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. 

When It Rains, It Pours?

  My mind must have been jumbled last week. After all, I was suffering from October Overload. 

It was brought to my attention by my intrepid editor that she was indeed in Warwick with her family for the weekend. For the celebration of apples. 

My mind went to somewhere familiar. Warwick, Rhode Island. That’s where I placed her and her family. Although I openly questioned in my mind why would Warwick, RI host a festival for apples? 

Well, I didn’t do my due diligence. Evidently there is a Warwick, New York. Right in the heart of Orange County. Where apples are normally grown. 

But I could easily have thought she might have traveled to one of the other 14 places named Warwick in the United States. Since it was for a weekend, I could readily foreclose Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington state as being too distant. 

Perhaps I could have eliminated the Warwicks in Georgia, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia as being too far, too. But that would have left me with towns bearing the Warwick name in Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania as accessible as the ones in New York and Rhode Island. 

Then it dawned on me—could the Rhode Island town have its own apple festival? Sure enough, the 1st Annual Apple Fest was actually held in Warwick, Rhode Island on September 19, 2026 at Greenwood Credit Union City Hall Plaza. 

Yes, the dates didn’t align. Still, this fact takes the sting out of the scolding I received for thinking that only Warwick, New York had an apple festival. 

Speaking of taking the sting out of my life, I am taking the New York Yankees sweep at the hands of the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays better than expected. Largely because my expectations were based on hope—and  nothing more. 

I didn’t care that the Yankees starting pitching staff was considered the top-ranked MLB group. If the lineup had holes in it both on defense and offense, and if that a few players playing key roles had been in the minors a good portion of the season or others were playing out of position, then we were watching a team trying to perform with smoke and mirrors. 

Sure, the Yankees took it to the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card round. The bats awoke against Red Sox pitching which wasn’t very good. And if I thought NYY was a flawed team, then Boston was far more porous. 

Yankees fans, always a very optimistic lot, were buoyed by their team’s performance. Surely the bats would not fail—even if too many times the silent bats would doom the team. The primary question was this: would the absence of 3X AL MVP Aaron Judge be enough to derail this trip to the World Series? 

Except that not enough credit was given to the Rays. Manager Kevin Cash had a team he could rely on—they could hit, field—and yes, like the Yankees—pitch. 

That pitching began with one Drew Rasmussen. His overall record for 2026 was 16-5 with a 2.67 E.R.A. and he recorded 174 strikeouts. Very nice statistics. 

Rasmussen jelled after the All-Star break. The Rays went 12-0—no pitcher in American League history had ever made at least 12 regular-season starts with his team winning every one. Rasmussen himself was 9-0 over that period with a dominant 1.86 E.R.A. That’s almost as good as New York ace Cam Schlittler, the presumptive AL Cy Young ward frontrunner, who posted a 1.69 E.R.A. Those are some eye-popping statistics.

Moreover, Rasmussen had a 5-2 all-time record versus the Yankees in the regular season with a 1.81 E.R.A. and 70 strikeouts. His last loss was to the Yankees just before the All-Star break. On September 23, 2026, Rasmussen tamed the Yankees, allowing 1 hit in 6.2 innings while striking out 11 NYY batters. 

One would have thought that this kind of dominance might have ended once the post-season rolled around. Especially with the show the Yankees bats put on against the Red Sox pitchers. 

That would have been considered fake news. Rasmussen silenced the Yankees hitters, allowing one hit in 8 masterful innings. He out-dueled from Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole and three relievers. Cole allowed a home run to Jonathan Aranda—the only run scored in the game. 

Rasmussen was helped by fine defense. That was no more apparent than when he surrendered the lone Yankees hit—a smash down the right field line in the eighth inning by New York catcher Austin Wells. 

It seemed to be a surefire double with two outs which could exert some needed pressure on Rasmussen or allow Cash to use his bullpen. The Yankees finally had some life. 

Unfortunately, Wells figured he could defy the odds with his slow speed and leg out a triple to put even great pressure on the Rays. A perfect pair of relay throws cut down Wells. Inning over. And a foreshadowing of the desperation the Yankees felt. 

Game 2 saw the Yankees bats score two runs. The problem was that an overused Schlittler could not stop the Rays hitters. Moreover, the Yankees were atrocious in the field, committing four bad errors and actually weren’t credited for a fifth one. 

With the hitting still adrift, Manager Aaron Boone made some changes in his lineup. The key insertion was Anthony Volpe at second base to replace the struggling Jazz Chisholm, Jr. 

Volpe made some important contributions. His liner to left field temporarily tied the score at 4 in the elimination game. Replays showed that a fan interfered with the hit, resulting in a ground rule double and only one run scoring instead of two. 

In that instant, the final nail was hammered home. New York’s bats remained at sea. 

Tampa Bay would move on. The Yankees will now have to figure out what went wrong besides Judge’s unavailability and the loss of Giancarlo Stanton for most of the season, who was thrust into pinch hitting and struck out twice in two at bats. 

A healthy Yankees team might have been far more competitive. The right team decisively won this series. 

For me, I saw the handwriting much earlier in the summer. NYY was simply not a championship-caliber team without Judge, Stanton and more seasoning was needed for its rookies, who showed how green they really were. Chisholm and Ryan Mc Mahon didn’t produce. Cody Bellinger was subpar. Trent Grisham took too many strikes. The list goes on.

