Did Lasorda's Lounge Bring Dodgers Good Luck?
ALSO: THESE WERE THE TOP TEN WORLD SERIES
Pregame Pepper
Yankees hopes took a huge hit yesterday when Aaron Judge was diagnosed with a fractured rib, an injury likely to keep him out for at least six weeks . . .
When this week began, Atlanta center-fielder Michael Harris was hitting a best-in-baseball .365 on the road . . .
Teammate Ronald Acuña Jr. finished last weekend’s Cincinnati series as the only player of the modern era with at least four homers, four walks, and four stolen bases in a 3-game span . . .
If the Milwaukee Brewers win the NL Central, they will do that for the fourth straight season fifth time in the past six years . . .
Let’s see how the IL stint of rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami impacts the surprising Chicago White Sox, no longer a pushover in the AL Central . . .
Hard to believe but Toronto’s Andrés Giménez (6) had twice as many home runs as $500 Million Man Vladimir Guerrero (3) entering play yesterday . . .
Clayton Kershaw enjoyed a recent Dodger Stadium game from the front row . . .
The Mets slipped a full 15 games behind their arch-rival Braves on June 2 . . .
With its Wednesday win over the Blue Jays, Atlanta is on pace for 109 victories — three more than the existing club record.
Leading Off
Blame My Friends and Me For Dodgers’ Success
By Steve Baldwin
Baseball does not merely tolerate superstition. Baseball marinates in it.
This is a sport in which grown men refuse to step on chalk lines, wear month-old lucky gear until it qualifies as a public health concern and treat a pitcher throwing a no-hitter as if he has the plague.
You do not approach them, gesture towards them, or talk to them.
Mention it out loud? Are you insane?
While you’re at it, might as well go stand in a pool during a lightning storm, holding a golf club high in the air, daring Mother Nature to give you her best shot.
Everybody knows this is ridiculous. Players know it. Managers know it. Fans know it.
We all know a team’s success is determined by talent, execution, managerial decisions, and player health. And yet the minute a team gets hot, logic gets benched and superstition starts warming up in the pen.
Because baseball does this to people. A game free from the constraints of time (aside from the pitcher’s clock) practically begs one to invent patterns, protect streaks, and believe that going 3-for-4 in a certain pair of socks is likely to lead to the same outcome if you don’t wash them — more than if you do.
Unless they are accidentally washed and then you go 3-for-4. In that case, be sure to wear clean ones every day. It’s ridiculous.
Fans are no different. In some ways, we are worse.
We sit in the same chair, wear the same jersey, and turn our caps inside out to prolong rallies, all in the name of influencing the outcome on the field. We should know better. And we absolutely do not know better.
Which brings me, unfortunaely, to my own decent into madness.
In the Spring of 2024, my friends and I started a private chat thread we call Lasorda’s Lounge. We talk baseball, share stories, muse about new rules and old players, games we’ve been to, and important topics such as “Which World Series was the greatest?”
Consensus is ‘91, Twins vs Braves.
Most of our chatter is Dodger talk and we reserve plenty of space to bash the Giants, Padres, Astros, and Angels. We entertain each other.
The thing is, since the start of Lasorda’s Lounge, the Dodgers have not lost a post-season series.
Any rational person would say our chat thread has absolutely nothing to do with baseball games that happen in October. I am almost certain Lasorda’s Lounge had nothing too do with Will Smith keeping his foot on home plate or Miggy Rojas hitting his improbable home run in last year’s epic World Series Game 7.
I am almost certain. Almost.
But baseball is not a game that has ever belonged entirely to rational people. Once a pattern appears, especially a winning one, it becomes very dangerous to dismiss it.
So now I have a problem. By writing this column, by publicly mentioning Lasorda’s Lounge and its suspiciously spotless October record, am I tempting fate?
Have I dragged a perfectly good private little charm out into the open and exposed it to scorn by the baseball gods?
