The Los Angeles Dodgers suffered a heartbreaking loss in the World Series, as they watched the Houston Astros celebrate on their home field after being defeated 5-1 in Game 7. While it ended in disappointment for the Dodgers, the Fall Classic will be remembered as an all-time series.
Nonetheless, the loss was especially difficult for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who said he is unsure if he’ll ever fully get over it. That is to be expected considering how much work he and his team put in to get all the way to the final possible game of the season.
According to Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group, Roberts recently spoke with personnel of the Seattle Seahawks and Golden State Warriors, teams who in the past few years lost the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, respectively, to learn how to cope with such a defeat:
Roberts will greet his players at Camelback Ranch having done his research. He reached out to people affiliated with the Golden State Warriors and Seattle Seahawks (he would not say exactly who) to pick their brains about dealing with disappointment in their sport’s ultimate game.
Roberts explained his main takeaway from those conversations was that the Dodgers can’t let the disappointment of the loss linger into the 2018 season:
“It’s something I think you do have to address, but you can’t kind of let it carry over into this season,” Roberts said of his takeaways from those conversations. “In one sense, they took for granted there wasn’t going to be a hangover and it has carried over a couple years after. In the other sense, use it for motivation but keep the focus on the following year. But don’t forget the pain of the previous finals.
“I think the great thing about our guys is it’s the same nucleus – and even bigger than the nucleus – coming back. So there’s an understanding of what it took to get to that point and there’s still a strong desire to win a championship … and that’s not going to change.”
The Dodgers recently suffered a big loss in terms of personnel, as starting pitcher Yu Darvish signed a six-year contract with the organization’s biggest National League rival in present day, the Chicago Cubs.
Los Angeles still has a team in place to achieve their goals as they embark on the nine-month journey that began Tuesday when pitchers and catchers reported for Spring Training.
