SoCal--Inundated?

  Things are a bit topsy turvy in the sports world. Especially in Los Angeles. I’ll get to that.

The defining World Champion Dodgers are no longer in the playoffs. They were dethroned by the Milwaukee Brewers, a team built with patience, power, heart, grit, and a significantly lower payroll than the team they just beat. 

So as the Dodgers and their fans lick their wounds, the Brew Crew will head to the World Series for the third time, seeking its first championship. Deservedly.

Let’s face it—they were the better team. In fact, if victories in the regular season were an absolute guide as to a team’s value, then yes, Milwaukee was the favorite all along since they accumulated 103 wins with only 59 losses. The Brewers won the NL Central Division by a whopping 14 games over the Chicago Cubs. 

Chicago was a Wild Card team, although the Cubbies were summarily ousted by the San Diego Padres. San Diego won 91 games and was on a roll—until they met up with the buzz saw from Wisconsin. The Padres, who finished 9 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West, went down in 4 games to “The Cheeseheads”, as Pardon The Interruption’s Michael Wilson not very affectionately calls them. 

The Brewers consist of names not too familiar outside of the Greater Milwaukee Metro area. That’s a shade over 1.5 million people in a state where the population numbers very close to 6 million. 

While the Brewers have been in town since 1970 and were owned by former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, they reside in what is considered to be a small market and compete against teams with greater followings like the Green Bay Packers and University of Wisconsin Badgers. I’m not excluding the NBA Bucks—they fall a distant fourth in favorability (I sound like a pollster analyst on television in this current election cycle). 

Moreover, when the powers at be in New York needed a team to switch leagues for competitive balance for inter-league play in 1998, Milwaukee was the logical choice —after Kansas City declined a move to the National League—due to its ties with the Braves, who played there from 1953 to 1965. Remember, those Braves played in shabby County Stadium and left for Atlanta when declining attendance and the lure of a much bigger, virgin market in Atlanta was too much to resist. 

When the franchise reached the only other World Series in 1982, they were the American League champions. St. Louis defeated Milwaukee in 7 games to win it all. 

Now the Brewers await the winner to emerge from the ALCS between AL East winner Tampa Bay and AL Central champion Cleveland. Two other small market franchises hungry for a taste of the gold. 

Not too many people outside of the Ohio shores of Lake Erie gave the Guardians much of a chance to advance to the ALCS. It took five games to defeat the upstart Chicago White Sox in the ALDS in a matchup of the top teams from the AL Central Division. 

The experts pooh-poohed the AL Central as weak compared to the AL East, where the Rays, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox had good records and made the playoffs. Yet only league-leading Tampa Bay made it to the ALCS and their alleged invincibility took a hit once they were done with the floundering Yankees. 

The Guardians are as feisty as the Rays. Talent-wise, they aren’t so far apart. And Cleveland has third baseman Jose Ramirez, who, in 14 seasons with the team, has a lifetime .276 batting average with 297 home runs. Ramirez did have an off season in 2026, batting .235 with 12 homers during an injury-plagued year. 

Still, he is the unquestioned leader of the Guardians on the field.  His accolades are Manu, having been selected for 7 All-Star appearances along with 6 Silver Slugger awards as the top hitter at his position in his 14 year career. Ramirez has hit two homers this post-season with 8 R.B.I. 

Overall, the regular season numbers for the Guardians hitters do not jump out like they do for the Rays. Same thing with the pitching—youngster Parker Messick went 12-9 with a 2.56 E.R.A. and Gavin Williams went 14-8 with a 3.76 E.R.A. After all, Cleveland was 85-77 for the 2026 campaign. 

In Game 1, Cleveland banged out 14 hits en route to a 7-3 victory over a Rays team which may have become a little stale after a too long stretch of off days following the Yankees series. Tampa Bay had never trailed NYY in that sweep. 

Ramirez’s critical fielding error plus strong pitching from Freddy Peralta powered the Rays to a Game 2 win. The series was tied 1 apiece heading to Ohio.

Behind Williams and a bevy of relievers who held the Rays to 2 runs off of just 3 hits, Petey Halpin’s two-run homer gave the Guardians enough of a cushion. Final score 3-2 in favor of the Guardians. 

As much as this series could end in five games if Cleveland continues the magic, a seventh game would not be surprising. Then it is anybody’s guess which team moves on. 

Meanwhile, LAD has to pack its gear and wait for another year to regain its championship persona. The team is led by a manager who has  fire beneath his calm exterior and a 1044-638 regular season record along with four World Series appearances and three titles. Dave Roberts will be there next year and for the foreseeable future—the first African-American and first Japanese heritage manager in LAD history. 

Roberts has a better winning percentage than two Hall of Fame Dodgers managers—Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda. He has one more World Series win than Lasorda and one less than Alston. He will, if he chooses, match his predecessors’ longevity, but he has done incrementally better in the 11 seasons at the helm in Chavez Ravine. How do you say surefire Hall of Fame credentials for the 54 year old skipper?  

Of course, Roberts has been fortunate to have a nearly blank check payroll at his disposal. LAD pays out far more to its stars than other teams can afford to and the luxury tax the franchise must pay for its spending is actually greater than the 2026 payrolls for the Rays, Guardians and Brewers—combined. 

