October
Here it is, another October, the impending end to the only season of the year that matters (baseball season, of course). This October, despite all the ads that tell me there's only one October, feels different than any October I can recall with clarity.
The last time my beloved Dodgers won a postseason series was 1988, the year of Kirk Gibson. I was a junior in high school and not nearly the rabid baseball fan I would become later. The Dodgers were coming to the end of a decade in which they had, for the most part, been the top franchise in the National League. I thought that this was the way it would always be. Twenty years later, I've come to realize that it won't always be that way, and I should damn well enjoy it when it does happen.
The Dodgers have been in the postseason since then, of course, but until this year, I've never held out much hope that they would even win a series, much less the World Series. They were always facing the Braves, or the Cardinals, or some team so clearly superior to them that I was happy if they just won a single darn game. This is a different team this year, and I said this before they jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Cubs. It's not just the addition of Manny Ramirez, it's an entire culture around the team that feels different. They're winning with young guys like Loney, Martin, Kemp, Ethier, Billingsley (and many thanks to jeditigger for the Chad Billingsley icon) and so on, instead of retread veterans of questionable value. When the Dodgers load the bases, I'm confident they're going to score. When they take a lead, I'm confident that they're not going to relinquish it doing something stupid. I felt like they had a good chance to win this series, and with Furcal back at the top of the lineup and Manny hitting everything in sight (and probably even some things not in sight), this is a team that stands a good chance of going to the World Series.
And damn, if it doesn't feel really good.
The last time my beloved Dodgers won a postseason series was 1988, the year of Kirk Gibson. I was a junior in high school and not nearly the rabid baseball fan I would become later. The Dodgers were coming to the end of a decade in which they had, for the most part, been the top franchise in the National League. I thought that this was the way it would always be. Twenty years later, I've come to realize that it won't always be that way, and I should damn well enjoy it when it does happen.
The Dodgers have been in the postseason since then, of course, but until this year, I've never held out much hope that they would even win a series, much less the World Series. They were always facing the Braves, or the Cardinals, or some team so clearly superior to them that I was happy if they just won a single darn game. This is a different team this year, and I said this before they jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Cubs. It's not just the addition of Manny Ramirez, it's an entire culture around the team that feels different. They're winning with young guys like Loney, Martin, Kemp, Ethier, Billingsley (and many thanks to jeditigger for the Chad Billingsley icon) and so on, instead of retread veterans of questionable value. When the Dodgers load the bases, I'm confident they're going to score. When they take a lead, I'm confident that they're not going to relinquish it doing something stupid. I felt like they had a good chance to win this series, and with Furcal back at the top of the lineup and Manny hitting everything in sight (and probably even some things not in sight), this is a team that stands a good chance of going to the World Series.
And damn, if it doesn't feel really good.