitch. To be fair, they didn’t rock him as much in Game 7 but he didn’t get anyone out, either. He didn’t pitch 3 innings total in two starts! For $10 million bucks. Manager AJ Hinch held Dodger sluggers to a .202 BA with much less talent. Astro pitcher McCullers had more hits than the Dodger lineup - a record 4 HBP in 3 innings, and LA still couldn’t score. 
 Reminder 3 has to do with the old baseball adage, “Good pitching will beat good hitting every time.” Dodger fans cringed every time Cory Seager and Cody Bellinger swung at sliders “down and in.” Everyone knew what Houston pitchers were going to throw except Cory Seager and Cody Bellinger. Perhaps LA should spend some of their big payroll for a hitting coach that can tell Cory Seager and Cody Bellinger what we all knew. But wait, LA’s hitting coach was distracted by Yasill Puig kissing him and pinching his ears every few minutes. Like I said, too laid back. Where was Robert’s quick trigger when he should have pinch hit for Cory Seager and Cody Bellinger? Yes, they are good, young players, consecutive Rookies of the Year, in fact. But the stage was too big for them this year. The old adage held true. Except when it didn’t. LA’s superior pitching got beat like a rented mule by the great hitters from Houston: records for extra base hits, homeruns, batting average with runners in scoring position, on and on. Maybe the ball was juiced? Except when Dodgers batted. The biggest problems? Mr. Roberts showed his hand too soon and too often. And he failed to hit for Cory Seager and Cody Bellinger. 
 Maybe in a couple of years Los Angeles can buy a bunch of Houston hitters and flip the script. It won’t matter unless they heed what my High School Football Coach Jim Bohl told us back in the day, “You gotta want it more than the other guys.” Clearly Houston wanted it more than the Dodgers. What I want now is a “freeway series” between the Dodgers and the Angels. But the Angels play Houston 18 times next season and might have to eliminate them in the playoffs to get to the Series. Good luck… Originally published 11/2/17

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