World Series Primer for the non-fan
Sports week continues at Dinner Topics with the World Series beginning tonight. Baseball fans have already analyzed and dissected the heck out of this thing, but for those of you not into baseball but forced into a place where you know it will be on and talked about, here are some basic points to know about the matchup between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies:
players to know
- The World Series is a best-of-seven contest. First to four wins is the victor.
- The Phillies won the World Series last year and are trying to repeat.
- The Yankees are trying to win their 27th World Series but haven’t won since 2000.
- Both ballparks are very hitter-friendly, so high scores and plenty of home runs may not be unusual.
- Yankees fans love their shortstop Derek Jeter but have had trouble accepting Alex Rodriguez (“A-Rod”), although his great postseason this year has been earning cheers despite his admittance this spring of using steroids earlier in his career.
- Philly’s Shane Victorino is from Hawaii and is nicknamed “The Flyin’ Hawaiian”.
- Mark Teixeira’s1 name is pronounced “tuh-share-uh”.
- BothGame 1 starters won the AL Cy Young Award2, but both when they played with the Cleveland Indians (CC Sabathia in 2007, Cliff Lee in 2008).
- The ageless New York reliever, Mariano Rivera, is famous for throwing his “cutter,” or cut-fastball. It dives in toward left-handed hitters and you are guaranteed to see him break a few bats along the way.
- That huge guy on the Phillies who hits left handed is Ryan Howard. He’s really good.
- Joe Torre is NOT involved in this World Series, but Pedro Martinez is – he’ll be pitching Game 2 for the Phillies.
I could go on for days, but the info above should help you recognize some of the key players and help you understand some of the conversations you might hear. A majority of the pundits are predicting a long series with the slight edge going to the Yankees. Our sister site, TheCommishOnline.com, also predicts the Yankees to win in six games. In the meantime, you should at least be able to handle yourself around a baseball-heavy crowd until the weekend.
TheCommishOnline.com – World Series Preview
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I like the Phillies in 7.