No greater examples of how the Dodgers can outspend everybody else is how they could afford the mega-contracts to Japanese slugger/pitcher Shohei Ohtani, fellow countryman  Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. At least three, if not all four may make the Hall of Fame. Pitcher Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell are paid a ton of money. And the team could easily afford to take on Tarik Skull via trade with Detroit and absorb his $32 million salary. 

So the expectation is that with such a large amount shelled out to the players, the only dividend should be a world championship every season. Except the they have to play the games to win it all and that may not go exactly as planned. 

Watching the Brewers and Dodgers as I periodically did during their series, it was painfully obvious that LAD was struggling against a better foe. The LAD pitching, so instrumental during this season and in the past, struggled to contain the red hot Milwaukee bats. 

I didn’t see the Brewers very often in 2026. The Yankees visited American Family Field in early May. Milwaukee had been scuffling, not finding its footing, while the Cubs and Pirates were winning. 

New York was ambushed by the Brewers, losing on Friday night 6-0 with likely NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski striking out 11 (NYY struck out 14 times overall). On Saturday, presumptive AL Cy Young Award winner Cam Schlittler dominated over six innings, but the Brewers fought back to win 4-3 in 10 innings. Then a walk off homer by Brice Turang off Yankees’ closer David Bednar sealed the sweep by another 4-3 score. 

While I came away impressed with the Brewers taking it to a highly-touted NYY team with slugger Aaron Judge still in the lineup prior to injury sidelining him, I didn’t recognize how good the team really was. The fact is, Milwaukee went 82-43 the rest of the 2026 season, leaving the National League in its dust. 

Could this Brewers team be the team of destiny? Or will the AL winner prove to be too much? I bet FOX isn’t thrilled that the big media markets of New York and Los Angeles aren’t involved. 

However, if the best teams emerge, then who should question the legitimacy of their reaching the World Series? Even if their payrolls are small—their hearts are much bigger as is the talent of the teams and their managers. 

LA fans must be in the doldrums right now. Their beloved Dodgers are unexpectedly out of the playoffs. The Angels have been so bad for so long people are glad that new ownerships might be what is needed to resurrect the franchise. 

The NFL Rams, thought to be the team to win it all, are only 2-3 heading into a NFC West battle at SoFi Stadium against the 1-4 Arizona Cardinals. After an overtime loss to Buffalo at home on Monday night when a game-tying field goal attempt was blocked, the Rams badly need a win.

It’s worse for the Chargers under Jim Harbaugh. Try 0-5. New offensive coordinator Mike Mc Daniel, recognized as a whiz but who was fired in Miami for not getting the most out of his team, is struggling with a veteran quarterback in Justin Herbert. 

Herbert ranks 30th out of 32 quarterbacks in the NFL. Unaccustomed territory for him and Harbaugh. There are offense line injuries and the depth at wide receiver isn’t good. Mc Daniel’s tenure may be short on the West Coast. 

Heading into the NBA season, the Clippers will be reeling from the Kawhi Leonard fiasco. The Lakers will be trying to prove they are better now that Lebron James is gone and in Philadelphia where he can bring the Sixers down as a 42 year old icon who definitely has seen better days. LAL has to hope to keep Luca Doncic and Austin Reaves both on the court more than not. The lineup does not exactly strike fear in Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Minnesota, all better Western Conference squads.

Moreover, the sale of the team still has its issues among the Buss family. Jeanie Buss, once the great Phil Jackson’s heartthrob, is trying to keep the remaining Buss members from selling their shares. High-stakes public litigation isn’t the best image.

In the NHL, both the Anaheim Ducks and LA Kings haven’t stormed out of the gate. I know it’s early; their problems mirror the rest of the professional scene in Los Angeles.

Only USC and UCLA football seem to be above water. For now. UCLA is unbeaten. USC lost once. UCLA has five home games remaining, none versus ranked teams until they face the Trojans. USC hosts Ohio State on Halloween then travels to Indiana the week after. Will the teams have a meaningful game when they meet in the final game on November 28? Will they sell out their stadiums at least once?

The Dodgers should regroup. Their top executives are proven winners: Stan Kasten,  Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes are  among the best in the business. They tend to make the right choices. 

Although owner Mark Walter is under Federal and SEC investigations and has massive financial issues facing him, the Dodgers brass maintain that the team generates massive independent income and is fully funded for the length of contracts like Ohtani’s deferred payments. This remains to be seen.

Of course, there is the whole lockout scenario facing baseball beginning in November. The Dodgers are the poster child for excessive spending. The other owners want a salary cap to protect themselves—even if small market teams will reach the World Series this year. 

Hold onto you hats for this one. It is’t going to be pretty between MLB and the MLBPA. Because of the Dodgers. Who lost badly. 

Let me leave you with some lyrics. Albert Hammond’s 1972 hit song goes like this:

Seems it never rains in southern California

Seems I’ve often heard that kind of talk before

It never rains in California

But girl, don’t they warn you?

It pours, man, it pours. 

With the rare tropical storm which laced the coast perhaps a metaphor, the sports world in SoCal is as inundated as can be.