My favorite season is summer because I’m off, the weather is the best, and I get to travel and go to lots of baseball games. But fall is the best time of the year in sports. You get the baseball playoffs, football, and basketball and hockey start. In October, you get all four at the same time. (On a side note, all four sports going at the same time was mentioned on the most recent episode of the Michael Scott Podcast Company. They did Sports on the Office on my suggestion. I get mentioned in the podcast. If you’re a fan of the Office, you should listen to their podcast.) The last two falls have been very good. The Dodgers won back to back World Series for the first time in the history of the franchise. This year, they were trying to become the first National League team to win three straight World Series. They ended up eight wins short after playing a terrible playoff series. In 2024, Notre Dame had a great season. It led to a great run in the College Football Playoff that came up a game short. Last year, Notre Dame played very well after a bad start and was unjustly left out of the College Football Playoff. Hopefully this fall will kind of be the reverse of last fall. The Dodgers didn’t win the World Series, but hopefully Notre Dame will get to the College Football Playoff. But we’ll have to give the College Football Playoff Committee Political Machine no choice but to let us in. Most of this post is going to be about baseball so feel free to read the whole thing or skip down to the part about college football.
The Dodgers had kind of a weird season. Things were looking great until July, but then the season changed. Shohei Ohtani pitched his last game on July 3. They went into the All Star break after getting swept at home by the Diamondbacks. After the All Star break, they seemed to be back on track. They won two out of three in four straight series (I saw them win at Yankee Stadium during that stretch). Then they went on a seven game losing streak (getting swept by the Red Sox and Cubs). For the rest of the season, they pretty much played well against bad teams and poorly against good teams. They played enough bad teams that they were able to get to 100 wins and a first round bye. I thought it might by like a 2000 Yankees situation where the regular season just didn’t mean much and they would turn it on in the playoffs when it mattered. And after winning their first playoff series against the Braves in four games, it looked like things might be headed in that direction. But then everything went wrong against the Brewers. After sweeping the Brewers in the NLCS last year, they got swept this year. They didn’t pitch well and they didn’t hit well. I am a huge Dave Roberts fan, but I don’t think he had a good series. It’s not like it mattered though. When he left a starting pitcher in too long, it’s not like the bullpen was good anyway. The Brewers played a really good series and they were the better team. And then the Brewers went on to win the World Series fairly easily. They were definitely the best team in baseball this year. Congratulations to them. And congratulations to Pat Murphy, who was Notre Dame’s baseball coach from 1988-1994 (he made the NCAA Tournament four out of seven years).
If the Dodgers played their best, they were capable of beating the Brewers. And if they made it to the World Series, they would have been favored to win it. So it’s always disappointing to come up short when you’re good enough to win the World Series, but I think this is the least bad I’ve ever felt about the Dodgers losing a playoff series (the worst I ever felt about them losing a playoff series was definitely in 2019). It’s a lot easier to deal with after winning the World Series the last two years. And it’s not like they lost a heartbreaking series. They weren’t close to winning. And now that baseball season is over, we can get on to the lockout so that we can make sure that teams like the Brewers and Rays have a chance to compete for the World Series. Hopefully the good thing to come out of this will be that the owners have no excuse for an extended lockout. After the Wild Card round, the teams with the top 18 payrolls in Major League Baseball combined to win five playoff games (three for the Dodgers, one each for the Braves and Padres). If they lose games next year because the owners want a salary cap, that would be ridiculous and extremely short sighted. What’s best for baseball is definitely not missing games because of a work stoppage.
The Dodgers need to get younger and more athletic. Miguel Rojas is retiring. I’ll come back to him. Kiké Hernandez has had a great career with the Dodgers, but he’s 35 and he hasn’t been a particularly good regular season player. It’s time to move on. Teoscar Hernandez has had some great moments for the Dodgers, but he’s clearly on the decline. I would like to see him play mainly against lefties and play Josue DePaula against righties and see if he can play left field. He looked like he’ll be a really good hitter, but his fielding is a concern (but it’s not like Teoscar Hernandez is a good fielder anyway). And I would love to get a younger shortstop and move Mookie Betts to second base.
