Ten Favorite World Series: 1988 World Series (#8)

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Sitting here with a baseball hangover, the only cure is more cowbell (which I'm taking care of in my "more cowbell" countdown) and memories of the great World Series matchups in past years. Here's the next great World Series, in my opinion, in my lifetime. #8: 1988: Dodgers/A's Back in the 1970s I didn't like the Oakland A's. It wasn't so much them, it was Charlie Finley. Understand, I was just a kid when the A's were making World Series after World Series runs in the 70s, but even then I could see Finley was a jerk. And, reading about him in adulthood, that's pretty much been confirmed: when he brought the Beatles to Kansas City in the 60s, it was "CHARLES FINLEY PRESENTS the Beatles," as if the girls were screaming for him instead of Paul. I don't think so. But, like Steinbrenner and the Yankees, the A's had to endure the stigma of their owner in my eyes. So in baseball, my favorite team was whoever played the A's. In 1988, that was the Los Angeles Dodgers. The A's were supposedly "THE team" of the 80s" with the Bash Brothers (now better known as the Juiced Up Brothers). Heavily favored to win the 88 World Series as they breezed into it with a sweep of the "cursed" Boston Red Sox (sorry, the '86 series isn't on the list, although it was in consideration and would have been the only series on the list where the team I was rooting for lost) and had rock star pitchers. No, not the way they use the term "rock star" today, but rather their pitching staff including guys named Dave Stewart and Bob Welch! And then there were the poor Dodgers, who were without NL MVP Kirk Gibson because of the injury he sustained in the championship series. Oh, the mighty A's, with their great pitching staff and those Bash Brothers, were going to make mincemeat of the team from down the coast. Not so fast. We all get to see the walk-off home run that Kirk Gibson hit in game one (where he almost had to get crutches to make it around the bases), winning the game 5-4 for the Dodgers. That is one of the greatest moments in World Series history...and if I ever countdown down the moments, that would be on it. But, for me, the game that was the best of the lot, and the one that sealed the deal for the Dodgers, was game two, when Orel Hershiser pitched a gem of a game and had three hits as the Dodgers routed the "great pitching" and held the "great hitting" in check, 6-0. The massacre didn't last long, with the A's only winning one game out of the series. It brought Tommy Lasorda and the Dodgers their second World Series title of the 80s, while the "mighty A's" would have to wait until the earthquake-interrupted series the next year to get their only title of the 80s. (Aside: I was actually rooting for the A's in '89 because as bad as I dislike them, I dislike the Giants more.) That was the last time the Dodgers appeared in the World Series until this year. The Dodgers have six titles in total, five of which have occurred since the move out of Brooklyn. They'll be back. Meanwhile, there's the savory memories of their great performance in the 1988 Series. 1988 World Series Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) / Oakland A's (AL) Winner: Dodgers, 4 games to 1 Best game: game two (Dodgers won, 6-0) Who I was pulling for: Dodgers You've all seen the Kirk Gibson home run, so instead of that, here's Hershiser's strikeout to end the Series, called by legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully: