You love to see it. A couple of days & posts after hyping-up and practically pimping the great Walker Buehler, he proceeds to seal the deal and bring your 2024 big-league baseball championship back to Los Angeles. Thank you, Walker Buehler. Regardless of how the rest of your career turns out, you’ll always be one of our favorite Dodgers ever. Salute!
So it was the city of our birth (New York, Borough of Manhattan, not Queens) vs. the city of our current residence (Los Angeles) and, likely, as long as there are no mass deportations coming over the next four years, the city of our ultimate demise. In-between, the City of Philalala, home to our true favorite team. Yet we had reasons to be sentimental about the other New York team (National League! The Metropolitans!), because when we were growing up in Morris County, N.J., lo those many years ago, our father, bless his insane ideas sometimes, made sure his two sons had opposite rooting interests: I was Mets, he was Yankees. Even though our father did not understand American Gridiron Throwball, he made sure he got us varsity jackets in the winter, to reflect that season’s Super Bowl combatants: I was Redskins, my brother was Dolphins.
So I’ve always been National League, the older brother, the Senior Circuit, the traditional & time-honored, like the old CBS-TV network, The Lawrenceville School, plus all the associated haircuts & clothes. My brother was the upstart American Conferences: flashy, high-scoring, daring.
Thank goodness when we moved down to the Mississippi part of New Jersey early in childhood, it was easy to become a phanatic of your Philadelphia Phillies — still National League, still establishment. My brother tagged along, but he still liked the Jankies the most.
Now, having been a Los Angeleno for the past 33 years, I confess to having been to Dodger Stadium more than any other ballpark. I confess that a city & a team I used to despise with every fiber of my being in my circumspect youth (Los Angeles! West Coast! Beach culture! Blue jeans! Surfers! Style-over-substance! Collarless California vs. blue-collar East Coast!), have become, even if adopted, comfortable & like home now. Yes, when the Phillies & Dodgers hook-up head-on, I still root for the Phillies; but, all the rest of the time, I stan the locals.
This team, for sure, was OK to support wholeheartedly, given that it came to its great reward in an entirely unexpected manner from how they optimally drew it up. Late-season pickups, ragtag relievers, injured or ineffective superstars, they all made this trip to the championship dramatic and exciting if too many times harrowing. The exquisite torture!
Still, we notice that a lot of the players came from elite-prep-school backgrounds (Stanton, Sherman Oaks Notre Dotre; Flaherty, Harvard-Westlake, a few minutes south of Notre Dotre on Coldwater; Volpe, Delbarton). Especially with Anthony Volpe, who, like us, had that same comboa (comboa!) of Delbarton-plus-Pilipino heritage, we could not totally boo him like a typical Bond villain. After all, Volpe was both Delbarton & Pilipino!
Dodgers OK then. But still cannot stomach the Jakers. Ugh.
BestLine Racing Society Recap:
A couple of post-press-time connections to report from last night’s (Wednesday’s) action: At New Cumberland, W.Va., Race 7 went to #6 Worth a Peek (.251 Win Prob / 2.98-1 Fair Odds / 3.78-1 Premium Odds) at $19-even; completing your winning $86.20 exacta was #8 Flat Out Diamonds (.201 / 3.98 / 5.97), with the premium price on that comboa (comboa!) being $52.69. At Oklahoma City, before the deluge, #5 Running Commentary (.360 / 1.78 / 2.89) made himself heard in Race 4 at $13.80.
As for today (Thursday), some of your races went like this…
Your Louisville, Ky., finale was Race 10, and #4 Miss Tifeye (.220 / 3.55 / 5.36) made sure she saw the winner’s circle at $18.60.
On Opening Day at Del Mar, Calif., #3 Lonesome Stew (.253 / 2.95 / 3.74) was by himself at the Race 7 wire at $16.80.
Finally, it was #3 Secret Butterfly (.165 / 5.06 / 7.48) flitting to the Race 2 win at Etobicoke Int’l. at $20.70.
BestLine Racing Society Nightcap:
The Remington, back in action after a truncated card last night…
Strongshots
Longshots
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