If you are a millennial (born sometime between 1981-1999) then you feel my pain. I was only a year old when Kirk Gibson hit his famous 1988 World Series Game 1 walk-off home-run against Dennis Eckersley of the Oakland A’s – one of the nastiest closers in the MLB.
Nearly every fan considers that one of the greatest moments in baseball history. Even those born in the early 80’s were still so young that most don’t even remember watching it live. The majority of millennials, however, were not even born. As Dodger fans we have lived our entire lives (or nearly all of it) without seeing them win the World Series let alone even be a part of the Fall Classic.
Last October, major league baseball witnessed something spectacular. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series against the Cleveland Indians in what was, possibly, the greatest Game 7 of all time – ending their 108 year drought. Yes, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT YEARS. And who did they have to beat to make it back to the big stage since ’45? You guessed it…the Los Angeles Dodgers.
As Dodger fans we cheered them on despite the fact that they ended our season and crushed our dreams for yet another year. We cheered for them because they beat our long time rivals, the San Francisco Giants, in the NL-division series. We cheered for them despite the fact that they had the best record in baseball for the 2016 season and were the “team to beat.” But, most importantly, we cheered for them because we wanted them to finally end their drought, hoping that our current drought wouldn’t go even half as long.
It’s been a long 28 years for Dodger fans. We had hope in the early 90’s with rookies like Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi and Hideo Nomo. We had hope in 2004 with Eric Gagne’, Shawn Green, Adrian Beltre and Steve Finely when the Dodgers won their first division in almost 10 years and first playoff game since ’88. We had hope in 2008 and 2009 when we finally made it back to the NLCS only to lose to the Philadelphia Phillies…TWICE. We had hope in 2013, 2014, 2015 AND 2016 when we won consecutive NL West division titles. And we will continue to have hope even though we have fallen short every time because what do you do when you fall off the horse? You get back on.
“This year is our year!” I’ve been hearing that (and even saying it) at the start of every baseball season since I was a kid. Though it gets harder and harder to hear I will continue to believe because deep down inside of me there is still hope. I have faith that the Dodgers will win the World series again because they are my team – even if that means waiting another 80 years.
BakoBoyInBlue
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