Wednesday’s Game 7 between the Astros and Dodgers has the potential to exceed even 2016’s beguiling combination of rich storylines and see-saw scoringGame 7 (* if necessary).Of course it’s necessary. The greatest sporting events do not come with caveats, and it feels right that a World Series as evenly-matched yet helter-skelter as this one should end with the built-in drama of a title-decider at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday. Related: The greatest World Series Game 7s of all time Related: Baseball no longer a supergiant but it is still the most American of sports Continue reading...
When Houston and Los Angeles take the field on Tuesday their players will have been picked by data and analytics, rather than scouts with years in the fieldThe future of the World Series does not wear Dodger blue or Astro orange. It won’t throw a strike, hit a home run or chase a line drive into the gap, though it can predict the probability of such things occurring with remarkable accuracy.The future of the World Series lives not in the mortal realm, but in mainframes and clouds and flash drives and smartphones carried by men with pedigrees much loftier than half a lifetime in the worn fields of the minor leagues. Related: Baseball no longer a supergiant but it is...
David Lengel puts MLB’s 30 local telecasts to the test as he takes a tour round baseball’s broadcast boothsWith baseball’s lengthy regular season stretching from April to October, it’s not uncommon for fans to have the game on every night. Naturally, with 162 games, the broadcasters themselves become an enormous part of the fan experience.The hyper-local model which defines Major League Baseball also means that most fans have little idea what other local broadcasts are like outside their baseball bubble. Luckily MLB Advanced Media are the owners of what is probably the most comprehensive live streaming service on the planet, and I took a tour of all 30 commentary teams. Related: What's wrong with the Cubs? A backslide to mediocrity...
Yes, the NL Championship Series is not over yet, but we know how this ends. Another year, another disappointment – such is the life of a Dodger fanWhat is baseball without superstition? Rally caps, no-hitters that dare not speak their name until the seventh, and, of course, the dreaded postseason curse. For decades, the unholy trinity of baseball curses was the Cubs, Red Sox, and Indians. If you needed a shorthand for comic futility, you couldn’t go wrong with of those three hapless franchises. There’s a reason why Henry Rowengartner played for the Cubs after breaking his arm and magically developing an unhittable fastball in the movie Rookie of the Year; why the Cleveland Indians threatened to move to Miami...
The Dodgers’ ace lived up to his reputation as the game’s greatest pitcher with an improbable save on Thursday to close out the Nationals in the NLDSClayton Kershaw is the greatest pitcher of his time so why wouldn’t he want to finish one of the greatest playoff games in recent memory?He stood in the Los Angeles Dodgers dugout in the eighth inning of Thursday’s already draining Game 5 of a draining National League Division Series against Washington and wondered how possibly the team’s closer Kenley Jansen could pitch three innings when he was accustomed to only throwing one. He had made 211 pitches in the previous seven days, just weeks after returning from a back injury that once threatened to...