Ride Home Rants
Ride Home Rants
Dodgers vs Blue Jays: Who Takes It?
A juggernaut from Hollywood meets a nation’s heartbeat under a closed roof. We break down Dodgers vs Blue Jays from every angle: the tactical edges, the noise under the dome, and the human details that tilt a World Series. Our panel calls the series with conviction—some see LA’s depth ending it in five, others ride Toronto’s underdog momentum to a seventh-game win—and we explain exactly what would have to happen on the mound and in the sixth through eighth innings for either script to play out.
We get candid about managers. Dave Roberts earns credit for more than payroll—buy-in, role clarity, and handling stars through a six-man rotation. Terry Francona remains the gold standard of culture and adaptability, while Kevin Cash proves how far elite process can carry a smaller payroll. That leadership debate threads through game management: fast hooks, pinch-hit timing, and managing leverage with traffic on the bases.
Time zones and TV ratings matter, but the math shifts when an entire country rallies behind one team. We talk start times, customs, and travel fatigue, then weigh how Toronto’s dome and crowd can create a pressure chamber if the Jays score early. LA can still quiet any park with one crooked inning, yet there’s a different urgency when a city expects to be here versus a nation that hasn’t celebrated a title since the early 90s.
We also look ahead. The Dodgers’ machine seems built for annual runs, but Toronto’s path—smart additions, a healthy core, and a tighter American League—may keep them in the chase next year. Finally, we pick where we’d sit for this series: LA’s star-studded seats or Toronto’s chest-thumping roar inside the dome.
If you’re into smart baseball talk with strong opinions and real stakes, hit play now. Then subscribe, share with a friend, and drop your pick in the comments—Dodgers in five or Jays in seven?
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Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. This is as always your host, Mike Bonham. I got a great and another annual episode for us today. We are going to be talking about the World Series that is going to be airing uh today, uh, for when the show airs, but when we're recording it, it's a couple days away. So I got a panel of guests here to talk about everything that's going to be happening and making our predictions and everything like that for the World Series. I'm going to let them introduce themselves and gentlemen, I need the answers to these two questions along with your name today. First question uh when you're in a restroom in public, like work, a restaurant, a stadium, etc., do you prefer to have paper towels to dry your hands after uh washing them or an air hand dryer? And if you could be a family pet, which would you be a rabbit or a goldfish?
SPEAKER_01:And TJ, we're gonna start with you. How are we doing?
SPEAKER_00:Uh TJ Lett, I'm glad to be back. Um, if I'm in a restaurant in a public place, I'm preferring paper towels because I can go quicker. I'm trying to get in and get out of it. So I hit that as hit that a couple of times, wipe the hands, toss it, and go. So uh give me the paper towels over the hand dryer where I have to sit there and actually kind of run my hands across it. Um, but yeah, if I wanted to be uh pet, this is actually funny. In second grade, my neighbor had a goldfish, and uh they teach me how to feed it and stuff, I end up killing the goldfish. So let's be playing with it and whatnot. And so I guess I'll be a rabbit.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, after that, definitely be a rabbit on that one. And but uh Tony, let's go to you next.
SPEAKER_04:Hi everyone, my name's Tony Bogan, and if I was in a public restroom, I like to use the paper towels, but I would not object to using the air dryers either. And as far as uh a pet, I would pick a rabbit. I pick a rabbit. You know, I get to eat grass and just be in the fields all day and hopefully not get run over by some car.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And last but not least on the panel, we have everybody's favorite manager of the podcast, Fitty.
SPEAKER_03:Hi, everybody. You know me, I'm Fitty. Um, if I'm in a public restroom, I I prefer paper towels, even though you have to use like a million of them to dry your hands because one just doesn't do it, and they're also like three inches big. And I'm like, well, how do you dry your hands with a three-inch like paper towel? So I'm using a hundred of them. Um, I also like them because you can grab the door handle as well after, because that door handle is so gross from people just grabbing it when they don't wash or dry their hands. So I like it for that reason. And if I had pick a family pet uh between a rabbit and a goldfish, I'm probably gonna pick a rabbit because I'm in a cage, I'm secure, I don't have to worry about a car hitting me or like an animal that hunts rabbits. So I would like that. I feel like a goldfish is in a tiny bowl and it just swims to nowhere. Um, so you just are swimming to nowhere in your life. Um, so I just feel like the rabbit would just have a better quality of life.