At least now my nights won’t be spent rooting for the Yankees when they can continue to underperform. I can turn my sports attention elsewhere. I’m not necessarily at peace with the outcome for this season, but then again, I didn’t construct this ball club. Nor do I understand the minds of the players as to their approach to pitchers—especially ones who possess wicked changeups or sweeping breaking balls. 

With a lockout looming, it will be hard to predict how the Yankees brass will be moving forward, addressing the obvious needs—including the manager. It isn’t worth reassessing the season or fixating on what went wrong. It’s time to move on. 

In the National League, Los Angeles took out Atlanta in four games and Milwaukee downed San Diego also in four. This will be a fun rematch of last year’s NLCS. The Brewers gave LAD trouble last time. They might have improved just enough to make their first trip to the World Series. 

Tampa Bay awaits the winner of the ALDS between Cleveland and the Chicago White Sox. For the first time since 2017, a team has climbed back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the series and force a deciding Game 5. 

What made this more interesting is that the road team won all of the four contests. Considering how loud and boisterous the White Sox crowd was on Thursday night, that makes Cleveland’s road win that much more impressive. 

A remarkable feat for Chicago. Coming off of a couple of 100+ loss seasons, making it to a deciding game of the ALDS is really something. Well done, Pale Hose. Even if you set a MLB record with 21 strikeouts in the Game 5 2-0 loss. 

Should Tampa Bay and Milwaukee meet in the World Series, it is guaranteed that a first time champion will emerge. Milwaukee’s roots go back to 1969 as the Seattle Pilots, before moving to Wisconsin in 1970. The Brew Crew made it to the 1982 World Series as the American League representative, losing to St. Louis. The Rays lost in the 2008 and 2020 Fall Classic. (Colorado and San Diego have never won a World Series; the Seattle Mariners are the only franchise never to play in one)

So now that I have moved on from the Yankees, I first turned myself to college football. Because I went with my wife to see Franklin and Marshall play at Muhlenberg College Saturday afternoon. 

We like going to Allentown, Pennsylvania because it is the closest school in the Centennial Conference, a tad under 70 miles from our home in New Jersey. Traffic usually isn’t bad even on a Saturday in the fall. Parking is on the street, so we expected a little hike to the Scotty Wood Stadium. 

Plus we dined on one of our favorite lunches—the chicken salad sub from the Chatham Sandwich Shop. We devoured it sitting at a picnic table at the I-78 rest area just over the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, a necessary stop anyway at our ages. 

Saturday was a beautiful day weather wise. High around 70. The calm before the anticipated deluge from the remnants of Hurricane Isaias which quickly moved northward after clubbing the Florida Panhandle and adjacent states. Who knew another storm would erupt on the field in Allentown as a prelude to Sunday’s bad weather? 

We have gone a number of times to either Muhlenberg or nearby Moravian College, when the Greyhounds were in the Centennial Conference, to see F&M play. F&M has never fared well at either site.

When I was the statistician for F&M football, we traveled to Allentown on November 14, 1970. I arose early that morning to join the team for its pre-game meal at the dining hall—we had our own room and it was a buffet of steak and eggs among other things I remember.

The bus ride to Muhlenberg was uneventful. I recall that the day was cold enough even though the forecast called for a high of near 50 degrees. I was underdressed for the unheated press box and, as if the final score of 27-21 in favor of the Mules wasn’t enough, it was the chill which enveloped me and the team in its final game of a miserable season which led to the firing of Head Coach Dave Pooley that I have deeper memories of. That bus ride back to Lancaster was somber. 

Recently, F&M has not done well against the Mules. While F&M eked out a victory last season en route to the Centennial Conference crown, the Diplomats had lost 6 previous games to Muhlenberg and the guys from Lancaster hadn’t won in Allentown since 2010. My wife reminded me of the fact that we had never seen F&M defeat Muhlenberg—and  for me, that included the 1970 loss.

Talk about places where teams go to lose—this was F&M’s kryptonite. Even Superman would not have fared not that well against the Mules.

While struggling early and despite allowing a 91 yard kickoff return for a TD after opening the scoring, F&M held a 20-14 lead at the half then upped the margin to 28-14 in the third quarter. 

Alas, the F&M defense, which had stopped Muhlenberg repeatedly on third and fourth down, was worn down by the no huddle offense run by the Mules. When the home team tied the score with 7:21 left, the F&M faithful in the stands were as stunned as the players. 

A final series by the Dips went nowhere and they had to punt. Muhlenberg opened with decent field position and systematically moved down the field. 

With no time left on the clock, the Muhlenberg kicker nailed a 29 yard game winner; he had missed a field goal and an extra point earlier in the game. Final score Muhlenberg 31 Franklin & Marshall 28. 

The undefeated season was over. Another torturous loss at the F&M House of Horrors. My ride home with my wife was painful. Just like it was in 1970—she was spared the glumness back then. Stopping for apples at an area farm stand dulled the pain. Momentarily. At least the weather wasn’t chilly today. 

As I rested after a long day, a similar ending happened in Dallas when Oklahoma stunned #1 Texas and heralded QB Arch Manning with a longer game-winning field goal. Is there something in the Fall air?

. Twin defeats in the span of a few days. I can’t say I’m surprised. 

I can always go for the trifecta with the New York Jets hosting a resurgent Cleveland Browns team with a gloomy weather forecast. Because I am a glutton for self-inflicted punishment. 

When it rains, it pours, I guess.