World Series

I would like to write about the World Series today because Los Angeles Dodgers defeated New York Yankees by 4-1and became a world champion for the first time in four years.

What is MLB?

Thanks to a lot of Japanese players playing in MLB these days, the Japanese media broadcasts the MLB every day. Its official name is ‘Major League Baseball‘, and it is commonly called as MLB in the U.S.

It is one of the four major sports in the U.S. (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL), and New York State, where I am studying now, has two MLB teams; New York Yankees and New York Mets. Both of the teams are very popular.

What is playoff?

Here, I would like to talk about the regular season and post season (playoff) of MLB.

In MLB, all the 30 teams play 162 games and decide the standings based on the winning average.

Strong teams can get the right to play in post season, but it is a little bit complicated.

In the last chapter, I explained that 30 teams are divided into two leagues each composed of 15 teams. Then, moreover, the 15 team is divided into the three based on the division, East, Central and West. Thus, five teams belong to the same league and same division.

For example, Yankees belong to the American League East Division with Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays. Mets are the member of the National League East Division with Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins.

The strongest team of the five can automatically clinch the playoff.

Also, out of 12 teams excluding each division champion in each league, the best three teams can clinch the playoff, which is called as ‘Wildcard‘.

A playoff is also divided by each league and the 3rd and 6th teams, 4th and 5th teams compete with each other.

This year, Mets were the 6th position of the league, thus they were able to clinch the wildcard and beaten the 3rd Milwaukee Brewers by 2-1(2 wins to clinch the next series).

Then, two winner teams in wildcard and 1st and 2nd teams in the league battle (Division Series). Here, 4 wins are necessary to clinch.

Yankees defeated Kansas City Royals by 4-1, and Mets also won against Philadelphia Phillies, which was the champion of the National league East Division, by 4-1.

Here, only two teams are left in each league, thus Championship Series are held in order to decide the champion of each league and the winning team clinches the World Series. Again, 4 wins are required.

Yankees again beaten Cleveland Guardians by 4-1 and clinched the World Series, but Mets lost against Los Angeles Dodgers by 2-4 and their season ended.

If Mets had won, the World Series would have been a subway series (games between Yankees and Mets), but the Dodgers were very strong thanks to great players including Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as was broadcasted in Japan, thus Mets could not.

Actually, I watched the 4th game of this National League Championship Series at Citi Field, thus I would like to write about it later.

Based on this playoff, the matchup of this World Series became Yankees vs. Dodgers, which were really popular teams of each East and West Coast.

↑At Mets-Willets Point Station, a closest station of Citi Field before the NLCL, #4.

World Series

World Series is a competition that decides the champion of the MLB (World Champion).

Same as division series and championship series, four wins are necessary to clinch, thus maximally seven games are held. The 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th games are held in the one stadium and the 3rd, 4th and 5th are in the other.

This year, the 1st and 2nd were at Dodger Stadium and 3rd, 4th and 5th were held at Yankee Stadium.

Normally, I cheer New York Mets, but Mets could not clinch the World Series, thus I decided to cheer Yankees, which is also a New York team.

Both two teams had a great batting staff like for Yankees, Soto, Judge and Stanton, and for Dodgers, Ohtani, Betts and Freeman. Especially, both leagues’ homer king gathered, Judge for American League and Ohtani for national League, which attracted many baseball fans from over the world.

However, in the first game, Yankees lost the game by the walk-off grand slum by Freeman even though they were only one out away from the winning, they continuously lost in game 2 and 3 due to great Dodger pitching staffs such as Yamamoto and Buehler. They won in game 4, but again in game 5, they lost by their errors even though they were once 5-0 leading. It was a historic loss for Yanks and Dodgers clinch the world champion by 4-1.

Freeman, who hit the consecutive homer from game 1 to 4, was awarded as a most valuable player and both Ohtani and Yamamoto became the world champion for the first time.

It was a really dull series as following Yankees, but I was impressed by Ohtani, who continued to play even after getting injured and Yamamoto, who pitched very well in Game 2 though he was a rookie.

It was for the first time since 2020 that Dodgers clinched the world Champion. Excluding this shortened season by the COVID-19, they clinched this title for the first time in 36 years, since 1988.

All the games have already finished in MLB 2024, and I hope the coming 2025 season will be enthusiastic, too.

Actually, in 2025, opening game between Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs will be held in Tokyo, Japan, thus it will be a precious opportunity for Japanese fans to see Ohtani and Yamamoto for Dodgers and Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga for Cubs.

Today’s topic was about my hobby, baseball. If I have a chance, I want to write about the Japanese baseball (NPB), too. Thank you very much for reading today.