By Woodrow Carroll
As manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dave Roberts has a problem most managers would be willing to put up with, for sure.
Roberts’ Dodgers are Major League Baseball’s defending World Series champions. The pandemic shortened the Major League Baseball (MLB) season length in 2020 was only 60 games. The Dodgers’ regular-season best record was 43-17.
The postseason was even more rewarding with the Dodgers’ capping 2020 by beating the Tampa Bay Rays, four games to two in the World Series.
Although nobody really feels sorry for Roberts, we might keep in mind that no team has repeated as World Series champion this century. That in is a bit of a tricky statement.
When the New York Yankees captured the World Series in 2000 under manager Joe Torre, it marked the fourth time in five years as champions for the Yankees. At various times since the World Series started in 1903, the Yankees, long the best the MLB, repeated as champions following 1999. However, since 2000 the New Yorkers have not repeated as World Series champions. The Yankees did win the World Series in 2009 under Joe Girardi, only to fail to make it back to the World Series in 2010.
Under Bruce Bochy, the San Francisco Giants did a kangaroo repeat in 2010, 2012, and 2014, similar to the Chicago Blackhawks’ winning the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013, and 2015.
The Bruce Bochy Story is interesting.
In 1984, Bochy was a back-up catcher for the San Diego Padres. Chicago Cubs fans will remember the Padres’ edging the Cubs in the playoffs that season before the Padres lost the World Series in five games to the Detroit Tigers.
In 1998 Bochy was managing the Padres. Given less than stellar talent, San Diego still made it to the World Series only to be swept by the Yankees. Talent cures all and that is what Bochy had after leaving San Diego to become manager of the Giants. Bochy is the only man with three or more World Series rings not in the Hall of Fame. His induction into the HOF should come in the future.
The Boston Red Sox won the 1918 World Series by taking the measure of the Chicago Cubs in six games. The Red Sox World Series championship in 1918 was the last time either the Red Sox or the Cubs captured a World Series championship for another 86 seasons. The Red Sox finally broke through with a four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004.
Fates switched sides with the Red Sox. In 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986 the Red Sox reached the seventh game of the World Series only to be stopped short by St. Louis (twice), Cincinnati and the New York Mets. It has been a different story in the 21st Century.
A couple of decades into the 21st Century, the Red Hose has won four World Series championships. Not once has Boston looked at a winner-take-all seventh game. In 2004 Boston swept St. Louis. In 2007 the Colorado Rockies were ousted in four straight. A total of six games were needed for the Red Sox to beat the Cardinals in the 2013. World Series and one game over the minimum was needed by Boston to beat the Dodgers in 2018.
• Del Crandall died May 5. Crandall, 91, who first played for the Boston Braves in 1949, was the last-living player to have worn the Boston Braves uniform. The Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953 with Crandall the regular catcher where he caught stellar pitchers Warren Spahn and Lou Burdette. The Braves were World Series champions in 1957 and were beaten in seven games by the Yankees in the 1958’ World Series. Crandall later managed in the MLB, but, it was his quality time in Milwaukee is how he will be best remembered.