By Ryan Nicol ’25
“Was there any doubt?”
The words exclaimed by MLB on FOX broadcaster Joe Davis, immediately following Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani’s first career postseason home run, now ring true for the entire Dodgers team, the 2024 World Series champions.
Before any October baseball had been played, Chaminade High School students were surveyed to predict the matchup and outcome of the Fall Classic. In a year when the New York Yankees and New York Mets both punched a ticket to the playoffs, they were certainly the top two teams picked to win the World Series. There was good reason to believe that either could do it: the Yankees were the best team in the American League this year, while the Mets were the best team in the world from June through September. Many other teams were picked to win as well—in fact, the Atlanta Braves were the only playoff team without a single World Series-winning vote—but the Yankees, Mets, and Dodgers dominated the poll.
The newer postseason format is hotly contested, with many saying that the top seeds never advance far because of a newly-introduced bye week during the Wild Card Series. In that series, the Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, and Mets provided upsets, advancing alongside the San Diego Padres. In the National League, the Padres nearly took down the Dodgers, but LA rallied to win the series and advance against the Mets, who had taken down the Philadelphia Phillies for another upset. In the AL, the Yankees and Cleveland Guardians, the top two seeds, moved on to the League Championship Series. The top four teams, then, were the top four seeds—save for the Miracle Mets—putting the disadvantage argument to bed.
The Yankees and the Dodgers, with their prized offseason acquisitions in Juan Soto and Ohtani, respectively, steamrolled the opposition to meet in the World Series. The team from the Bronx and the team formerly from Brooklyn had faced off 11 times previously, making it the most common championship matchup of all time. The Yankees, however, had not made it to the World Series since 2009. Similarly, despite being constant contenders, Dodgers fans badly needed a new World Series title, as their only three appearances since the 1988 championship resulted in a 2017 loss to the cheating Houston Astros, a 2018 loss to the cheating Boston Red Sox, and an oft-ignored win in the shortened 2020 season. By winning in 2024, they not only relieved all of the prior pain, but met sky-high expectations with a lineup of three former winners of the Most Valuable Player Award.
A surprisingly large share of Chaminade students picked underdog teams to win it all. This trend is mostly due to last year’s edition of this survey, during which the Astros and Braves seemed primed to go on generational runs, only for the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks to steal the spotlight. Still, most chose the favored teams this time around. A majority of 64.4% of students believed the Yankees would appear in the World Series, while in the other league, the Dodgers polled at 18.9%, a number decreased in part by the Mets’ presence. While the Dodgers were expected to win by most national sources, 45.2% of predictions in Mineola held that the Bronx Bombers would take home the title, as opposed to the Dodgers’ 8.7%.
So, while the Dodgers were not picked at a high rate to win the World Series, this matchup for the ages was nevertheless forecasted by many. The Yankees, though dropping the 2024 Series in five games, delivered a victory, at least in the eyes of Tarmac. Give yourselves a round of applause. Was there any doubt?
chstarmac.com 