NLCS emotions prove that World Series means something even in COVID-clipped season
The prevailing thought not all that long ago was that baseball’s World Series winner in 2020 would forever be tagged with an asterisk, the result of have to survive only a 60-game regular season.
That’s 102 games short of a regular regular season, which wasn’t possible because these are irregular times. But playing less than half that, and then cramming four rounds of playoffs into less than three weeks, just seemed not legitimate.
Don’t tell that to the Los Angeles Dodgers or Atlanta Braves, who on Sunday night at Globe Life Field played a win-or-go-home Game 7 in the National League Championship Series and advance to the 116th Fall Classic.
Game 7s are the most anticipated games in all of sports. Players dreams of doing something big in them while goofing in their backyards as kids.
“When I was a kid, you do think, ‘3-2, bottom of ninth, Game 7,” Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts said. “But when you’re in the yard, you get re-tries. This time you don’t get a retry. It’s just one game and you put everything on the line,”
Whichever team was to lose would carry it through the off-season and into spring training. The team meant to win would carry it into a Monday off day ahead of the World Series right back at Globe Life Field when the first comes just after 7 p.m. Tuesday.
A Game 7 loss would sting. A win would would serve as a springboard for the chance to play for a world championship and a large shiny ring that wouldn’t have an asterisk anywhere on it.
Neither would the NL championship rings.
Well before Sunday, it easy to see what a World Series trip means to the Rangers. In Game 6 alone, Corey Seager let out a primal scream toward his dugout after connecting for a first-inning home run, Walker Buehler pumped his fist as he escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second, and Betts went just short of crazy after his leaping fifth-inning catch at the right-field wall.
There have been moments like that throughout the series and postseason.
There were six more teams and an additional wild-card round that many teams believed would be a trap. The Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins were the two best teams who failed to advance.
As with any other season, just qualifying for the postseason was a big deal.
But the Toronto Blue Jays were thrilled to be back after a three-season hiatus no matter how small the season or large the playoff bracket. The Miami Marlins hadn’t been in the playoffs since 2003.
The Dodgers were thrilled to have another chance to win a World Series that has eluded them in 2016 and 2018.
Atlanta hadn’t played in an NLCS since 2001.
The winner Sunday night would move on to play the Tampa Bay Rays, who had to survive a Game 7 of their own in the American League Championship Series in San Diego after taking a 3-0 series lead against the Houston Astros.
The Braves were attempting to survive after opening a 3-1 series lead Thursday night.
Club officials and coaches stayed up well after Game 6, a 3-1 Dodgers win to again stave off elimination, and were pouring over scouting reports and trying to leverage matchups until the mangers were required to fill out their lineup cards.
The 1,000 tickets that were available late Saturday had been gobbled up by Sunday morning.
Game 7 of the NLCS was a big deal. Winning a World Series, even in this truncated season, means even more.
Don’t tell the Dodgers or Braves otherwise.