SPEAKER_02:I got deep on that one for that answer to that one there, Freddy. Uh, with the goldfish swimming to nowhere. Uh, but the Easterone. Uh for me, I am um I'm a paper towel guy. Um the the blowers, I just don't feel like they dry your hands. Let's let's just call it what it is. I mean, I feel like I'm always wiping them on my pants or anything like that afterwards because I feel like they're still wet. Um and family pet. I don't have to go rabbit on this one. Um just get the jump around. I mean, who doesn't who doesn't like to do that? And you know, I mean unpopular opinion being a former competitive swimmer, not being a uh a goldfish. Uh but um yeah, you know, I just I I don't know. I just I like rabbits. Um I've been known to be a very hairy person as it is with the the big beard and everything like that. So we're that's that's the only thing making this decision for me right now, is is that that right there. Uh but we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about the World Series and uh everything going on with that, with the Dodgers uh taking on the Blue Jays this year. And TJ, uh, what is your prediction with how this series will go with the Dodgers and the Blue Jays? Uh, who is your winner and how many games?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, I'm gonna, you know, ride the bandwagon here. I think it's gonna be Dodgers and five. Um it's just Toronto is expended so much energy just to get to this point where the Dodgers have had not even had a road bump. You know, I I just I really believe that with the superpower that they are in the rest that they've had, the proper rest, they got all their guys, their pitchers are healthy. I don't think this is gonna be a very competitive series. Um, so I'll say Dodgers and five. Okay. Biddy, what about you?
SPEAKER_03:I'm actually gonna agree with TJ on that. I'm gonna say the Dodgers and five. I do think the Blue Jays will sneak one at home. Um, but I just think with the Dodgers rest, their depth, um, you know, it they're just playing really good. And I'm not a Dodgers fan. And anyone's listening to this annual show. I usually pick pick against the Dodgers, but I'm just gonna say the Dodgers just are too good. And you know, Blue Jays are a nice Cinderella story, but the the AL was also like weak. Like your traditional powers got, you know, weakened. I would say this year, there wasn't no super front runner, you know, the central was super weak as well. So I don't know if the Dodgers were really like ever challenged by someone like the or sorry, the Blue Jays were ever challenged by someone like the Dodgers firepower. So I'm gonna go with the Dodgers in five.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Tony, round us out. I will say this. Uh, the last time the Dodgers faced like off, uh a favorite faced off against a Canadian adjacent team, they lost in seven to when the Astros lost to the Nationals, formerly known as the Expos. And I am gonna go the other way with the Blue Bas to win the series in seven. And here's why although the Dodgers are a great team, I will definitely put respect on them. Showheil Tani's a great two-way player. The Dodgers have had plenty of rest, and they really haven't gotten challenged at all. Toronto, you're playing in Toronto. Seattle took the first two games in Toronto, and guess what? They didn't win the series. I see Toronto taking at least one at home, possibly taking one in LA as well, if not two, and finishing it off at their in their home stadium like they did in 1993. But do we see a Joe Carter?
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Um I've been going back and forth on this one. Um Dodgers have the rest, they have the depth, they have the you know the money and everything like that that we've been talking about with uh the MLB and everything like that. I just think I think Toronto with what they've had to go through, yes, they've had a tougher road, they've battled more, but I think they're built to play those types of games. And they're built to to go after it like they did with the Seattle series, uh, to get here. I got uh the Blue Jays taking this one. I think it goes seven games, um just like just like it did with the Seattle, and they just wear down uh the Dodgers to to take this series. That's my pick. I just just from what I've seen out of Toronto, it's it's hard to bet against them. And it's it's hard for me to root for anybody coming from a Canadian uh team. Um but that that's my pick here. Uh Tony, the stay with you here. Uh, where does the Dodgers manager David Robinson or Roberts uh rank in the MOB in the rankings of top managers, in your opinion?
SPEAKER_04:I would have to say he's probably top two and he's not number two. I'd say he's pretty solid because you've got a pitching core that is great. Their pitching core is incredible. Not gonna talk down on that. They've got really good hitters. Having Shoheo timing back pitching after missing, well, not being able to pitch last year. We saw what he did last year anyways, is a big help. And if the Dodgers win, then it's a great, you know, a great send-off for a Dodger legend in Clayton Kershaw. 220 some odd major league victories, including a win in his final start at Seattle. So there are some connections there. And another factoid that I found out Jose Arena will be a World Series champion either way. Because he played for the Blue Jays, had a short stint with them, he had a short stint with the Dodgers, so either way he gets a ring.
