We had a good run, didn’t we? We made jokes for years, knowing that this day was coming, but hoping that somehow, maybe, if we could just hold on and get a little lucky, we could avoid it. In our hearts, though, we had to know the truth: People don’t get that lucky. There was always this awful thing coming, always in sight and always closing on us, and as much as we denied it or hoped that someone would stop it, well, there’s no hero coming to save us. The time is here.
Yes, after years of buildup, the Dodgers are finally about to win the World Series.
You can quibble with that, if you want. “It’s not over yet,” you might say, which is technically accurate, but on the other hand, like, c’mon. Get real. Everyone can see which way things are heading right now, and those on the other side* might be nervous, but only because they don’t want to jinx themselves by feeling good about what their team is going to accomplish.
*Dodger fans
For years, we’ve seen them amassing resources, spending their massive war chest, and finding these new young(ish) people who no one has ever heard of, but are suddenly stars. All of this has been done in the name of perpetual and eternal success; they are a machine that takes winning as an input, does some kind of foul alchemy to it, and then twice as much winning comes out the other side. It is impressive in its way, but it is also dispiriting and disheartening.
Is it possible to halt this advance? Sure, but what’s done is done this year, and even if 2021 goes pretty well, let’s not pretend that they’re not going to be geared up and ready to roll in 2022. Plus, all the new rule changes that we’re sure to see soon will just allow them to continue their run that much more easily.
I mean, if Rob Manfred gets his way and the universal DH comes to baseball, that’ll be great for the Dodgers, who can’t trip over their own feet without falling face-first into a pile of productive major league hitters. Annoying, that.
The nation is not on their side. The people in this country don’t want things to go this way, and sure, that doesn’t actually matter, but you can’t help but be a little offended by the way the wishes of the majority of Americans are going to be totally disregarded. Yes, we’re all adults here and we understand how things work, but at the same time, most of the people paying attention to this think it sucks. That’s bad! That shouldn’t be happening!
Is there any hope? In the long term, I guess it’s possible, if some new leadership comes in and they can’t keep the machine running (Will that happen? It will not). In the medium term, no, not really. In the short term, you’ll have your minor victories, but none that will change the course that we’re on. They’ll just make things a little less bumpy.
So all that leaves us here, watching and waiting, knowing that anything good that happens soon will be annulled almost immediately. This is going to happen, and the world will suck that much more, and that’s really all there is to say about it. It’s no use fighting the future here. The future will win. We will lose.
So congratulations to the Dodgers, the inevitable 2020 World Series winners, and definitely the subject of today’s newsletter.