I would like to say no. I would like to say that a group chat is just a group chat, that fortune does not work that way, and that the Dodgers’ postseason success rests on Andrew Friedman’s brilliant roster construction, keeping our Hall of Fame-bound players healthy, and making sure Dave Roberts gets adequate sleep.
But this is baseball.
And somewhere deep down, I know I probably should have kept my mouth shut.
Steve Baldwin is a lifelong Dodgers and Star Wars fan, public health professional, and recovering drummer. He lives in Long Beach, where he enjoys writing, podcasting, and the various stages of fatherhood. Email steveb8@me.com or find him on X, Instagram, or Threads: @baldwinishere.
Cleaning Up
These Were the Best World Series
By Dan Schlossberg
Baseball is a game of comparisons.
Who was the best player? the best pitcher? the best manager? And so on.
The World Series, ostensibly a post-season clash between baseball’s best ballclubs, is also ripe for rating.
As a writer born in 1948, became a fan in 1957, and was first published in 1969, I’ve seen a lot of them.
That being said, these are the best — though a few had to come from the historian within:
Twins v. Braves, 1991 — In a battle of the first two worst-to-first teams in baseball history, the Twins won the decisive Game 7, 1-0, on a route-going effort by Jack Morris. It was the third extra-inning game in that Series, which also had five one-run games, four decided in the final at-bat, and a spectacular base-running blunder by Lonnie Smith that cost Atlanta its first championship (the Braves later won in 1995 and 2021). Minnesota managed to win all four of its home games for the second time. ESPN rated the ‘91 classic No. 1 in its “World Series 100th Anniversary” documentary.
Pirates v. Yankees, 1960 — The first World Series ended by a home run, Forbes Field went slightly crazy after Bill Mazeroski led off the ninth inning of a Game 7 that was tied 9-9 with a solo shot against Ralph Terry. The Pirates were outscored 55-27 by the Yankees, whose three victories featured scores of 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0.
Dodgers v. Blue Jays, 2026 — Although Toronto had eight more runs and 22 more hits than Los Angeles, plus three fewer errors, the Jays lost a Series for the first time after winning in 1992 and 1993. Game 7 went 11 innings, making the Dodgers the fifth straight visiting team to win the finale. Though they hit a collective .203 — worst by a winner since the 1966 edition of the Dodgers — L.A. staged several narrow escapes, including a rare home run by spray-hitting Miguel Rojas and a sensational game-saving catch by Andy Pages during a violent collision with teammate Enrique Hernandez. Yoshinobu Yamamoto won Games 2, 6, and 7, pitching the last 2 2/3 innings after working 96 as a starter the night before. The Dodgers were the first team since the 2003 Marlins to score fewer runs than their opponent.
Braves v. Yankees, 1957 — Although Hank Aaron led both teams with a .393 batting average, Lew Burdette won World Series MVP honors with three complete-game wins, including a Yankee Stadium Game 7 shutout with two days of rest (Warren Spahn had the flu). Burdette’s two shutouts matched the total produced by the entire American League against the Yankees that season.
Dodgers v. Athletics, 1988 — In his only at-bat of the Series, hobbled slugger Kirk Gibson limped to the plate, worked the count to 3-2, and hit several foul balls before connecting against Oakland closer Dennis Eckersley with two outs and a man on base in Game 1. Given momentum, the underdog Dodgers went on to win in five games and Gibson grabbed the NL MVP trophy a month later.
Senators v. Giants, 1924 — The Washington Senators won their only world title when 37-year-old Walter Johnson came on in the ninth inning of Game 7 to work four scoreless innings. In the last of the 12th inning, Washington’s Muddy Ruel hit a foul pop that Giants catcher Hank Gowdy missed after tripping over the mask he had just ripped off. Given new life, Ruel doubled. Johnson’s grounder to short was bobbled by Travis Jackson and rookie Earl McNeely grounded to third baseman Fred Lindstrom. As Lindstrom reached for the grounder, the ball struck a pebble, bounding high over his head and down the left field line. Ruel scored the run that won the World Series. The Giants had beaten Johnson twice earlier.