SPEAKER_02:That's yeah. That's very true. Uh Penny, what about you on this question now?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, um I I was not a Dave Roberts fan, um, even though they, you know, until they really they won last year. So if it was if Terry, if Terry Francona didn't come back into the MLB this year, I would say it's probably clear-cut. Dave Roberts is probably number one, but I still give the edge to Francona because he took two teams to the World Series, um, you know, with Boston and the and the Guardians. So I still give him the nod because he also has now taken um the Reds back to the playoffs this year, as we as we all knew in the NL. So I'd still say Francona's probably one. Roberts is probably two. Bruce Bochi getting fired, you know, has also elevated uh Dave Roberts in that sense. But you know, you could make the argument too could Dave Roberts do what um the guy from the race, Kevin Cash, has done with that team if he didn't have that type of money. So I always like to throw cash in there as a top manager because he does the most with least. So I'd be curious to see like if Roberts could do what he did with such a low payroll, because I'm pretty sure though, most managers in the MLB could have the Dodgers playing at the level they're at uh with the talent around them. You gotta always remember, too, when you're a coach or a manager, it's not always so much the X's and O's, as people have always said, right? It's always your Jimmies and Joes. And if you're just more talented than people, sometimes the best thing to do is just not screw it up. So I feel like Dave Roberts hasn't also screwed it up. So um, but I would say he's probably top three. I still give Frank Kona that, and arguably you can make the him and cash comparison based off the different standards they had. So that's kind of where I'm at.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm I'm with you on that one. I got Frank Kona up there just because he's taken two different teams uh to the playoffs and deep runs and into the World Series with uh Boston and uh Cleveland. Um, I gotta say the only difference was mine is I got Roberts above cash. Um just for the for the fact, I mean, yeah, they've both done more with less, but I I I give the nod to Roberts now, given with the Dodgers uh roster and their payroll, hell I could go in there and manage that team and take them to a World Series. I mean, just like you said, don't screw it up. And I think he doesn't screw it up very well. Uh so TJ, what about you?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know what what do you want in a manager, right? A guy that can lead your squad to the championships year in and year out. If payroll was the only thing, it'd be the Yankees would be there year in and year out, the Mets would be in the playoffs right now, and the Padres would be in the playoffs right now, and they aren't. So eventually we have to give the nod to the person that is keeping his guys playing the way that they should, not the way that on paper they're supposed to. Um he's done it year in and year out. We keep talking about the Dodgers and the excuses that we have about payroll, and it's very valid. But eventually you have a manager that takes high-paying players and all the ego that comes with it and tells them this is the culture that we demand and we are going to play this way, and I'm gonna use you this way. Hey, can you imagine telling an ace we are part of a six-man rotation? And he's done that to four different aces. And they're all sitting there like, okay, as long as we're gonna go win a World Series this way. So his managerial style is the fact that kind of like you said about don't screw it up, but he's gotten all of his guys to buy in. And the guys who haven't bought in or the guys that pro are you know prolifically hurt are gone. They say, okay, then don't then don't play here. You know, go somewhere else and be hurt, or go somewhere else and complain. He takes the right, he takes the right great players and makes it into a great championship team year in and year out. So to me, right now, he's number one, and I, you know, and he's got the the paper trail to prove it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, it it's a it's a solid top three with managers in the MOB right now. Um, I can't argue any one way. Um, he's definitely up there. He he does all the right things. Um, but TJ, uh, does this World Series match up between a team from another country in the Blue Jays and a team on the West Coast, the Dodgers, hurt the MOB with interest in TV ratings and such. Uh, do you think it does or doesn't? I mean, with the dynamic and just with people like us here on the East Coast?
SPEAKER_00:Um, a little, but not much, because it makes up for it with the fact that all of Canada is going to be watching. So now you add in that aspect of it to where you have a whole country invested into one team and that'll take over the people in the United States who, you know, ah, I don't have the interest in the Dodgers, uh, I haven't heard of the, I haven't heard of any of these players on the Blue Jays, you know. So I think it'll um it will balance itself out that way. Um and everybody loves a good underdog story. So if by chance the Blue Jays make this series competitive, you're gonna have a lot of people rooting against the Dodgers. And you're gonna have a lot of people tuning in and say, I I just want to see, I just I want to see Dodger fans cry. Like, you know, those those those those fans might tune in. So but I just think the fact that it's a whole country is gonna balance it out.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm one of those fans. That that's part of that's part of the reasons why I'm I'm rooting and I picked the Blue Jays, is just because I just want to see Dodgers fans cry, just for what they've done. That's that's where I'm at in life right now. Like, but yeah, so then Vinny, what about you?
SPEAKER_03:Um, I know we like we talked about this a couple years ago when like the Rangers played the Diamondbacks with the different time zones and and being down there. And I know we talked about a little bit last year's show with the Yankees going across the country to play the Dodgers. I I don't know if necessarily TV ratings will be hurt, but what I do know is that like when you're backtracking across the country from the east coast to the west coast, but you're playing these games in LA at a at an um 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. pitch, but it's 5 p.m. there. I don't know if the ratings are gonna get skewed over there or not, or the deliverance of the game because you're gonna have people still at work. And I don't know how fair it is for the people in that west coast time zone. Um, you know, and then the people on the east coast, you know, you may watch it, you may not, but to TJ's point, you might have the whole country of Canada watching it, like how the Raptors were when they won their championship in basketball. But I just don't know from a time standpoint of the games, like, is it gonna help or hurt the ratings, especially with people in the not 8 p.m. or 7 p.m. time zone, like at 5 p.m.? Because think about it like this if they were putting a game on at 5 p.m., like here in the east coast, what is everybody what are most people doing? Coaching sports, covering games, getting home from work, you're not on the TV, you're most likely streaming it or listening to it. Right, right. So I think that might balance into the into the problems on the West Coast time frame. Um, but I think the ratings will probably be similar to maybe last year's. I don't think they'll be as low as the Diamondbacks and Rangers were a couple years ago. True. All right, Tony, what about you?
