MLB: Dodgers vs.

On Wednesday night, the World Series kicks off with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ home game against the Houston Astros (from 2:00 a. m. at the LIVESTREAM FOR FREE). For the first time since 1970, two teams with at least 100 victories each in the regular season will play out the champion. But was this “gigantic meeting” planned from the beginning?

The Dodgers are one of the most traditional franchises of the MLB, but since 1988 the team has been waiting with the picturesque 56,000 spectators stadium until this postseason for participation in the World Series. Again and again they appeared in the playoffs, it wasn’t a catastrophic year, but until 2012 the League Championship Series was only twice: in 2008 and 2009 it set up clear bankruptcies against the Phillies.

But then everything would change: owner Frank McCourt, who went through an ugly divorce, was broke and finally forced to sell the team. A group led by Lakers legend Magic Johnson was awarded the contract in 2012 for a record sum of over two billion dollars. And sold the local TV rights of the next 25 years for an incredible 8.35 billion dollars.

Suddenly, the team swam into the money – and spent it with their full hands to finally become champion again: just under 98 million dollars were paid in salaries in the 2012 season – one year later it was over 220 million. Stars that were to be had were literally poured with money, since 2014 the Dodgers have been the highest payroll of the MLB. Even the Yankees are fading behind this financial steamroller.

The result: Since 2013, the Dodgers have reached the playoffs every year – in a league of 30 teams and only eight participants in the first round of playoffs, not a matter of course. But then the lights were too bright, just one series could be won in four years. This was also due to the fact that stars like Clayton Kershaw showed unusual weaknesses in the postseason.

It was not until this season that manager Dave Roberts found the right mix of high-priced stars and young, up-and-coming talents in his second year: Kershaw, Alex Wood and Rich Hill led a strong rotation at the start of the season, while established top performers such as Justin Turner and Adrian Gonzalez were mixed in the field with top-shortstop Corey Seager and Slugger Joc Pederson.

The fact that the Dodgers became one of the best teams of all time after a rather cautious start to the season (14-12 in April) was due to the fact that several players became absolute top performers out of nothing: First Baseman Cody Bellinger joined the Minors at the end of April and immediately joined the team as an absolute homerun machine. Outfielder Chris Taylor hadn’t been given any place in the team in the jumping training – two months later he was an integral part of the team. And Enfant Terrible Yasiel Puig suddenly presented himself as a completely new person.

And so the team did perhaps the best run in the history of Major League baseball, because everything worked. Starting pitching, bullpins, hitting, defensive pitching,… In the summer, they won 51 out of 60 games in the meantime. There hadn’t been such a spurt in 105 years. The division was in the bag early on, the team headed for the best record in baseball history (116-46). Team. Ever?” was the headline of Sports Illustrated at the end of August. And this despite the fact that one or two of the stars were also injured at times.

But no matter how high you were flying, the Dodgers suddenly crashed violently. Before the trade deadline, there were some reinforcements, especially starter Yu Darvish, himself a veritable ace. But in September, however, nothing worked out, losing eleven games in series and 16 out of 17.

Manager Roberts’ mood alternated between calmness, restlessness and sheer panic. The playoffs were still safe, but the signs for the postseason could have been better.

In the last few weeks of the regular season, they finally found their way back into the track. Some of the top performers were fit again, the talk about “the best team of all time” and 117 victories had been done. Eight of the last ten games were won, and so we went into the playoffs with some tailwind and the best result in the league. Where there were no captives: 3-0 over the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-1 against the defending champion from Chicago. In 2016, the Cubs were the best team of the season. The Dodgers want to repeat this feat.

The World Series can come.

Page 1: The way of the Dodgers into the World Series

Page 2: Astros’ path to the World Series