On Monday, the Dodgers celebrated an anniversary of sorts. It was on that day 31 years ago that (then) new MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth (who had replaced A. Bartlett Giamatti who had died suddenly of a heart attack after only five months as baseball’s commissioner) presented (then) Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley, (then) Dodgers general manager Fred Claire and (then) Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda with the Commissioner’s Trophy for winning the 1988 World Series.

Thirty-one years ago.

On October 21, 1988, these current Dodgers weren’t even born yet:

The point here is not to belittle any of the above group of ‘under 31-year-olds’ or the millions of Dodger fans around the world who also fall into this category. The point here is that because of a couple of very bad – or at the very least very questionable – decisions of (presumably) one individual in Game-5 of the 2019 National League Division Series, the above group of ‘under 31-year-olds’ and the aforementioned millions of Dodger fans around the world will have to wait at least one more year before getting another shot at receiving that Commissioner’s Trophy for what will hopefully be the seventh time in the soon-to-be 137-year history of one of baseball’s most storied – and wealthiest – franchises.

The good news is that for Pedro Baez, (now retired) David Freese, Rich Hill, Kenley Jansen, Joe Kelly, Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Russell Martin, A.J. Pollock, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Justin Turner, and every Dodger fan born before October 21, 1988, they were at least alive the last time the Dodgers won a World Series … so there’s that.

The bad news is that of these 11 ‘Old Guys,’ only Joe ‘Grand Slam’ Kelly has a World Series ring, which, unfortunately, came at the expense of the Dodgers in 2018. (Oh, the irony).

Play Ball!

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