Miguel Rojas wants to stay in the Dodgers’ organization. He will forever be a hero for the Dodgers. During Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter in 2014, Rojas had a three-run double in the third to make it 7-0. More importantly, he made the one difficult play in the field that Kershaw needed for the no-hitter in the 7th inning. If Rojas could have played shortstop and third base at the same time, it would have been a perfect game (Hanley Ramirez shouldn’t have been in the game when he made the error in the 7th). But much more importantly, Miguel Rojas tied Game 7 of the World Series with one out in the top of the 9th with a completely unexpected home run. He also made a nice catch at second base to complete the double play that ended Game 6. After hitting the home run in the top of the 9th in Game 7, Rojas made a good play in the field in the bottom of the 9th when he threw out the World Series winning run at the plate on a ground ball with the bases loaded and one out. But back to the home run, it made me think of the greatest home runs in Dodger history. I didn’t go through every Dodgers World Series game, but I did some research. I’m going to rank the top five, but let’s start with honorable mentions in chronological order:
Gil Hodges in Game 4 of the 1955 World Series. The Dodgers trailed in the series 2-1 and in the game 3-2. Gil Hodges hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the 4th to give the Dodgers the lead. They led for the rest of the game and won 8-5 to tie the series.
Sandy Amoros in Game 5 of the 1955 World Series. With the series tied, Sandy Amoros hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the 1st to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. They led for the rest of the game and won 5-3. The Dodgers led the series for the first time and ended up winning in seven games (the won 2-0 in Game 7 without hitting a home run).
Duke Snider in Game 6 of the 1959 World Series. The Dodgers won the game 9-3 to win the World Series so it was a comfortable win, but it was Duke Snider’s solo home run in the 3rd that gave them the lead.
John Roseboro in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series. His three-run home run against Whitey Ford in the 2nd inning to make it 4-0 kind of set the tone for the series. The Dodgers won the game 5-2 and swept the series.
Frank Howard in Game 4 of the 1963 World Series. The Dodgers won 2-1 to win the World Series. Howard’s home run made it 1-0 in the 5th, but Mickey Mantle tied it with a home run in the 7th and then the Dodgers scored the winning run on a Willie Davis sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 7th.
Lou Johnson in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series. The story of Game 7 is Sandy Koufax pitching his second complete game shutout in four days, but Lou Johnson’s solo home run in the 4th inning gave the Dodgers the lead and they won 2-0. I’m going to rank the top five home runs in Dodger history. If I did the top ten, this one would definitely be in consideration.
Rick Monday in Game 5 of the NLCS. I think this is the best non-World Series home run in Dodger history. Back then, the NLCS was best of five. The Dodgers were tied with the Expos until Rick Monday hit a home run with two outs in the top of the 9th to make the score 2-1 and give the Dodgers their first lead of the game (and that turned out to be the final score). By the way, who drove in the tying run for the Dodgers? Fernando Valenzuela drove in Rick Monday in the 5th after the Expos had taken a 1-0 lead in the first. As always, the DH is stupid.
Ron Cey in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series. After losing the first two games of the series, the Dodgers took a 3-0 lead on Ron Cey’s three-run home run in the 1st inning. They ended up winning the game 5-4 and they came back to win the World Series in six games.
Jay Johnstone in Game 4 of the 1981 World Series. The Dodgers were still trailing in the series 2-1 and they were trailing 6-3 when Johnstone’s home run in the bottom of the 6th made it 6-5. They came back to win the game 8-7 and tied the series.
Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager in Game 5 of the 1981 World Series. The Dodgers were trailing 1-0 until Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager hit back to back home runs in the bottom of the 7th off of Ron Guidry to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead (which turned out to be the final score). The Dodgers took the lead in the series for the first time. Guerrero also hit a home run in Game 6, but the Dodgers were already winning 8-2 at that point.
Mike Scioscia and Kirk Gibson in Game 4 of the 1988 NLCS. The Dodgers trailed the Mets 2-1 in the series. The Mets had a 4-2 lead in the top of the 9th until Mike Scioscia tied the game with a two-run home run off of Dwight Gooden. Kirk Gibson hit a solo home run off of Roger McDowell in the top of the 12th and the Dodgers won 5-4 to tie the series.
Mickey Hatcher and Mike Davis in Game 5 of the 1988 World Series. Mickey Hatcher gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning. Mike Davis hit a two-run home run in the 4th inning to make it 4-1. The Dodgers won the game 5-2 to win the World Series.
