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10/19/20 09:40:00
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10/19 21:39 CDT Few fans, masked umps, muted celebrations for World Series
Few fans, masked umps, muted celebrations for World Series
By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) --- A World Series like no other opens Tuesday night with
Clayton Kershaw's Los Angeles Dodgers pursuing redemption, Kevin Kiermaier's
Tampa Bay Rays seeking acclaim and Major League Baseball relieved just to reach
the championship of the pandemic-delayed season.
Buzz figures to be dampened, with attendance down to about 11,000 in the
smallest crowd for a Series game since roughly 1909.
The entire Series will be played on artificial turf for the first time since
1993, at new $1.2 billion Globe Life Field, home of a Texas Rangers team
eliminated on Sept. 20. Traditional postgame victory celebrations are barred.
But surroundings are largely irrelevant to the favored Dodgers and
under-the-radar Rays.
Los Angeles, baseball's biggest spender, is back in the Series for the third
time in four years as it seeks its first title since 1988.
Plate umpire Laz Diaz will be masked --- along with the rest of the crew.
"I don't know if you watched Game 7 last night but it sure felt like postseason
to me," Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner said Monday, after the Dodgers
rallied to beat Atlanta 4-3 at Globe Life for the NL pennant. "The back and
forth, the momentum shifts, big plays, big swings, big pitches --- that was as
much of a playoff feel as I've ever experienced."
Tampa Bay, among the major leagues' poorest draws and lowest-salaried rosters,
made it this far only once before and lost to Philadelphia in 2008. Perennially
unable to get a new ballpark built, the Rays have said they are exploring
splitting future seasons between St. Petersburg, Florida, and Montreal.
While the Rays beat Houston for the AL pennant on Saturday night in San Diego,
they had to wait until Monday to travel, allowing the Braves to vacate space in
the Dallas at Las Colinas - Four Seasons, where the Dodgers have been
bivouacked since before the Division Series started Oct. 6. Los Angeles had an
optional early afternoon workout with the stadium roof closed, and the Rays had
a full practice in the evening under autumn twilight.
"We'll be able to get out there tonight, get a feel for the surroundings of the
field and how the ball bounces," Rays outfielder Austin Meadows said. "I'm
excited for there to be fans. It's been a long time coming."
The winner will give its city a 2-1 advantage in major U.S. sports league
titles during the novel coronavirus pandemic following championships by the
NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning on Sept. 28 and the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers on Oct.
11.
Both teams reflect imprint of Andrew Friedman, the Rays' general manager from
2005-14 and the Dodgers' president of baseball operations since.
"Some of my best friends in life are there," the 43-year-old Friedman said. "We
joked when I left the team that we were going to meet up in the World Series
one day, and for it actually to happen is surreal."
After attendance dropped from 68.5 million to 0 during the shortest regular
season since 1878 and the first two rounds of an expanded postseason also were
played without fans, Major League Baseball sold about 28% capacity for the NL
Championship Series, which averaged 10,835 for the seven games at
40,518-capacity Globe Life Field. The Rays arrived in Dallas on Monday after
playing the AL Division Series and AL Championship Series at empty Petco Park
in San Diego.
Still, it was an accomplishment for MLB after a regular season in which 45
games were postponed for COVID-19-related reasons but just two were not made
up. Rookie outfielder Randy Arozarena, the Cuban defector who led the Rays'
offense with seven homers in the playoffs, missed the first month of the
shortened season after contracting COVID-19 and didn't play his first game
until Aug. 30.
"I was throwing sim games May, June in Dallas, thinking about, man, are we
going to even play this season?" said Kershaw, the Dodgers' Game 1 starter. "Is
this going to be a wasted year in everybody's career and things like that? Is
this going to a be a wasted year for the Dodgers with the team that we have? So
yeah, I think to be able to be here now and be four wins away from getting to
win a World Series I think is really a testament to a lot of people to be able
to make this season happen, a testament to the players, even to Major League
Baseball that we were able to get to this point. I'm super thankful for that."
Kershaw, a 32-year-old left-hander with three Cy Young Awards and an MVP
trophy, is 175-76 in the regular season but 11-12 in the postseason, including
1-2 in the World Series. He has been slowed this month by a reoccurrence of
back spasms.
Tampa Bay starts Tyler Glasnow, a 27-year-old righty whose fastball averages
97.5 mph and who grew up in California admiring Kershaw. It will be the Rays'
first game in front of fans since spring training was interrupted on March 12
and close to the end of a lengthy bubble existence.
Glasnow and his teammates are looking forward to the end of the Series, when he
can go to a bar or sit at a restaurant.
"Hugging someone or seeing family," he said. "Just being able to be a normal
person again."
This will be the first World Series entirely at one ballpark since 1944 between
the Cardinals and Browns at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis --- and the fourth
overall. The Yankees and Giants shared New York's Polo Grounds in 1921 and 1922.
"It's a fast ground," Arozarena said through a translator. "I'm not sure
there'll be a lot of homers. There's good pitchers on both sides."
Los Angeles had a $95.6 million payroll on Aug. 1, according to figures
compiled by MLB. Tampa Bay was 28th at $28.9 million, ahead of only Baltimore
and Pittsburgh. The Rays eliminated the Yankees ($83.7 million) and Houston
($81.4 million) during the AL playoffs.
"Regardless of payroll, we know we can compete with anybody," Meadows said.
Added Friedman: "Payrolls don't decide the standings and I think we see
evidence of that every year."
Tampa Bay is known best for innovative thinking and hard-throwing relievers,
referred to by manager Kevin Cash as a "whole damn stable full of guys that
throw 98 miles an hour."
"They didn't make it to the World Series on accident," Dodgers star Mookie
Betts said. "It's not going to be easy by any means."
___
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