Mets v. Red Sox, 1986 — Boston was so close to victory that the Shea Stadium scoreboard prematurely read, “Congratulations Red Sox. World Series Champions.” But that was before the ninth inning of Game 6. Boston got two quick outs but three singles and a wild pitch followed, tying the game at 5-5. Then Mookie Wilson’s slow roller dribbled through the legs of gimpy first baseman Bill Buckner to bring home the winning run and set up the second Mets world championship (along with 1969). Boston could have won on any of a dozen different pitches.
Reds vs. Red Sox, 1975 — Although his club eventually lost in a Series that went seven, future Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk earned a niche in baseball history by standing at the plate and “willing” his long fly to left to stay fair with wild arm gestures. It did, giving the Bosox a 7-6 win that consumed 12 innings.
Cardinals v. Tigers, 1934 — After the Gashouse Gang Cardinals won their only pennant, the Dean brothers (Dizzy and Paul) won two games each. Old Diz won Game 7, 11-0, after telling Tigers hitters he would use only fastballs against them. The finale at Briggs Stadium was marked by a wild brawl that began after Cardinals star Joe Medwick slid hard into third baseman Marv Owen in the home sixth inning. Trailing by nine runs at the time, fans hurled debris at Medwick when he returned to outfield position. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, after consulting with the umpires, had Medwick removed from his own safety.
Yankees v. Dodgers, 1956 — Just two years after he went 3-21 for Baltimore, journeyman right-hander Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history. Larsen, who had been knocked out in the second inning of the second game, threw only 97 pitches in the 2-0 gem in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. Two days later, Johnny Kucks pitched another shutout to wrap up the Series for the Yanks at Ebbets Field.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Lucas Communications, Memories & Dreams, Latino Sports, and many other outlets. He’s also the author of 43 baseball books. E.mail him at ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia From World Series Archives
Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the 2026 Dodgers was the first pitcher to win a World Series MVP trophy since Stephen Strasburg in 2019 . . .
He was the first pitcher to win three World Series road games and the second since 1968 to win three games in any World Series (along with Randy Johnson in 2001) . . .
Andy Pages, the centerfielder who made the specular catch that ended the ninth inning in Game 7, had just been inserted as a defensive replacement before the prior at-bat . . .
Shades of Sandy Amoros in the 1955 World Series, the only one ever won by the Brooklyn Dodgers . . .
Miguel Rojas, whose solo homer against Jeff Hoffman in the ninth tied a game the Dodgers eventually won, was the first player to baseball history with a game-tying home run in the ninth inning or later of a World Series Game 7 . . .
Rojas had not had a hit since the Wild Card series a month earlier . . .
His hurried throw to catcher Will Smith on a grounder to second with the bases loaded in the last of the ninth forced Isiah Kiner-Falefa for the second out, keeping the Jays from scoring the winning run . . .
Toronto’s Joe Carter became the second man to end a World Series with a home run (1993) but the first to do it with a come-from-behind homer, as the Jays rode his three-run blast to an 8-6 win in the decisive Game 6 against the Phillies . . .
The last World Series day game was Game 6 in 1987, played in the old Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minnesota, and the last World Series day game played outdoors was the last game of the 1984 Fall Classic at Tiger Stadium in Detroit . . .
Those ‘87 Twins were the first team to win a world title by taking all home games . . .
American League teams have won 68 World Series and National League teams have taken 53 . . .
The New York Yankees have won the most world championships (27) . . .
During the 18-year stretch from 1947-1964, at least one team based in New York reached the World Series every fall but 1948 and 1959.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
I can't find fault with your top 10 World Series choices. By the way, thanks for including the Senators-Giants in 1924; most historians don't bother going that far back. However, I think I might have gone in a couple of different directions. The World Series in 1946, 1958, 1962, 1968, 2001, & 2016 all deserve a mention -- but it's your answer and you get to include your choices.
2019 Nationals, which beat the Astros, 4 games to 3, are the only WS team to win all four games on the road. ('Astros took the 3 in D.C., of course)