2024 World Series Preview

A wild, crazy, and thrilling 2024 season will end with, perhaps, the greatest World Series in the last 30 years. I do love the Fall Classic, it's a terrific end to the marathon known as the baseball season. The World Series, in its current form, has existed since 1903, and had served as the only form of postseason baseball for almost seven decades. Since 1969, the road to the Fall Classic has added more bumps in the road, but the end result is always awesome.

For the 120th edition of the World Series, it's a throwback. An absolute blast from the past. The dream Fall Classic that fans had been hoping to see for years. New York Yankees vs Los Angeles Dodgers. It had been teased for the last few years, but it's happening, folks! Without further delay, let's take a look at these two heavyweights:

New York Yankees

What a year!!! When Juan Soto hit that home run in the 10th inning, I jumped up and down like a five-year-old kid getting candy. It was over. The New York Yankees won Pennant #41, and our first in 15 years. Now, let me clear the air. I know we Yankees fans get a bit of a bad rap, but I'm not one of those who acts all "woe is me" over this pennant drought. 15 years, in the grand scheme of things, is nothing. Some teams have gone longer. And don't get me started on poor Seattle. I do speak for myself, while 15 years is nothing in baseball, it's something to me, and it's because of how we've lost in some years. The worst one, to me, was 2022. I felt we were ready for Houston two years ago. I felt we would finally solve them. Swept. I'm going to be blunt and serious: that loss was the saddest I had been as a Yankees fan, even more so than 2004.

Last year, we missed out completely, which is why this year is just so amazing. We got Juan Soto, and boy, was he a boost! Now, the hiccups were there, but despite that, we won the East, we took #1 in the American League, and never looked back. We took down KC in a four-game ALDS, and then handled the Guardians in a five-game ALCS. And here's the thing: this was done with Aaron Judge not playing his best. So who was the true leader? If you say Soto, you're close. While Soto's homer got us here, we don't get here overall without Giancarlo Stanton. I've been singing Stanton's praises ever since we got him, and I had to hear it from so-called "fans." He's "washed," "a waste of money," "We're stuck with him," you name it. I tried to tell people about how great Stanton is. They thought I was nuts. Now those same people are acting devoted to Stanton. They need to get their apologies ready.

As mentioned before, this is the Yankees' 41st appearance in the World Series, and our first since 2009. We are looking to win our 28th championship, with 2009 also being the last time we won.

Los Angeles Dodgers

This is why the Los Angeles Dodgers paid the big bucks to Shohei Ohtani. Well, it's part of it. The Dodgers were nearly panic mode after back-to-back Division Series eliminations. Here's the setting. It's Year Nine with Dave Roberts as manager. Year One saw the Dodgers play for the pennant, but lose to the Cubs. Then they win back-to-back pennants. 2017, we know what happened. Same with 2018 to a smaller extent. 2019 was their embarrassing defeat against the Nationals. 2020 was the pandemic shortened year, but it saw the Dodgers reach the top, finally. They could not defend their title in 2021, but they at least returned to the NLCS. 2022 and 2023 were years to forget. This team needed something.

Enter Shohei Ohtani. The two-way unicorn player hit the highway from Anaheim to Los Angeles for a HUGE payday. All he did was become MLB's first 50/50 man. That's all. Look at what we've seen from the Dodgers in this postseason. Sho's doing his thing. Teoscar Hernandez is killing the ball. Even Mookie Betts is doing things now. The only problem is the pitching. Do they really have a rotation? So far, it hasn't hampered them. The Dodgers needed all five games to take care of the Padres in the NLDS, and needed six games to defeat the New York Mets.

Overall, this is the Dodgers' 25th pennant, and their 13th since moving to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958. This is their 22nd appearance in the modern-day World Series, and their first since winning the whole thing in 2020. The Dodgers are looking to win their eighth championship, which would tie them with the rival New York/San Francisco Giants.

This year's World Series will be the latest chapter to the greatest championship rivalry in all of sports. This is the twelfth Fall Classic meeting between the Yankees and the Dodgers, and the first since 1981. I was born in 1985, meaning that I will finally see a Yankees/Dodgers World Series for the very first time. I have heard so many stories about these Yankees/Dodgers World Series meetings, and I'm so elated that I finally get to see this unfold.

For the 25th straight year, the World Series will air entirely on Fox. Regarding home field, the Dodgers have that advantage due to finishing with MLB's best record. I just know that this Fall Classic will be the best one ever, and I am just happy to see the Yankees in this for the first time in 15 years!