The World Series is staying in Texas, and, the American League

​

However, there's a catch

​

It's not in Houston

​

The trophy moved up to North Texas as the Wild-Card Texas Rangers won the coveted title over the Cinderella Arizona Diamondbacks in five games. It was an impressive run as they reeled off nine straight wins, including the sweeping of the #4 Tampa Bay Rays and the #1 Baltimore Orioles. After winning the first two games against the #2 Houston Astros, they were taken to the brink of elimination until they got their groove back in Game 6.........leading to the pennant clincher in Game 7..........all in front of the defending champs face in their very own backyard. It was a thrilling moment as the Rangers wanted to prove they were not your typical wild-card team since they led the AL West for the majority part of the season.

 

After spending so much money during the 21-22 off-season, the Rangers coaxed Bruce Bochy out of retirement to take the team to the next level. The catalyst move payed off as the organization won their first ever title after 52 years of waiting....... since their move from Washington DC as the Senators. It was Bochy's fourth World Series title as he took three Giants teams to three championships in the early 2010s. After initially retiring from the game after the 2019 season, Bochy's passion to manage again came after his stint with Team France in the World Baseball's Classic's qualifier round. GM Chris Young, who just took over the role from the disposed Jon Daniels, made a long-shot inquiry to the retired manager about getting back into managing in the big leagues; they both took it from there.

 

Speaking off the 21-22 off-season, the prolific free-agent additions finally paid off as Marcus Semien delivered in clutch-like performances during the postseason. It was the major play of SS Corey Seager in the World Series that paid off huge dividends as he won World Series MVP. 

 

What were considered as high risks, high rewards, the high risks turned fruitful in the end.

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TEXAS RANGERS.

 

Alas, let's don't leave out the postseason performance of the NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. Entering as the #6 seed, they knocked out the #3 Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild-Card round to get the Cinderalla run in high-gear. It was the next two series where the run became real as they knocked off the #2 seed and NL West Champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the Division Series and the heavily favorite #4 Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS. It was a run that nobody saw coming. 

​

So the #1 regular season team didn't win the whole thing. It didn't help that the bye teams couldn't get it going (except for the Houston Astros) because the week off hurt them then help them. There are fans clamoring for a tinkering of the system where the bye teams would have less of a rest so the bats or pitching don't go cold. It will remain to be seen if there will be changes in the postseason format.