I felt OLD last night, watching a DODGER hold up the "Willie Mays World Series MVP Award" statue (above) after the Dodgers won the World Series. It was a strange ending to a strange season (BTW, Congrats to the Dodgers)!!
Not only was the season shortened by COVID, not only were ALL 60 regular season games played without live fans in the stands, but ONE OF THE DODGERS HAD TO BE REMOVED DURING THE GAME LAST NIGHT BECAUSE HE TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID!! Unreal!! In the final game of baseball's season...in the MIDDLE of that game, he was yanked out!! Bizarre!!
This makes all of the cardboard replicas of "fans" in the stands and piped-in crowd noises during the "regular" (I use that term loosely) "season" seem "normal," almost!!
Then, there was the ODD move that the Rays manager made removing a VERY effective starting pitcher WAY early because he trusted STATS more than his GUT. The Rays LOST because of that, and it reignites the debate between "Old School" vs. "New School" managing. The Hot Stove League will be discussing that ALL winter!! I'm for the OLD School way, by the way.....why can't a starting pitcher GO AS FAR AS HE CAN GO in this, his last start of the season?? He'll have ALL WINTER to recuperate, for Heaven's sake!! He was pitching GREAT...leave him in!! I'm feeling OLD, remembering when relievers were a LAST RESPORT, not a FIRST OPTION.
But what REALLY made me feel old was seeing a DODGER holding up that "Willie Mays Award."
When I was a kid, the SF GIANTS (Mays's team) were MY favorite team and our arch-rivals were the LA DODGERS. They were the Yankees-Red Sox of the National League.
The thought of a DODGER being honored with a "GIANTS" award was almost "blasphemous," when I was age 7-11. It just didn't seem right to me. The world has certainly changed in the last 50-plus years.
It made me feel old....or maybe it made me feel YOUNG. But either way, I'm glad to see WILLIE, at age 89, honored with his likeness on this BEAUTIFUL award!!
Even if a DODGER got to hoist it overhead.
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