Steve Finley in the 161st game of the 2004 regular season. The Dodgers were hosting the Giants for the final three games of the regular season. They needed to win one of those games to clinch the division. The Giants needed to sweep to force Game 163. The Giants won the first game. They led the second game 3-0 going into the bottom of the 9th. The Dodgers scored three runs to tie the game with one out. Then Steve Finley hit a grand slam to win the game 7-3 and clinch the division for the Dodgers. If I remember correctly, I had gotten MLB.tv for the end of the 2004 season and I was watching games on my computer, but that was back when games that were on Fox were not available on MLB.tv. This game was on Fox, but Fox was probably showing the Yankees in New York. So there was no way for me to watch this game, but I was following the Gamecast on ESPN.com so that’s how I took in this home run. I didn’t do extensive research on regular season home runs, but this is one of two that stands out.
Clayton Kershaw on Opening Day in 2013. And this is the other regular season home run that stands out. It’s my favorite regular season moment of all time and I was there for it. Clayton Kershaw had pitched eight scoreless innings and was due to lead off in the bottom of the 8th. Since the game was scoreless, I figured Don Mattingly would send up a pinch hitter. Instead, he let Clayton Kershaw hit and he led off the inning with a solo home run (the only home run of his career) to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Again, the DH is stupid. The Dodgers ended up tacking on three more runs and Clayton Kershaw finished off the shutout in the 9th.
Justin Turner in Game 2 of the 2017 NLCS. The Dodgers hadn’t been to the World Series in 29 years. Justin Turner hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the 9th to give the Dodgers a 4-1 win and a 2-0 lead in the series. It felt like they were finally going to get back to the World Series. They won the series in five games and then were cheated out of their first World Series championship since 1988.
Max Muncy in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series. Muncy’s solo home run in the bottom of the 18th gave the Dodgers a 3-2 win. It was a great moment and it gave the Dodgers some hope, but it ended up being their only win of the series.
Will Smith in Game 5 of the 2020 NLCS. The Dodgers trailed the Braves in the series 3-1. The Dodgers were trailing 2-1 in this game until Will Smith hit a three-run home run off of the other Will Smith in the top of the 6th to give them a 4-2 lead. The Dodgers ended up winning the game 7-3.
Kiké Hernandez and Cody Bellinger in Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS. The Dodgers trailed 3-2 until Kiké Hernandez tied the game with a solo home run in the bottom of the 6th and then Cody Bellinger gave them the lead with a solo home run in the bottom of the 7th. The Dodgers won 4-3 to advance to the World Series.
Mookie Betts in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series. I would probably rank this one higher than it deserves to be ranked. The Dodgers already led 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th inning when Betts hit a home run to make it 3-1. It was an insurance run that they didn’t need since they won 3-1 to win the World Series, but I was confident that they were going to win the World Series when Betts hit that home run. By the way, Corey Seager was amazing in the 2020 postseason. He hit eight home runs and was deservingly NLCS and World Series MVP, but none of his home runs stood out the way the Will Smith, Kiké Hernandez, Cody Bellinger, and Mookie Betts home runs stood out.
Chris Taylor in the 2021 Wild Card Game. The Dodgers won 106 games, but they had to play the 90-win Cardinals in the Wild Card game because the Giants won 107 games. With two outs in the bottom of the 9th and the game tied at 1, Chris Taylor hit a two-run home run to give the Dodgers a 3-1 win. They went on to beat the Giants in the next round.
Shohei Ohtani in Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS. The Dodgers were coming off of terrible losses in the NLDS in 2022 and 2023. And Game 1 in 2024 did not get off to a good start. The Padres took a 3-0 lead in the 1st. It didn’t last long. Shohei Ohtani tied the game with a three-run home run in the bottom of the 2nd. The mood at Dodger Stadium could have gotten very grim if they didn’t erase that lead so quickly. The Dodgers won Game 1 by a score of 7-5. They went on to win the series in five games.
Kiké Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez in Game 5 of the 2024 NLDS. The NLDS was really the only challenge the Dodgers had in 2024. They were down 2-1 in the series. They won 8-0 in Game 4. They won 2-0 in Game 5 to win the series behind the pitching of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a 2nd inning home run by Kiké Hernandez and a 7th inning home run by Teoscar Hernandez.
