Saturday, November 2, 2024

Saturday Night Five: The 2024 World Series Champions

Last night was our first dance of the year.  About halfway through it... one of my students came up to me with tears in her eyes.  She was absolutely heartbroken that her boyfriend wanted to hang out with his friends instead of her.  I let her vent... and eventually her friends came along to cheer her up.  I was grateful for that, because I'm not exactly an expert on middle school romance.  Now had she had her heart broken by a sports team... then I could definitely relate to that.

I had to deal with the fact that the A's were leaving Oakland the entire 2024 MLB season.  More recently... I had to deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers delivering a gut punch to the San Diego Padres.  Not gonna lie... that really hurt.

Heartache is just part of being a fan... and it's something that we all have to deal with.  But that's not the focus of tonight's post.  Tonight I wanted to honor, celebrate, and congratulate the 2024 World Series Champions and their fans by ranking my five favorite Los Angeles Dodgers from this season.


#5Yoshinobu Yamamoto

2021 Topps NPB #128

The Dodgers have a way of landing Japanese pitchersNomoKurodaMaedaDarvishOhtani.

2024 Topps #553

It's not surprising that Yamamoto ended up signing with them too.


#4Mookie Betts

2019 Topps Chrome Refractor #50

I was a fan of Mookie when he was in Boston...

2024 Topps #250

and my fanfare has followed him over to the West Coast.


#3Freddie Freeman

2024 Topps #102

The same can be said of Freddie.

2020 Topps 206 Piedmont Back #7

But honestly... I prefer seeing him pictured with the Braves.


#2Clayton Kershaw

2013 Topps 1972 Mini #TM-23

I've got a thing for lefties... and for a decade or so, Kershaw was one of the best in the game.

2024 Topps #351

It didn't take long before I started following him and collecting his cards.  And for the longest time, he was my favorite Dodgers player.  Until this guy showed up...


#1Shohei Ohtani

2020 Topps 1951 (Blake Jamieson) #16

Are you surprised?  He might have struggled against the Yankees... but his popularity is higher than ever.  

2024 Topps #500

Ohtani is one of those generational guys who is both exciting and likable.  He's easily my favorite current Dodger and right up there with Fernando Valenzuela as my all-time favorite Dodger.

Speaking of heartache... I'm guessing my student will recover from her boyfriend ditching her before any of us are finished mourning the loss of El Toro.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

6 comments:

night owl said...

That's big of you. I know I couldn't do a list like this for the Padres.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

All 5 of your choices are PC guys for me.

Nick Vossbrink said...

Edman is also a Stanford guy. I ended up rooting for LA because of him and Shohei. Was fun to see him do well.

SumoMenkoMan said...

Let’s go Ohtani!!

Matt said...

Boo Dodgers. That is all.

Hey, drop me am email sometimes. Think I have a few cards to send your way before the holidays :)

Fuji said...

night owl - lol. i totally understand.

johnnys trading spot - to be fair... you collect a lot of different baseball players :D

nick vossbrink - didn't know that edman was a stanford guy... but honestly i even forgot that he was with the dodgers. i associate him with the cardinals

sumomenkoman - very happy for ohtani. i wish i could say that i hope he gets a bunch of rings, but that would mean i'd have to root against the padres. that won't be happening :D

matt - lol. i'll shoot you an email right now