No Mud, No Lotus For Corey Seager
He's won Rookie of the Year, two rings and two World Series MVPs, but the star shortstop's journey hasn't always been easy.
Hi friends-
Baseball season is over (primal screeeeaaaaaam), but we have a lot of exciting things happening at the Long Game this off-season! I’m going to outline a calendar in a newsletter coming to you this Saturday, but I wanted to quickly remind you about our off-season book club for paid subscribers!
Our November book is The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn. We will discuss the book in the Substack app on Sunday Dec. 3, and chat about it over Zoom on Monday Dev 4 at 5:30 PM PT/8:30 PM ET for all those who want to participate.
Also, the Lab will be back this Saturday at 12 PM PT/3 PM PT, where we will discuss the end of the baseball season over Zoom. I’ll send out an email link to all paid subscribers on Saturday morning.
Thank you all for following along with me in the chats this October! I’ve had so much fun getting to know you all better. If you’re feeling sad about baseball being over today, do not worry…Shohei Ohtani free-agent season is live. And we will be chatting again soon!
Well, the World Series came and went. Congratulations to the Rangers and their fans on their first-ever title. I always think a long-suffering fanbase getting to experience the exhilaration/liberation of finally breaking through is good for sports fans everywhere.
I tried to get hyped for this Fall Classic, but there’s really no getting around the fact that it was…bad. And maybe historically so. Only 8.13 million people watched Game 3, which broke the previous low-record ratings for a World Series game that were set by Game 2 (8.15 million). Last year’s Phillies vs. Astros World Series averaged 11.76 million viewers. In 2016, 22.8 million people tuned in to watch the Cubs defeat the Guardians. So… only a third of the people who watched the 2016 World Series watched this one. Yikes.
On one hand, people have been saying baseball is dying for the last 40 years, and here we are still obsessing over it every day for eight months. On the other hand, last night it dawned on me that the most pivotal at-bat of the MLB season was between Josh Sborz and Pavin Smith. No offense to either of these men or their families, but I don’t think even the nerdiest of baseball fans (me) knew either of these players would make their team’s playoff rosters on Sept. 30.
Last year’s Super Bowl featured Patrick Mahomes versus Jalen Hurts. The Super Bowl is a cultural event for a lot of reasons—the commercials, the halftime show, the snacks!!!—but that matchup between two superstar quarterbacks is appointment viewing even without the Lombardi trophy on the line.
I watched or listened to every pitch of this World Series, but I get why the average sports fan was like, hmmmm… maybe next year I’ll tune in when Shohei Ohtani’s in it or when the Yankees or Astros or Dodgers are back so I can hate watch.
Rob Manfred thinks everything is fine, though, so we will have to take him at his word!
There is one success-over-adversity story I wanted to highlight today, and that is of young(ish) Corey Seager.
When the Dodgers took Seager with the 18th overall selection in the 2012 draft, it looked like a steal from the start. After the Dodgers signed free-agent pitcher Zack Greinke a few months later, he remarked in his press conference that he liked the pick.
People remember that Seager was called up to the big leagues in September of 2015 at age 21 and raked. He was also phenomenal the next season, and won the NL Rookie of the Year award and finished third in MVP voting at age 22.
I know what you are thinking. Molly, Corey Seager is healthy, handsome, rich and just won his second World Series MVP in four years. Where on EARTH is the adversity?
I’m getting to it.
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