Will Smith in Game 2 of the 2025 World Series. This one might get a little bit lost in the 2025 World Series. Game 2 will be remembered for Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s complete game and the Dodgers had a few more home runs in the series that would end up being much more memorable than this one. The Dodgers ended up winning 5-1, but it was tied at 1 until Will Smith hit a home run with one out in the top of the 7th to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
It’s possible that I missed some, but I think that’s a pretty good list of honorable mentions. Let’s get to the top five in Dodger history:
5. Freddie Freeman in Game 3 of the 2025 World Series. With the World Series tied 1-1, Freddie Freeman led off the bottom of the 18th with a home run to give the Dodgers a 6-5 win. The Dodgers led the series for the first time. It’s almost the same as the Max Muncy home run in 2018. Besides the obvious difference of how those two series ended, the significant difference at the time was that the Dodgers led the series 2-1 instead of being down 2-1. Freddie Freeman hit a game winning home run in the 18th inning of a World Series game, and it’s not going to be the top home run in the 2025 World Series and it’s not going to be Freddie Freeman’s top home run. It’s a great home run, but I think there’s a pretty big gap between this home run and all the other home runs on this list.
4. Freddie Freeman in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. With the Dodgers trailing 3-2 in two outs in the bottom of the 10th and the bases loaded, Freddie Freeman hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw to give the Dodgers a 6-3 win in Game 1. This is my favorite sports moment ever, but it’s only number 4 on this list. Why? Of the top three, one of them happened in 1988 when I was almost certainly asleep as a four-year-old. I was definitely aware that it happened, but I can’t imagine that I watched it live. The other two come from a Game 7 of the World Series, which is more significant than a Game 1. Also, that game had so many moments that were incredible. The Freddie Freeman Game 1 home run is the one moment that clearly stands out more than anything else from the 2024 World Series. Also, the World Series went five games. The Dodgers won three out of the other four. It could have been a different series if they lost Game 1, but there’s a solid chance that they still would have won the World Series even if they had lost Game 1.
3. Will Smith in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series. With two outs in the top of the 11th inning, Will Smith hit a solo home run to give the Dodgers a 5-4 lead. That ended up being the final score. And yet it won’t even be the top home run from that game on the list. But it’s the home run that won the World Series so it deserves to be ranked very high on the list. And Will Smith was awesome in that series. If not for the ridiculous heroics of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Will Smith would have been the World Series MVP.
2. Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. It’s almost the same as the Freddie Freeman home run, but there are some differences. With the Dodgers trailing 4-3 with two outs in the bottom of the 9th, Kirk Gibson hit a pinch hit two-run home run to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win. What’s different from the Freddie Freeman home run? Kirk Gibson was hurt and not expected to play at all. It came against Dennis Eckersley, a Hall of Fame closer, not Nestor Cortes. The at bat was more dramatic. The home run came on a full count, instead of on the first pitch. A similarity is that the Dodgers won the World Series in five games, meaning that they won three out of the other four games. I think there’s a better chance that this World Series would have turned out differently if the Dodgers had lost Game 1. The Dodgers were big underdogs. Winning Game 1 was probably more important for making the 1988 Dodgers believe they could win the series than it was for the 2024 Dodgers. I think if I was old enough to have watched it live and appreciate it when it happened, I would rank this one ahead of the Freddie Freeman home run on my list of favorite sports moments of all time (but Notre Dame stopping a two-point conversion against Miami earlier that same day would probably rank ahead of Gibson’s home run).
1. Miguel Rojas in Game 7 of the 2024 World Series. With the Dodgers two outs away from losing the World Series, Miguel Rojas hit a solo home run in the top of the 9th to tie the game at 4. I think you could make a case for Will Smith’s home run to be number 2 on the list, but I don’t think it can be ahead of Rojas’s home run even though Smith gave the Dodgers the lead and this one only tied it. Why? One reason is that the Rojas home run was so much more improbable. Rojas was facing the Blue Jays’ closer, Jeff Hoffman. Hoffman finished the 2024 playoffs with a 1.46 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP in 12 ⅓ innings. Rojas had hit only one home run off a right hander in 2025 and that was against a position player that was pitching. But the more important reason is if Will Smith didn’t hit the home run, the Dodgers still might have won the game in the 12th inning or later. If Miguel Rojas didn’t hit the home run, the Dodgers would have lost the World Series. The Dodgers have had some great home runs in their history, but I think the Miguel Rojas home run has to rank ahead of Will Smith, Kirk Gibson, and Freddie Freeman.
