The World Series has given baseball fans from all walks of life memories for life. From Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run in 1960, the catch by Willie Mays in 1954, Luis Gonzalez’s walk-off against Mariano
Rivera to thwart the New York Yankees’ chances of winning four straight championships in 2001, and more recently, the Chicago Cubs ending their 108 year curse with a seven game series win over the then Cleveland Indians in 2016.
The 2025 World Series left little to be desired. From the Blue Jays’ nine run sixth inning in Game 1, Freddie Freeman’s second walk-off home run of his career in the 18th inning of Game 3, to a nail biting finish in Game 7, this year’s Fall Classic went down to the wire, with a game ending double play from Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman ending the series with both the tying and World Series winning runners on base.
Jim Alexander of the Orange County Register discusses where this year’s Fall Classic ranks within the 121 series in baseball history, noting that the rise in social media engagement during the duration of the series and a battle between two countries helped make it memorable.
Whether it was because the entire Dominion of Canada seemed emotionally involved in following its country’s only MLB team, or whether it was because the Dodgers spur equal visceral reaction, pro or con, there was a sense on social media especially that the teams and the sport picked up lots of new followers, or at least lots of the curious, as the series went on.
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When the Dodgers celebrated their NLCS sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers on the field at Dodger Stadium, Dave Roberts made a proclamation that infuriated the other 29 fanbases.
“They said the Dodgers are ruining baseball. Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball!”
It took all seven games for the Dodgers to live up to their promise of repeating, but did they truly ruin baseball? Part-owner and former Lakers legend Magic Johnson begs to differ, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
“They said we ruined baseball,” Johnson said. “Well, I guess we didn’t.”
The Blue Jays nearly won the World Series on a walk-off in the bottom of the ninth inning, as a ground ball from Daulton Varsho hit to Miguel Rojas looked to score Isiah Kiner-Falefa from third base, but a strong throw from Rojas narrowly gunned him down at the plate and allowed the series to survive.
Kiner-Falefa discussed why he had such a short lead from the third base bag, leading to him coming inches short of giving the Blue Jays their first championship in 32 years, tweets Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.