SPEAKER_04:I would say that eight is that perfect sweet spot because you start it any later outside of Canada. You're gonna lose that be going to bed at 10, 11 o'clock, twelve. Starting at any later than eight o'clock is a no-go. And it shouldn't run in any weather because Toronto has a dome. So that helps. But I think there will be a lot more people watching, especially when Toronto's carrying a whole country on their backs. Just like 2019. Do you think anybody thought the Raptors were gonna beat the Warriors? Hell no. Right, right, right. Raptors went out and did it in Oakland, you know. In six games. So I think that it's gonna be it's gonna be a higher rated World Series, especially if Toronto can make a run. And even Koean fans will have some interest in it, because there are four former guardians. There's oh yeah. And I'm blanking on it. Naylor. No, Andres Jimenez. Jimenez, Andres Jimenez.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Naylor's on Seattle.
SPEAKER_04:Four former Guardians. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry, yeah, yeah. My bad. So, in a way, it'd be kind of a win for Cleveland. It would be, yeah, yeah. And Bieber got traded at the deadline to Toronto. He started game seven.
SPEAKER_02:TJ, you you're talking to a pirate span here. You want to talk about players leaving the team and getting better? Let's talk about that. Like, I there's just everybody on the Yankees, the Dodgers, and the um Red Sox. Game for Pittsburgh. Let's just just talk about that.
SPEAKER_00:Just grew up in Pittsburgh and then hit puberty and went somewhere else, huh?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. So me for this with the ratings on this game, though, I I I bounce back and forth on it. I don't think it'll hurt it, kind of like when it was uh Texas and the Diamondbacks playing. Um mainly because you know, I'm I'm such an old man and routine oriented. Like you start the games later. I mean, 9:30, I'm I'm laying in bed. I'm not gonna lie to you guys here. I'm an old man at this point. If I don't have any shows or anything like that, I you know, like I'm I'm getting ready for bed, mainly because I'm up at 5 a.m. every morning. So, you know, that that that's where I'm at with that. Uh, and I know there's a lot of people like that, but I also know too, you know, the West Coast time frame, you know, you like he said, you're starting at 5 p.m. Like people are still at work, they're gonna be riding home, they're probably be listening to it or streaming it somehow, somewhere. But I I just don't I think the TV ratings um will take a millisecond minor fucking hit on this one because I just don't think that you know it's just it's it's it the games I know they've shortened it with the time clock and that, but you know, baseball games can go forever. Sure. Uh look at the one game that went what like 15 innings with extra innings.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, so you get into situations like in the middle of the night. I was like, I'm right.
SPEAKER_02:You know what I mean? Like, I mean, like the you you still have those instances where that can't happen, right?
SPEAKER_03:So and you gotta think though, too, because it's the world series, there's gonna be more commercial breaks and they're gonna be longer commercial breaks. Yeah, but it'sn't your traditional non-pitch clock game that's three hours plus that, but you still gotta consider that there's probably in real time, I'm gonna say probably another 20 to 30 minutes of advertisements will be in there as well, instead of there being a two-minute commercial break and maybe like a 220 commercial break, right? And you don't think 20 seconds adds up, they do that every commercial break, though. And you are probably you know, to 11 or 11:30. I think the other thing though, I want to throw out there, Mike, and and to TJ and Tony, the one thing we also didn't talk about um with like the advantage and the rest and all that is that the the Blue Jays have to again though fly to the West Coast for the second series in a row. Yeah, so you are switching you are switching three time zones for a consecutive series that you just went seven games for, going back and forth, right? Like you're going, you're flying back and forth, so really you're switching time zones like six different times. Um, now you have to do it again. And then the other thing is too, I don't know if people realize this, but every time one of those teams flies to Canada or the United States, they have to go through border security.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So that also does add on to your travel time. And it also adds into your logistics because, of course, like anybody going to a different country, whether you're on vacation or that, like you have to have your passports, you have to have your documentation, you have to have your work per permits if you're not a US citizen. Like you have to go through all of that. And and also you're just you're saying that to the the blue jays again, like, hey, you have to do this, but then to the Dodgers, you have to do this. But again, the time zone thing, I think, is probably more worrisome for them, like flying back again and losing three hours every time they have to go to the West Coast, right? Right, and you've been doing it for two weeks, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Um time zone is just that that's that sucks for all the West Coast teams. I mean, having to lose those three hours going to the to the West Coast, and you know, then you add in customs into everything like that too, as well.
SPEAKER_00:So I think it brings me normal airports, right? Let alone, let alone travel in the country, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's yeah. I mean, flying normally sucks anymore. Um, and you add all that into there. Uh, but uh Tony, that's gonna you this kind of brings us right into the next uh topic here, but it's the home field advantage in this game. Like who has it? Does it matter? And you know, is it is it really a thing right now?