And I’ll finish with some thoughts on college football. I still love college football (Saturdays in the fall are pretty much my favorite days of the year other than Christmas and the Fourth of July), but the sport keeps getting stupider and stupider. It sounds like we’re going to a 24-team playoff next year. The best part of college football was how important the regular season was. And that’s going to be completely destroyed. The 1988 Notre Dame-Miami game is one of the greatest games off all time because it pretty much decided the National Championship. With a 24-team playoff, it would mean pretty much nothing. With a 24-team playoff, this year’s Notre Dame-Miami game would mean very little. And with a 24-team playoff, we’re going to have teams like South Carolina going 7-5 and making the playoff. It’s so stupid.
But an even bigger problem is the College Football Playoff Committee. It’s the sports version of Boss Tweed’s political machine. It’s super corrupt and it has way too much power. In the AP poll, all 70 voters had Notre Dame ranked between 2 and 9 (49 out of the 70 had us somewhere from 3-6). But the College Football Political Machine has us ranked 11th. Why are we ranked 11th? So that we will have no chance of making the playoff with another loss. Alabama is ranked fifth after losing two of their last three. Why are they ranked fifth? So that they can lose another game and still make the playoff. This is after they got in last year with three losses when they shouldn’t have. The SEC has every team with a winning record ranked. The Big 10 has seven teams with a winning record unranked. The ACC has six teams with a winning record ranked. The Big 12 has four teams with a winning record unranked. UCLA is 8-0 and ranked behind two SEC teams with two losses. There are 13 teams ranked higher in the College Football Political Machine rankings and nine of them are from the SEC. There are nine teams ranked lower in the College Football Political Machine rankings than in the AP poll and none of them are from the SEC. ESPN controls the College Football Playoff and it is not at all a coincidence that teams from the SEC, ESPN’s flagship college football property, are overrated. They overrate the SEC teams so that when they play each other, the winner gets credit for a good win and the loser can’t be penalized for losing to a good team.
I had Google Gemini depict Hunter Yurachek as Boss Tweed.
Here are the top 12 from the College Football Political Machine:
- Miami
- Georgia
- Utah
- Indiana
- Alabama (6-2)
- Kentucky
- Texas (6-2)
- UCLA (8-0)
- BYU
- Ole Miss (6-2)
- Notre Dame
- Ohio State
There is a very easy way to get better rankings. Just go back to the BCS system. When I say the BCS system, I just mean the way the rankings were done, not the way they determined the National Champion (although, I would prefer college football determining its National Champion with any system used prior to the 12-team playoff also). Here’s what what the BCS top 12 would look like:
- Miami
- Georgia
- Utah
- Indiana
- UCLA
- Notre Dame
- Kentucky
- BYU
- Alabama
- Texas
- Ohio State
- Ole Miss
Yes, it’s the same 12 teams, but the rankings are much better. And you wouldn’t have Alabama and Texas in positions where they can lose another game and very likely make the playoff. As for Notre Dame, I don’t mind being 11th too much. I think we definitely should be higher (probably not as high as number 4 like we are in the AP poll). Depending on how the season plays out, I think there’s a chance that we would still be deserving of making the playoff with another loss, but we very likely won’t even if we’re deserving. Our schedule is not very good and if you lose against the two best teams that you play, then I don’t have a problem with missing the playoff in that scenario. What I do have a problem with is that college football is controlled by ESPN and a corrupt playoff committee. And there’s a good chance that a team that doesn’t deserve to be in the playoff will get in again (like Alabama last year). What I hope is that Marcus Freeman uses that ranking to get the team motivated. You know you have to beat Miami to get in.
Notre Dame hosts the number 1 ranked team today. The last time we did that was exactly six years ago against Clemson. That was the best win of the Brian Kelly era (47-40 in double overtime). This can be the best regular season win of the Marcus Freeman era. The win against Clemson was our only win against the number 1 ranked team since Lou Holtz was the coach (we’re 1-4 in the 30 years since Holtz). During my lifetime, we’re 4-6 against the number 1 ranked team. We lost Lou Holtz this year. He was 3-1 against the number 1 ranked team. His greatest win was beating Miami 31-30 when they came to Notre Dame ranked number 1 in 1988. Beating Miami when they’re ranked number 1 would be a perfect way to honor Lou. Hopefully it’s a more comfortable win than 47-40 in double overtime or 31-30. Go Irish!
