You don’t have to look very hard or far to find a national media type who has already handed the 2019 World Series trophy to the Houston Astros. In fact, there are many. But anyone who has followed our national pastime for more than five minutes – or at least one full season – knows that it isn’t always the best team that wins baseball’s highest honor, it is often the hottest team that does.

With all due respect, guys like Bob Nightingale, Jon Morosi, Ken Rosenthal, and Jim Bowden are full of … themselves. The bottom line is that the greatest game on the planet is not played on sports television or radio shows or on social media, but on the field ‘between the lines,’ as they say. And while we all have our own respective opinions and ideas on which are the better teams and fully understand that the aforementioned talking heads have a job to do, the Houston Astros, just like any of the other playoff-bound teams, must win 11 games in October (12 for the Wild Card teams) before being handed the most coveted trophy in professional sports.

Now, this certainly is not to say that the Astros, or even our beloved Dodgers, are not the odds-on favorites to advance to or even win the 2019 Fall Classic. But here again, it’s not always the best team that wins but the hottest team, and on any given day – or during any given series – any team can beat any other team. The history books and the sacred Halls of Cooperstown are loaded with stories of underdog teams winning the World Series.

All of this said, the next time you hear Bob Nightingale or any of the other so-called ‘experts’ telling you that home-field advantage for the World Series automatically goes to the Astros or even the Dodgers, never forget that you have to get to the World Series to win the World Series no matter where it is played.

By the way, I hear that Washington, Milwaukee, Tampa Bay, and Oakland can be lovely this time of year … if you get my drift.

Play Ball!

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