Thanksgiving is here, which means families and friends come together to enjoy great food and celebrate everything they have to be thankful for.
But in Major League Baseball, the Houston Astros are (unfortunately) the only team who is thankful for the 2022 season, and the 29 other teams are trying to adjust their rosters so they can be celebrating the next Thanksgiving with their World Series trophy.
Although the season didn’t end the way the Los Angeles Dodgers or any of their fans hoped it would and there is a lot of work for them to do before the 2023 season starts, there is still a lot to be thankful for in the organization.
A chance to win every season
The No. 1 thing Dodgers fans should be thankful for is the team continues to win and has had a real chance at the World Series every season since 2013. There is no other organization in baseball that can say they are on a streak of 10 consecutive postseason appearances, and some teams would love to just get there once.
Yes, they only have one ring to show for it, which is disappointing, and it came in the shortened 2020 season, but that is due to the nature of the postseason. It is a tournament designed to give every team who makes it a chance to win, and it’s guided by chaos and fortune.
The only way to give yourself a chance to win the World Series is to make the postseason, and just reaching October baseball is a difficult task, but the Dodgers do that better than any other team.
In the past 10 seasons, the Dodgers have gone 931-588 while the next closest teams in that time frame are the New York Yankees, who have gone 858-660, and St. Louis Cardinals at 848-668. That’s 73 more wins than the Yankees, which averages out to 7.3 more per year over a decade of games.
It is dominance on another level, which is shown even further by the gap between the first-place Dodgers and the second-place Yankees being larger than the distance between the Yankees and the ninth-place Chicago Cubs, who have won an average of 6.9 fewer games per year than New York.
No one can answer if the Dodgers will win, or even reach the World Series next year, but we can all be confident they’re going to make the playoffs, and there are only a select few teams who can say that.
Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw
Los Angeles is the city of stars, and the Dodgers have consistently put out a roster that resembles that. With Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers have three players who are likely going to enter the Hall of Fame one day, and two of them will be wearing blue caps with the interlocking L.A. logo.
It is nearly impossible to find a better trio to represent an organization than Betts, Freeman and Kershaw.
On the field, the group has combined for 21 All-Star appearances, eight gold gloves, eight silver sluggers, five ERA titles, four World Series rings, three Cy Young Awards, three MVP Awards, two MLB Player of the Year Awards, a batting title, a Wilson Defensive Player of the Year and pitching triple crown.
Off the field, all three of them consistently give back to the community, both during the season and in the offseason, and represent the Dodgers with class every day.
The Dodgers can also be thankful to the front office and ownership groups of the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves for deciding they would rather move on from Betts and Freeman, which allowed L.A. to acquire two of the game’s best players.
Dodger Stadium
The Dodgers should be thankful they get to play in Dodger Stadium every year, and fans should appreciate they get to attend games at Blue Heaven on Earth. No, Dodger Stadium is not perfect. And you can make a case there are better stadiums, but only Fenway Park and Wrigley Field can be considered in the same class as Dodger Stadium.
They are the historic stadiums of MLB, where some of the best moments in baseball’s long history have taken place. Every time you step foot into it, you are surrounded by these memories, and of those three historic stadiums, Dodger Stadium is the most beautiful.
Dodger Stadium is truly unique being set in Chavez Ravine, which gives mountains as the backdrop of the field and the high rises of Downtown L.A. behind the stadium that can be seen from the top deck and reserve concourses. The colored seats, which represent the ocean, the landscape, sand at beaches, and the sunny weather, is also something that no other stadium in sports has.
In addition to the excellent scenery, the weather is almost always great for baseball, and games never get rained out. The only thing that would make it better is a few less of those 100-degrees games.
Dodger Stadium is one of a kind, and despite its flaws, we all love going there so much it has become part of L.A. culture. And you can also be thankful you aren’t sitting in the traffic trying to leave the Stadium right now.
SportsNet LA, Joe Davis and Dodgers broadcast crew
The Dodgers were blessed by Vin Scully, the greatest broadcaster and radio voice in history, for 67 seasons. Replacing him was a nearly impossible task, but the Dodgers have done about as well as anyone could have hoped for.
Joe Davis is now one of the top play-by-play men in sports, and fans should be thankful to have him. The 34-year-old has quickly risen through the broadcasting ranks and this season he became the voice of the World Series, a tremendous honor only some of the legendary broadcasters have held.
In addition to Davis, the rest of the broadcast crew with Orel Hershiser, Kirsten Watson, Nomar Garciaparra, John Hartung, Jerry Hairston Jr., José Mota, Dontrelle Willis, Eric Karros, Jessica Mendoa, Adrian Gonzalez and Tim Neverett provide a great mix of personalities, insight, and make watching the games on SportsNet LA a tremendous experience.
Speaking of which, the Dodgers having SNLA, their own 24/7 channel dedicated to the team is also incredible. Although it was a bumpy ride getting the service to the majority of fans, having a channel with nearly 24/7 Dodgers content, aside from some early morning paid programming, is something that should not be taken for granted.
Dodgers farm system
Finally, the Dodgers’ scouting and player development system is the best in sports. They consistently produce young talent that turn into quality players to help the club win, or that they can trade for established players.
Even after trading multiple top prospects and young players for Mookie Betts, Max Scherzer and Trea Turner in the recent years, they still have one of the best Minor League systems in the game.
That group is led by Diego Cartaya, who is almost universally considered a top-10 prospect in the game, and he is joined by multiple other top-100 prospects, including Miguel Vargas, Bobby Miller, Andy Pages, Michael Busch, Ryan Pepiot and Gavin Stone.
With more Rookie of the Year winners than any other franchise, the Dodgers are well poised to add to that list soon, or they can use some of those players to make a splash with a big trade.
Every organization would love to have the Dodgers farm system, and we can expect it to be among the best every year.
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