The mainstream sports media is all agog about the upcoming Red Sox-Dodgers match-up in the 114th World Series
(Editor's Note: It's not the 115th because the National League representative New York Giants refused to play the American League representative Boston Red Sox in 1904). Anyway, the media party line is that there are
three main storylines that will define this year's
Fall Classic. They are:
1.) Will
Clayton Kershaw and
David Price redeem their post-season funks?;
2.) Will
Chris Sale recover from his (probably fake) belly-button-ring malady and be dominant?;
3.) Will Boston put
Mookie Betts at 2B in LA to keep
J.D. Martinez,
Andrew Benintendi and
Jackie Bradley, Jr. in the line-up as well?;
A careful study of past World Series prognostications reveals that they have mostly been dead wrong. Each World Series tends to produce its own unique scenarios that could not
possibly have been envisioned beforehand. And, the players who end up mattering most are often the
least likely pre-series suspects. So, here's what we think will happen:
1.) Kershaw and Price will
both pitch respectably well—not dominant, but not pathetic;
2.) Sale doesn't have a belly-button-ring and his flu-like illness is long gone, so he will pitch as well as we expect him to in Games One and Five;
3.)
Alex Cora will
not risk Mookie's health
and the degrading of overall team defense at
two spots by moving Betts to 2B. Depending on match-ups, he will bench
either JBJ or Benny and put Mookie in RF or CF.
There you go—three "critical" storylines that will have little or no impact on the outcome of the World Series.