SPEAKER_04:Uh in a way, yes, and no. Like as we saw in the Seattle Toronto series, it was just so evenly matched. Like when Seattle, when Yanios Suarez hit that huge homer in game five, that electrified the hell out of the crowd. But then you had Toronto when that series went back to Toronto. Obviously, when you're going to the six, Canadian crowds are very passionate. As we saw when the Raptors hosted the NBA finals. I wonder if there'll be any appearances from Drake at any point in the series.
SPEAKER_00:He knows there's cameras, right?
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. What about you?
SPEAKER_03:You kind of touched on it there a little bit, but yeah, I I think that the advantage would be for Toronto to play at home because again, you're not switching the time zones. Now you're asking the Dodgers who really haven't had to have do the travel of the Blue Jays. Again, the the kind of the Blue Jays are accustomed to going through customs, and then they're, you know, they're used to switching the time zone, they just did it. But to ask the Dodgers to do that, um, you know, might be a little bit harder. And then the fact that the the the Blue Jays play in a dome, I think is an advantage because there's no weather, there's no wind, there's no potential rain or humidity or whatever there may be out in LA going on, I think that's advantage Toronto, and then also for the fact that you're playing for all of Canada as well, because like right, they don't have football, and people in LA also are right in the middle of football season and basketball season has started, and hockey has started. So you have like the Kings and the you know, and hockey and the Lakers and the Clippers, and you have the Rams and the the Chargers and then everybody else who they chair for there, where like Canada really only has you know the the Maple Leafs and the Raptors and and the Blue Jays, but they're very passionate about that because really they're not known to be a country that produces high-quality baseball or basketball outside of that one year, so they're really a hockey fan base, but I think they'll be galvanized by this um and and really like bring the noise kind of like Tony said. So I think home field is more important to the Blue Jays. I do think that crowd will be more um raucous than what's going on in LA.
SPEAKER_02:Gotcha. TJ, what about you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I really do think that the home field advantage will be a factor here. But I'll give it to LA. I think that they can quiet a crowd really quick. But if they don't, if that Toronto crowd gets behind their team and those guys score early, which they've scored early in pretty much every game that they've played so far, that crowd's gonna make it, but it's gonna make LA realize like, okay, we have to win, you know, and they're gonna get you know real tight and they're good at playing late, but I mean, that Toronto crowd is gonna be something different. Even it was already loud in the ALCS. Now they got a World Series game and they know how important it is and they know they have to slay the dragon. That's gonna be crazy. Um, I just don't see, and maybe I'm sorry to all LA baseball fans, I don't think they really appreciate a World Series as much as they did maybe the previous handful of years. It's just, you know, you just go too many times that you're like, you expect to be there and you expect to win instead of Toronto sitting there thinking, like, this is the glory of all things sports. So I think that you do get all of those sports, the people that are, you know, basketball fans, like, no, like, hey, it's time for us to get up behind the Blue Jays for at least two weeks, and then we'll go to basketball season, or then we'll go to hockey season. And so it's gonna be, I think that home field advantage is really gonna help them if they pull this out.
SPEAKER_04:Imagine if uh they lost that last day and New York had that home field advantage. And that's even then, it's pretty technically tied.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I think the Canadian fans and Toronto fans are built different in that they'll find a way to root for uh hockey the Raptors and the Blue Jays all in the same day. Like I feel like they'll do they have that type of energy and that stigma to them, and they just they love their teams uh more than anything. I I they they get behind them, and it's gonna be a rocking crowd there in Toronto, and that's definitely gonna play a factor um against the Dodgers. Like you said, the Dodgers quiet a crowd, but I don't think they're gonna be able to quiet this Toronto crowd like they have been uh coming through this playoff run that they had. It's it's they're just Toronto fans are just built different to that. I would give them the edge uh in the home field advantage. But guys, we talked about this last year uh with three people that were all three of you were on last year, uh, both you, TJ, Tony. Uh we had Bill Stoy on last year and Fitty. Uh, we talked about uh the Yankees or the Dodgers being built to return uh in the 2025 year to the World Series. We see that the Dodgers did that. So out of these two teams for 2026, uh Dodgers or the Blue Jays, who is built to return TJ to start with you?
SPEAKER_01:Oh boy.
SPEAKER_00:Um I'm gonna cheat. I'm saying both of them because um I know I I the Dodgers are so just when you think they can't add anybody else, they add somebody else. So you know Skeens is going there or New York. Don't you put those evils out into the world.
SPEAKER_02:You don't say that thing, you don't say that on my show. Skeens is gonna die in Pittsburgh. That's what, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That was his losing record. Yeah, don't care. Don't care. It's it's it's amazing. You just don't even know what players are still available until the Dodgers go through the offseason. Like, I didn't even know that guy was just it's it's amazing. So I they're gonna be so they're gonna be. Right around NLCS for the next however long the deferred money goes. Um, but here's the thing: Toronto picked up pieces this year. It was one of the first times Toronto really went out and said, let's go get players. Now they didn't spend the money like other teams might have spent, like big, big time money, but they went out and got pieces. They got Santander, they got Shane Bieber, they went out and made moves. And I think now they're gonna get a taste of this World Series, and they're not a team to necessarily go out and start selling. And you forget Boba Sheet was hurt for the last bit of the year, and they were still doing well. So I think that they're gonna be as as much of a gauntlet as the AL East is. Um, you know, one of them is good for the wild card, so they'll always have a chance to kind of bake their way through. So I'm I'm gonna say both.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Uh Pitty, what about you?
