After any postseason is finished, the urge is to create a narrative. To find out what it means to be a champion of a particular sport or for the sport as a whole. I'm sure MLB would have known what Team Cheaters is. It wouldn't like Team White Flight. They don't, so we don't have to worry about them not learning the right lessons. It's possible.
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My mind wanders all over the place. It is hard to feel happy that a Braves fanbase and organization didn't ignore calls and reasons why their racist logo, name and chant were wrong, ignorant and hateful but also acknowledged it all and couldn't disagree with it. Then they did it anyway to spite anyone who pointed out it. That's probably a large portion of America these day. It's not about accepting you are an asshole or apologizing for being one. But using that excuse to make yourself even more of a slut. That, combined with the fact that you are playing in a stadium funded by taxpayers in a suburb designed to keep Black people out, is America's pastime.
However, I think that this is unfair to Atlantas players who did nothing to cause it and went on a dominant run without their best player to win the team's first World Series in 26-years. Maybe we won't be able to remember Atlanta now as the franchise that wasted so many opportunities, or at least as little.
Everyone wants to highlight their acquisitions of Jorge Soler and Joc Pederson midseason, when Ronald Acuna Jr. was down and Marcel Ozuna became a ghoul. It is something. It shouldn't be so rare. It used to be a common thing for teams to try to win the season, and only a few teams would give up in July. But not anymore. If GM Alex Anthopoulos says he knew Jorge Soler would be World Series MVP and Rosario NLCS MVP then he is lying through his teeth. Sometimes, baseball is like catching lightning in the bottle. There's no way anyone could repeat it.
Many will seek solace in the Astros' second consecutive World Series loss. They will use it to prove that cheaters do not succeed and their achievements are tarnished. They have been to two of their last three World Series and missed the other by one game. In fact, they've made five consecutive trips to the ALCS. This is a stretch that almost every fanbase save for the Nationals, Atlanta, and Dodgers would trade for. What is their lesson?
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Maybe it was the cloud that hangs over it. We don't know when next season will begin, and there will almost certainly be an August lockout. A work stoppage could provide a chance for baseball to reset, but that would require both sides to work together. We are more likely to see both sides trying to make the other look like swamp humans, which will only lead to more people being turned off. In 2005, even the NHL was able use a lockout in order to make the game more consumer-friendly.
After such a night, I don't want to eat all the cereal. I'll just say that Jorge Soler has been a great friend of mine since the day he was called up by the Cubs in 2014. This August 2014 homer was a moment in my life that I needed everything to lift me from the deepest depressions. That moment was the turning point in my Cubs-fandom. It was an amazing experience to see him again do it.
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Max Fried provided the performance that they had hoped for in a series where there was far too much baseball commentary about the deaths of starting pitchers. As sports evolve and the roles of players change, I don't know if this is what baseball should look like. It's what people remember. It was also fun to see.
Freddie Freeman looks like a genuine good person who has had to endure a lot of hardships to get there. He deserves it.
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I would do anything for Mallory Pugh so getting her boyfriend a ring is cool.
I am mostly relieved that it is over. Not because I don't have to think about all of the problems but because there is still hope, though misguided. That this could be a time when MLB changes for better. Although it is not much to hold on to, it is something.
