By Josh:
The 2019 World Series was both a great and terrible World Series. The Astros were a prolific team with a solid offense and some of the best starting pitchers in the game. The Nationals were an underdog full of gritty veterans and great starting pitching of their own.
The series featured at least three Hall of Famers (in my opinion) with the potential of more on the rosters. Cy Young winners, current and future MVPs and tons of all-stars were spread across all the lineups.
The World Series was set to be amazing but before it even began the series began to be tarnished.
The Houston Astros front office tainted the series before it even began. First a member of the staff (won’t name him because he doesn’t deserve it) made a stupid, idiotic, irresponsible decision to make comments that earned him a firing. Then the rest of the Astros’ front office doubled down on what was said, and then continued to screw the entire situation up time and time again.
This situation gave the World Series a black eye, and turned a lot of fans against the Astros. I was one of those fans. I like a lot of the players on the team but after this I rooted hard against the Astros.
Then during the World series the umpires began to take center stage. One umpire refusing to call a pitch a strike because the catcher got up to fast to throw the ball around the horn and he felt like he was being shown up. The pitch was a strike and the umpire even told the catcher it was his fault.
Then a controversial play at 1st base caused attention to be taken away from the game and placed onto a rule that needs to be reworded.
Players, coaches, fans and media across baseball were talking more about these three events than the play on the field. This was hurting and clearly tarnishing the World Series.
Then jumped in the Nationals with big hits, great pitching performances and just an amazing passion for the game. Soto, Straburg, Scherzer, Rendon and the rest of the Nationals changed the narrative.
Had the Astros won the World Series I believe that today we would be talking more about the negative things that tainted the series more than the play on the field. Fans who were on the fence about Major League Baseball would have been pushed towards the negative side.
In a tweet a few days ago I mentioned that I was enjoying watching fall college baseball and high school showcases more than then MLB. Game 7 was fun to watch though. I forgot about all that had gone on before and just enjoyed baseball. The Nationals were the key to that. That is why I think the Nationals helped rescue Major League Baseball from a potentially negative World Series.
I enjoyed the Astros v Yankees series more but I thought it was crazy that the Visiting Team won every game in the World Series! I usually root for the underdog anyway so I’m glad the Nationals won 🙂
The fact that a home team did not win a game all 7 games was pretty crazy. Shows that a team that plays together can overcome a homefield advantage.
I did not watch the World Series for various and sundry reasons. Be that as it may it’s hard not to know what’s going on between listening to coworkers, watching the news, or following social media. So I really only have enough information to make one comment:
The series sucked for fans at the ballpark. Imagine spending thousands to go see a World Series game or two only to watch your team lose. 7 out of 7 times hometown fans walked into the ballpark only to trudge out of the stadium with disappointment.