SPEAKER_03:You know, this is hard. Um, because the Dodgers can just keep spending right as well and keep adding. But I'm gonna say it's probably the Blue Jays. And the reason is if anything was taught to us this this year, was that like the AL is not as strong as the NL. Um, and it's more wide open, right? Because if you look at like the NL, you got the big money Padres, the big money Mets, you would expect the Giants with Buster Posey and uh Vitello getting hired today to be a lot better. You know, you you expect more out of that. You know, Francona's then back with, you know, he's back now with the Reds coming off the playoff appearance. The Brewers are always really good. So you expect probably more out of the NL. I would say it's probably the Blue Jays because like the Yankees were disappointing, the the Red Sox were disappointing, the Central is just, and I'm a Guardians fan, but it's just so bad. Like it's so bad that you're gonna have three teams with three to four teams with a losing record every year, and somebody who wins 85 games and then gets smoked in the playoffs. Like it's not a real feasible, you know, league like the NL is that they're just gonna have these top heavy dominant teams. I just think it's more wide open. Um, maybe the Orioles will be better, maybe, of course, the the Rays will always compete. But I don't know if the Dodgers have the sorry, I don't know if like the Tigers and the Guardians have the firepower to really knock out um the Blue Jays next year. So I'm gonna just say it's the Blue Jays just because of the AL just being way a weaker weaker league in baseball than the NL.
SPEAKER_02:Gotcha. Tony, what about you?
SPEAKER_04:I would have to go with the Dodgers, and I think it's because the AL is so weak and Cleveland's huge historic comeback, notwithstanding the AL is kind of weak, you know. And taking that comeback, Tigers probably win divisions like 88 games, and they probably don't do any better, you know, in the playoffs. Um but I will say the Dodgers, because they just have that cohesive input. You still got you still got Mookie Betts, you still got Shohei in his prime, you've got Yamamoto, the pitcher. I mean, yes, you're losing Clayton Kershaw, a legend, but at the end of it, he got hurt a lot at the end of his career. Like, like I say, he's still a legend. He the reality is he did get injured a lot. I think the Dodgers, as much as they are, they could pick up more, a couple more pieces here and there. Like I could see them and not I'm not saying major pieces. It doesn't matter. How big the puzzle gotta be. I'm thinking maybe they go after uh Justin Verlander, give him a proper swan song. I mean, since he pitched for the Giants, screw it. Maybe he goes on the Dodgers, they somehow win a ring. Verlander decides, you know what? I may be sure three hernt wins, but I got another World Series title riding off in the sunset.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's just with with the Dodgers' money. I'm I'm prone to say that they are built to repeat year after year after year. But what the Blue Jays did this year in showing people that you can add pieces, it doesn't have to be big pieces. You had the right pieces to your puzzle, and you can make it to a World Series. I like the way they did it. Uh, they didn't spend a ton of money, they found the right guys that built into that culture to want to play and want to compete for a championship. But I think I gotta go Toronto on this one uh for that reason alone. Uh, because the Dodgers, like everyone I'm saying, hell, a monkey could go in there and manage that team and they can make it to the World Series. Yeah. With all the talent and everything they have. And so but I like what I think more teams are gonna take the blueprint that Toronto did and try to implement that to make a deep run in these playoffs here. Um so here next, here Tony, when the playoffs first started, who was your World Series prediction?
SPEAKER_04:Uh I would say Seattle. Yes, Cleveland had an incredible historic run, but you know, sometimes the hotter the streak, the faster the flame comes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Fiddy, what about you?
SPEAKER_03:I I was thinking it was it was, I mean, the Dodgers had a pretty good chance. I I was really thinking it was honestly gonna probably be a rematch of the Dodgers and Yankees. I just thought the Yankees could outhit everyone and score more than everyone, even if the pitching was, you know, somewhat even subpar. Um, so I thought it was gonna be like the Yankees and Dodgers. I I did. That was my prediction.
