Welcome to Steve Believes, the section where Steve Kaycee blogs about his predictions for certain sporting events, such as NFL games and March Madness games.
For the first time since May 30, 2023, Steve is back with a blog entry, with it being his prediction for the 2024 World Series matchup between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.
You can check it out below!
“Steve Believes: The 2024 World Series”
It’s been nearly a year and a half since I’ve blogged a sports prediction, as most of my time since my prediction of the 2023 NBA Finals has been geared towards The Flickuum Project. And of course, I have an ongoing queue of assessments/re-assessments with no deadline in sight, as well as the commitment to reporting content variance in each and every foreseeable Nog Report, thus making today the perfect day to blog a sports prediction. So, with all of that being said, play ball!
Alright, so as someone who A] Had the New York Yankees figuratively rammed down his throat as a 12-year-old back in 1996 via living in New Jersey, B] Found them unavoidable for a decade-plus while living in New Hampshire and C] Doesn’t like the Los Angeles Dodgers via them being a rival of my Chicago Cubs, this World Series matchup between the teams that home-field advantage in their respective leagues this postseason is the one that I least wanted when the 2024 MLB postseason began. However, I also find this World Series matchup intriguing, as we get the rarity of a New York vs. L.A. championship-level series between two historic MLB franchises, which are led by the players (Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani) that are most likely the MVPs of their respective leagues via putting up astronomical regular season numbers on their respective teams. Furthermore, there are two more intriguing storylines about this World Series matchup, with the first one being that each team features a “heart-and-soul” first basemen of past World Series-winning teams, with the Dodgers having Freddie Freeman (2021 Atlanta Braves) and the Yankees having Anthony Rizzo (2016 Chicago Cubs). And as to the second intriguing storyline, well the eventual top two Flickuum movies (The Bounce Back, In The Heights) take place in Los Angeles and New York, respectively, and with 2016 being the respective release year for one, followed by 2021 being the respective release year for the other. So yeah, I think I will watch this Series.
Alright, so now that I have interjected the World Series achievements for Freeman and Rizzo, as well as interjecting specific pop culture references that aren’t shoe-horned in like anything pertaining to a certain over-rated pop “star” via other publishments, it’s time to make my prediction for which team will win the 2024 World Series, the length of the Series and which player will get Series MVP. Let’s continue.
So, I’ll admit that I haven’t watched a full baseball game since Game 5 of last year’s World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, but I know that the Yankees don’t rely on the gimmick of a “bullpen” game the way that the Dodgers have this postseason. And I know that the Dodgers have a badly hobbled Freddie Freeman (ankle injury), as well as a slumping Teoscar Hernandez, which won’t be quite enough to counter the Yankees three-headed monster of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton. Overall, the Yankees have a much more sustainable formula for this Series, thus I’m taking them to win it in seven games, as the Dodgers are resilient enough to both steal a game in The Bronx and force a Game 7. And as to which player will win Series MVP, well it’s going to be the player who matured before our very eyes during the 2019 season, with that player being Soto, simply because A] He’s peaking offensively at the perfect time in the postseason and B] The postseason experience that he gained with the 2019 Washington Nationals will be a huge factor for the 2024 American League champions.
Tune a week from Sunday to find out how I did with my 2024 World Series prediction.