NPR’s Scott Simon and sportswriter Howard Bryant discuss Game 6 of the World Series and the chaotic times for college football coaches.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And now it’s time for sports.
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SIMON: World Series Game 7. Boy, I love those words. Grab your popcorn or Tim Horton’s doughnuts. Sports writer Howard Bryant joins us. Howard, thanks for being with us.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: This is about the best World Series I can remember. Dodgers won 6-3 last night in Toronto. Bottom of the ninth, a baseball stuck in the outfield wall. Blue Jays thought they’d tied the game. Umpires called a ground rule double. And that was followed by – my gosh – a thrilling double play -outfield to infield. What do you make of these endings?
BRYANT: Yeah. It was wild. It’s a 3-1 game, and the ball goes. It was a perfect call. It’s a ground rule double. The ball was sort of lodged in the bottom of the outfield wall. However, the run would have scored that would have made it 3-2, with still nobody out. But what a fantastic finish. You are second and third – for all you baseball fans – second and third, nobody out, down by two runs. A base hit ties the game. A home run gives you the championship.
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: And then three pitches later, we’re going to Game 7 because of a double play. Incredible stuff. This has been a fantastic World Series, Scott. And I think one of the reasons why it’s been so good is because of the – I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist around the whole thing, but it’s the false narratives around this. This whole thing started a week and a half ago about the inevitability of the Dodgers. And if the…
SIMON: Right.
BRYANT: …Blue Jays were some sort of underdog or, you know, significant underdog. They’re fifth in payroll. They’ve got a $500 million player in Vlad Guerrero Jr., who has just shown himself to be a superstar during this series. Yes, the Dodgers have the big names, and yes, they’re the defending champions. But Toronto won 94 games. They’re a great team.
SIMON: Yep.
BRYANT: They are the financial capital of an entire country. They are no slouches, and they have proven throughout that they were a game away from winning it last night, and they are a game away from winning it tonight. And the best words in all of sports is Game 7. And I just feel like in watching this series, you’ve got two really great, evenly matched teams.
And the reason why I say I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist is because when people talk about the inevitability of the Dodgers, what they’re really talking about is what baseball is really, really good at, which is fighting because the labor situation is looming over this World Series. Everyone’s talking about the owners locking the players out. And the reason why they’re talking about it is because they say that the Dodgers are just too good, and they’re too much money and too much everything. And the Blue Jays are showing, hey, it’s baseball.
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: Put the best players on the field, and let’s see what happens. And tonight, two teams are going to play for one championship.
SIMON: Jays are starting Max Scherzer on the mound, who has – I – he’s, I believe, 41 years old. He’s thrown a few Game 7s. The Dodgers…
BRYANT: And going to the Hall of Fame.
SIMON: Right – and going to the Hall of Fame. And the Dodgers are starting merely the greatest player in baseball and maybe baseball history. What do you look for tonight?
BRYANT: I’m looking for length. Whatever happens early, you got to give – if you’re the Blue Jays, you’ve got to get a performance out of Scherzer. If this game goes into the bullpen really, really early, the Dodgers have a great advantage. And I think that what it really is going to come down to is who’s ready for the moment. This is the – all hands on deck. All the cliches go on here. Like, there literally is no baseball after tonight. And so what you really want to see is the Blue Jays – I think the Dodgers have a little more depth. So what the Blue Jays really need is they need Max Scherzer, 40-plus years old, to give them one last great performance.
SIMON: Oh, my word. And Shohei Ohtani, I mean, my gosh, what a postseason he’s had. Although sometimes he’s been weak at the plate.
BRYANT: And – exactly. Well, I mean, it’s baseball. This is the game. And I think, you know, you’re not going to be out there. It’s not basketball, where you’re going to shoot 60% from the field. You’re going to fail 3 out of 10 times and still be great. Once again, best player in the world going on the biggest stage. Let’s deal the cards.
SIMON: Howard Bryant, thanks so much. Talk to you soon.
BRYANT: My pleasure, Scott.
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