When the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers won their respective leagues it meant meeting in the World Series for only the second time in MLB history. Though for all intents and purposes it might as well have been the first as they previously met in the Fall Classic in 1916.
For the Dodgers, it marked a second consecutive appearance in the World Series. They were one year removed from falling short to the Houston Astros in a seven-game thriller and looking to claim their first title since 1988.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox were essentially this year’s version of the 2017 Dodgers as they paced the Majors in wins and steamrolled their way to the World Series. The American League pennant was their fourth in the past 15 seasons but first since 2013.
The Boston juggernaut went on to defeat the Dodgers in five games. On top of losing the World Series, the Dodgers endured another year in which they watched the champions celebrate at Dodger Stadium.
Despite the strong national brands, World Series TV ratings hit a four-year low. The notion that games weren’t all that interesting extended to Joe Buck, who explained his frustration to Alex Reimer of WEEI.com:
“The games were really not that compelling,” Buck said. “(John) Smoltz has gone from the darling three years ago to, ‘He hates baseball.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s that he loves the game, and he’s not that (removed) from playing, and he wants to see a certain approach that’s starting to disappear in the game. I’m not sure analytics, launch angle and all of that is producing better baseball. He has said 1 million times to me, because they’re allowing the shift, sluggers say, ‘If I hit the ball on the ground, I’m going to make an out, because everyone is on this side of the field. So I’m going to swing and try to launch the ball out of the ballpark, and we don’t care about strikeouts.’ That might be fine in the regular season, but the better at-bats belonged to the Red Sox, and to me, that’s why they won. They fought to get on base, they went deep into at-bats, and they were able to put the bat on the ball, and get runs. I think that’s always going to help a team win. It might not be the only way, but my God, if putting the bat on the ball and creating action isn’t better than swinging and missing, then I don’t understand it either.”
On the surface, only two World Series games were decided by two runs or fewer — Games 2 and 3. Though, Game 1 saw the Dodgers and Red Sox exchange key swings, and Game 4 offered its own storyline in Boston mounting a late-game comeback.
Nonetheless, Buck’s remarks are surely to earn him more criticism, which has become commonplace for several fanbases that believe he is partial against their team of choice.
