If you’ve seen my posts on X (Twitter, but you get it), you’ll understand how excited I am for the 2023 World Series, featuring the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. It’s an all-expansion World Series, for one, the third one since the Expansion Era began in 1961 with the formation of the second iteration of the Washington Senators, who would move to Dallas in 1972 to become the Rangers. It’s an all-Western series, the fourth time that’s happened since West divisions became a thing in 1995. It’s also one of two World Series since interleague play began in 1997 between natural rivals (the other being the 2000 Subway Series), and it features the third-worst team record-wise to make the Fall Classic, the 84-win D-Backs. In short, this World Series is one-of-a-kind, and I love all its weirdness.
Baseball has experienced unparalleled parity over the last decade. Not since the Giants of the 2010s has there been a repeat champion within three years, not since the Yankees of the ‘90s has there been a repeat champion in consecutive years, and not since the Yankees and Dodgers in 1977 and 1978 has there been a World Series rematch in back-to-back years (sorry, Astros and Phillies fans). There are plenty of reasons for this fact pattern. Money is more widespread across the league than ever before, advancements in statistical evaluations have helped democratize the ways in which teams try to win, and now, the rules changes and shift restrictions have reset what winning means in the first place. You can see all of this in the rosters of the World Series participants, how the big-spending Rangers and speedy Diamondbacks each went from over 100 losses two years ago to playing on Halloween in 2023 (it's the first time that both World Series participants did that congruently).
There’s a lot of talk right now about how this World Series will be “bad for baseball”, a phrase that I think people fling around because of how much money goes into professional sports leagues. People will say how “unmarketable” this World Series is or how the lack of star power will drive down ratings, even though the combined metropolitan areas of Dallas and Phoenix are pretty much equal to Houston and Philadelphia and the Rangers and Diamondbacks combined for ten All-Stars at this year’s Midsummer Classic. Think what you will of the matchup, but you can’t deny how positively weird it is. The ride to get here from the start of the 2023 MLB playoffs has been grimy to say the least, culminating in two seven-game series that felt like sadistic seesaw rides. And now, we’ve arrived at a matchup featuring two teams that, for all intents and purposes, feels oddly justified, because despite their regular season records, both the Rangers and Diamondbacks showed top-team potential at various points from April to September, despite barely being on anyone's radar to start the season.
Is it a “traditional” World Series? Is it a World Series that features the league’s best teams? No and no, and that’s okay. What matters is the series itself, and how two franchises that follow a narrative of swift elevation are duking it out to become baseball’s ultimate champion. It’s a shame that the World Series in general has seen such a decline in ratings, and it’ll probably happen this year, too. But that’s just how the money flows and doesn’t represent the heightened and satisfying nature of this year’s matchup. Be the contrarian, just like these teams’ fans are, and watch the 2023 Fall Classic. If it disappoints, then I’ll eat a baseball, I don’t know. But just enjoy the ride because I’m not sure we’ll see as weird a matchup as this one for a while. Or maybe we will. Just watch, cowards.
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