SPEAKER_02:Gotcha. TJ, what about you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I the Dodgers for sure. I've I've never really wavered off of them. Um, but the American League was so goofy because I was I would have said the Tigers, but they had such a catastrophic fall in September that I was like, they're they're done. There's they're not, and I can't believe they even made it through Cleveland. But um, that's when I said, okay, well, who's the next best team to sustain the playoff run? And it was the Mariners because the Yankees, as much as they have firepower, they're such a hit or miss team and they don't play fundamentally sound. If the right team caught them, they weren't going to be able to escape. So, and that's exactly what happened. So I would have said the Mariners, um, I would have said Mariners and um uh Dodgers. I definitely wouldn't have said Toronto. I that would have been my last one, honestly.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I didn't have Toronto and he was sniffing anything near the the World Series uh when these playoffs first started. I really thought the Mariners were gonna make the make the World Series to me. I mean, got the big dumper just raking the ball um all over the yard. I mean, for what he was able to do as a catcher is just astronomical. So I had them and and I had the Dodgers too as well. It uh it almost came true. I'll tell you the Mariners made a uh a hell of a run there late. I I was rooting for them really uh to make it just for what they were able to do. But yeah, the Blue Jays weren't even on my radar. I thought they were gonna get bounced in the first round. Um couple I got two more questions here that we can get through here into the show. And uh TJ, um which city is this potential title more important to? Uh is it Los Angeles or is it Toronto and why?
SPEAKER_01:Oh goodness.
SPEAKER_00:Um the easy answer is Toronto. Um, I I don't think LA, you know, the way last year ended, it didn't seem like it was like life or death for them to win the World Series last year. It didn't seem they knew the juggernaut that New York was, but it just didn't seem like, my goodness, like that was everything we always wanted. It was kind of again, we expected to be there. We have a culture of excellence. We have a culture that says if we spend this money, we are going to win, and there's no other way about it. And there's something to be said about that because if they lose, it is catastrophic. Right. But if Toronto were to win this, you know, Tony brought up since 1993, I mean, that's a long drought. And again, it's I just you look at it, you call it Toronto, but it's Canada. It's literally Canada. And and I really believe that if they win, their adoration is gonna be widespread. Not even just Canada, but all the other smaller markets, all the other, it just for the rest of MLB, it really will feel like wow, somebody took the Dodgers down in a way that they weren't supposed to. It's gonna mean a lot for the MLB. So, you know, I just think Toronto as a whole, the city, yeah, you're gonna see that. You're gonna see how a championship should be celebrated, and you're gonna see how a league can be elevated through an underdog story coming to fruition. Gotcha. Biddy, what about you?
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna say it's Toronto too, because again, like you you have the Maple Leaves and the Raptors, but the odds the Raptors really ever win a championship beginner probably slim to none. The maple leaves live on their history, right? They didn't they're I mean, they're the most the most historic NHL franchise, but that they haven't been relevant in that sense in a long time. So I think it it is for for Toronto because you're playing for the country. You know, again, LA, you have two football teams, two basketball teams, you have a hockey team. You know, you you're the home of the stars, right? Like celebrities and music people, like the Dodgers winning or losing is not bringing, I think, a huge like influx of money and interest to LA. I think Toronto's getting more money because of number one, they're the biggest city in Canada, like they're our version of New York City, but there's also more people will go there because not probably not a lot of people have been there. They're like, oh, okay, Toronto sounds cool, and everybody always says it's like a nice city to visit, anyways. You know, I never really heard anybody go, Wow, I want to go to Los Angeles and have vacation. Like so, I think, although the traffic in Toronto's pretty crappy, believe me. But I think from like the overall, I want to go there, I want to visit. This seems cool. I got the whole country behind me. This is the only thing we have. I think it's more meaningful to them because again, and in LA, they lose and it flips right to the Rams, right? Or the Chargers or hockey or what's Luka doing, or what's going on with Kawhi, or hey, this new movie's being made. You know what I mean? Like they have so much more there that it doesn't matter if if the Dodgers win the World Series or not for the city, it means everything to Toronto and the country of Canada.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, a thousand percent on that one. Tony Randall said on this one.
SPEAKER_04:I say it would mean a lot more to Toronto because the last time that the Blue Jays won a World Series, like I think all of us were alive. I think all of us were alive the last time the Jays won the series.
SPEAKER_03:TJ wasn't, and I was TJ wasn't, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I wasn't, I was, I was just I was just a thought. I was just a thought.
SPEAKER_04:I was won. Okay, like three-fourths of us. Yeah. But um honestly, it would mean more to Toronto because they're carrying the whole country on their backs, just like the just like when the Raptors won their series against the Warriors. It's like that big underdog story against the super favorite, like Toronto beating Golden State, who people thought Golden State was just gonna three Pete to their way to a title, especially having Kevin Durant. It's just like these underdog stories come in like 2017 before Houston cheated their way to their title. 2019's everywhere. A former Canadian team formerly known as the Expos. I don't tell anyone in Montreal. I said that. The team formerly known as the Expos, the Nationals beating Houston in 2019. And then you got this underdog story with the Blue Jays hopefully beating the Dodgers. So it would mean a lot to Canada because you know Toronto is not no disrespect to any of the other cities, but Toronto is the baseball team that represents just like they did in the NBA. In hockey, you've got Montreal, you've got Edmonton, you've got Winnipeg, Vancouver. So if a team in Canada loses in the Stanley Cup, it's not that big of a deal. Or even in the CFL, though. I looked it up real quick. Dargo's my 5-13th this year. It's not that big of a deal, but them winning the World Series is a huge deal.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's it's no contest for me. It it's Toronto. Um, just you know, being one being a small market and being able to beat the juggernaut that is the Dodgers, and two, I just I don't think anyone in LA gives a shit about championships anymore. Like Bitty was saying, there's so much more going on there that this is just a blip on the radar. It's just it's and they showed it last year. They beat the Yankees, and it was just like, Oh, yay, another cool another ring. Hey, thank you for another ring and another banner in our stadium. That's oh yay. Who like it's just you're gonna see the city of Toronto lose its ever-loving mind if they win a World Series, and I'm here for it. I want to see this happen. I love it. I want it all. I I want to see it happen. I root for underdogs in every single event, no matter what. I'm a pirates fan for Christ's sake. Like, let's talk about rooting for the habitual underdog, it's it's them. Um, but yeah, I I want to see I want to see them do it just to see how the how long the party goes after they win the oh yeah, win the world series. That that's more my interest in that, too, as well. Uh, and lastly, here guys, uh, kind of a little bit of a fun one uh to end it here. Um, and which stadium would you personally rather sit in to watch this World Series game, LA or Toronto? Tony, let's start with you.
