The 2020 World Series

Reilley Ciastko, Staff Writer

Just imagine the silence when LeBron went to shoot a free-throw or when Matthew Stafford went to throw a game winning touchdown, no fans. No one to keep the players motivated, cheer them on when they make an extraordinary play, and no one to boo them and get them back on their game. Unfortunately, the MLB post season did start out this way, and due to travel restrictions, they had to narrow down their list of 30 stadiums to only 4. No fans were allowed in the stadiums and the players weren’t even allowed to have a team celebration after someone hit a home run. Each player had to get a COVID test before each game, and coaches had to continue to take precautions such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing. It’s hard when you’re a coach to not walk up face-to-face with one of your players and give them the pep talk that they need, or to not run out to home plate after a homerun. These are the things that this global pandemic has taken away from professional sports. The game has changed, for a long time. But things as starting to brighten up; they ended up allowing 10,000 fans into stadiums if everyone wore a mask and did their best to practice social distancing. Even though for the players this wasn’t close to normal, it is the closest they are going to get for a while. We are all happy that the post season was able to happen and the world series was able to play out with fans in the stands.

The World series ended with the Dodgers beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4 games to 2 games. The first game, Dodgers won 8-3 and Dodgers fans saw a ray of light, but then the next game the Rays won 6-4. In the third game the Dodgers won again 6-2 and in the next game the Rays won 8-7. In the final two games the Dodgers won both, first 4-2 then again 3-1. The Dodgers haven't won a World Series since 1988 so this was a huge victory for them. On the other hand, the Tampa Bay Rays hadn’t been IN the World Series since 2008, so this was also a nice achievement for them. Though the Rays didn’t take the Series title, the new addition of Randy Arozarena to their roster this year added to their success. 

During the 2013-14 and 2014-15 season, he played in the Cuban national series. But in 2016 he signed his first contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, his contract was for 1.25 million. The next year though he returned to Mexico to play in the 2017-18 series. On January 9th, 2020 Randy was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays. During the postseason, Arozarena broke the record for homeruns with 10, this is great in the first place, but he did it as a rookie! I bet he was glad to have fans cheering him on in the stadium for his first season with the Tampa Bay Rays.