Worst World Series ever? Reprise…

A week ago I wrote about an article on the website of ESPN. It claimed that the 2014 World Series would be the worst ever.

So now the World Series are over, can we conclude that these were the worst World Series ever? Not as far as I am concerned.
In the meantime I have learned that according to ESPN a good World Series is a World Series with at least one East Coast team in it; and then preferably the Yankees or the Red Sox. So this year ESPN and especially David Schoenfield (the guy who wrote the article) must have had a bad time.

I realize that it is a matter of what you prefer, but I wonder if ESPN still denies that this World Series was a good one, or at least the most attractive in years.

I keep saying that these two Wild Card teams managed to advance to the Walhalla of baseball instead of the division champions. So at the moment they advanced, they were not the worst teams anymore. They had the momentum that the other teams lacked.

Five games of this World Series may have been not so exciting because the winner dominated the loser. I cannot deny that game one was very one-sided because Madison Bumgarner was practically unhittable, so was game five.
Game two was also one-sided as the Giants were kept in check by Yordano Ventura and the much praised Kansas City bullpen. In fact game three and seven were the most exciting of them all because of the tight score.

I cannot remember a World Series where the winner hit only two homeruns. This may not be thrilling for many, but I like some old school small ball. I like teams that produce runs with bunts and sacrifice flies. And that is exactly what the Giants and (to a lesser extent) the Royals have been doing this World Series. Especially for the Giants this is the merit of batting coach Hensley Meulens (also manager of the Dutch team during the 2013 WBC). He has carried out his philosophy of leveling the bat with a swing. This resulted in many singles and doubles, but eventually it paid off.

Last night I saw something great. A couple of times I saw Ned Yost smiling during the game. To me it was clear that he was enjoying the ride, no matter the outcome. Isn’t that a great thing; a manager that enjoys the game even though his team is trailing?

I mentioned the dominance of MadBum. But somehow I have to tip my cap to him. From the moment that he took the mound I knew that the game was practically over. Only the error by Gregor Blanco in the ninth inning gave me a glimmer of hope. With last night’s outing, Bumgarner lowered his ERA for the World Series to a microscopic 0.42. His opponents hit a “miserable” .127. The guy is a stud. In my humble opinion he is a major factor for the victory of the Giants.

Don’t get me wrong, I can live with the fact that the Giants won it all; I have a soft spot for them. But because the Royals haven’t won anything since 1985, I rooted for the Royals.

But despite the outcome I have really enjoyed this World Series. I hope that next year it will be as exciting as it was this year. And ESPN, I hope that it will be a Pirates vs Royals World Series then. 😉