SPEAKER_04:I say Toronto simply because you've got a hotel. So I can basically spend a night at a hotel room, wake up, watch the game outside, even if even though it's far, and you got a steakhouse too. Yeah, steakhouse as well. So there's more amenities per se. So I'd I'd say Toronto.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Betty, what about you?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I I've never been to LA. I've been to Toronto and I stayed a couple blocks from um the stadium when I was there for an event uh about a year and a half ago. So I mean, like Toronto was cool. Like, I think seeing it a game there would be cool because again, like the luxury of like you could park and then walk to the game. Um, you know, with LA, you know, I think it would be it would be cool if you could see celebrities there. I think that would just be a cool thing, like, oh, hey, there's Matthew Stafford, or hey, there's like Ryan Gosling, or you know what I mean? Like there's some whoever big famous person there. But I think that if you're talking like game day atmosphere, I think Toronto would be cool because they'll probably shut the whole city down for the games. And I know I read on, I think it was ESPN today, that they've moved like the Raptors times of their games, they've moved the Maple Leafs times of their games to accommodate um the Blue Jays game. So I think that the city atmosphere, the the party, whatever the festivities part would make it just even a better atmosphere inside the uh inside the dome. So I would say Toronto.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha. DJ, what about you? Does that tell you everything you need to know? Them moving start times of other sports to say, hey, and I bet you none of those other sports are complaining about it. Because they know as soon as the chip probably asked for it. Yep. And as soon as the championship comes to somebody in your city, there's more eyes on you. There's so if there's one that comes to um baseball, there's gonna be more eyes on their basketball team. So it just it it all, I mean, that tells you everything. Um, I would rather go to Toronto. I number one, I think the crowd just I might be soft, but the people will be nicer, people will be more fun to be around. You know, I think that they would embrace baseball people and baseball fans and just want to have a great time watching a great sport versus like LA, like, ah man, you're getting a little close to me, man. It's like, oh, you type of dude that uh you know rubs your hands on your pants when you're eating, huh? Like, I feel like I get that type of treatment in LA. Um I just I I don't do well around these, those types of people, man. Um, but just inside a dome, you know it's gotta be loud. You know people are gonna be moving, you know that you're gonna feel it, you know, the tension of every pitch, um, versus, you know, you're not gonna see people's like uh late. Watch game one. Watch how many empty seats are behind home plate when they start the game. Because getting there is like, it's I'm telling you, it's gonna be I don't know. It's it is just a difference in these two franchises. So give me, I'll take my ride to Toronto. It's a lot shorter, too. A lot shorter ride. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Toronto for the dome aspect of it for me. One, you don't have to worry about, oh, is it gonna rain? Am I gonna be sitting in this? Do I need to bring the poncho? Do I need to bring this? Do I need to do that? You know, you don't have to worry about that there. Um and just the feel that like you probably feel that stadium rocking in your chest when when it gets going. And every sports fan wants to feel that when you're at a game. That's the that's the one of the reasons we go to games is to just have that experience there, and I think you're gonna get a whole hell of a lot more of that in Toronto than you do in LA. And yeah, the star aspect of that, I didn't even think of that, is cool. Like, you just sit down and like is is that De Niro sitting here like in the next room, like you know what I mean? Like, that'd be cool. But I I'm not there to see celebrities, I'm there to watch a baseball game. And Toronto, you're gonna get the true baseball feel. Uh there. So for me, yeah. I and yeah, it's a much quicker ride here from Ohio than it is to LA. Uh, so I am taking that all day, every day. And with that all being said, that is actually going to do it for our annual World Series show. Uh, looking forward to see how our predictions come true with this panel of guests. Again, I want to thank TJ, Tony, and Fiddy for being on here with me and getting to talk everything baseball and the World Series. And as always, if you enjoyed the show, be a friend, tell a friend. If you didn't, tell them anyways, because they might like it just because you didn't. That's gonna do it for me, and I will see y'all next week.
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