The World Series ended Saturday night with the Houston Astros taking down the Philadelphia Phillies in six games to win their second title since 2017. No banging trash lids or taping signs, just solid pitching and timely hitting carried the day.
What stood out during the Series was the first-ever combined no-hitter in Game 4. Cristiano Javier (who went six scoreless innings), Brian Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly combined to shut down the Phillies. In this era of pitch counts and managers being afraid to leave their best arms in the game for too long, maybe this was inevitable. It will probably be a long time before we ever see another Don Larsen, who threw the first individual World Series no-hitter for the Yankees to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers back in 1956.
Dusty Baker, who's had a quarter-century's experience in baseball managing, finally won the big one to general applause as the man who righted the Astros' ship after the events of 2017. He's also the third Black manager to win a world championship behing Cito Gaston of the Toronto Blue Jays and Dave Roberts of the Dodgers.
What isn't so celebratory is that this was the first time since 1950 (when the Phillies played the Yankees) that white and Latino players were on the World Series rosters, but not American-born Black players. Not a good look for Major League Baseball, which usually takes a day to celebrate the first Black man to cross the color line by making every player wear his Number 42 during a game.
The Astros got here by defeating the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees during the American League playoffs. The Phillies as the National League wild card got through the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres.
Also in 2022, Aaron Judge became the third Yankee to hit over 60 home runs, banging 62 to win the American League home run title. That's an impressive amount. But Barry Bonds hit 73 for the San Francisco Giants in 2001 in spite of allegations of steroid use, and even Judge says Bonds' record is the true one.
Fox is still the main telecaster of the World Series, but Joe Buck split for ESPN to call Monday Night Football. He was replaced by Joe Davis, who should be used to following legends. Davis took over for Vin Scully, the longtime Dodgers and World Series voice who passed away this year.
No matter how baseball screws up, Scully might say it's always a great day to play a game.
