The 2018 World Series Was Good for the Red Sox—And Bad for Baseball
With lengthy games and a lack of star power, this October fell flat in many ways.
Playoff baseball turns bloody socks into priceless memorabilia, and 12-year-old suburbanites into folk heroes. It is maddening, unpredictable, and altogether emotionally draining. It is also, as the World Series–winning Red Sox illustrate, a dreadful chore.
The Red Sox defeated the Dodgers in five games to secure the franchise’s fourth World Series title since it ended its 86-year championship drought in 2004. With help from the pitcher David Price, who finally seemed to overcome his postseason demons, and the journeyman first-baseman Steve Pearce, whose three home runs in Games Four and Five , Boston managed to sustain its . But though the World Series provided its share of wonder, it is far from an instant classic. From games that
