The Dodgers won’t be getting that parade

Outside of a few highlight moments (finally crushing the Giants, Chris Taylor’s history-making game, Bellinger coming to life), the last couple of weeks have been painful and stressful and did not feel like fun October baseball. It didn’t feel like the Dodgers were dominant or the expected winners; it felt like they were hanging on by a thread.

As Molly Knight wrote this week, “Losing is painful.” She summarizes what went wrong in the NLCS in her piece, The Giants Killed the Dodgers. It Just Took Them a Week to Die. Knight makes the crushing argument, which I tend to agree with: “the Dodgers loss to Atlanta was like a mercy killing of a mortally wounded animal.”

Hate or tolerate the Houston Astros, their manager Dusty Baker is a legend. He was a part of the Los Angeles Dodgers team in 1981 when they won the World Series, and this is the second team he’s led to a World Series run. You can read more about his life and career in this piece by Tim Tucker at The Atlanta-Journal Constitution: Dusty Baker: from 19-year-old Braves rookie to 72-year-old Astros manager.

Anthony Witrado writes at Forbes: Even With Critical Offseason Decisions Looming, the Dodgers Are An Elite Team

What’s next for the Dodgers-Giants rivalry after taking 2021 about as far down to the wire as it could go? Alex Pavlovic has more at NBC Sports: Giants, Dodgers rekindled rivalry

The Dodgers franchise of front office staff continues to spread out throughout the league as a former Dodgers’ analyst heads to the Cubs

Max Goodman at Sports Illustrated writes that Corey Seager is a perfect fit for the New York Yankees (a rumor that’s been running rampant on the internet for several months now).

David Hill at Call to the Pen writes that Albert Pujols should head back to the Cardinals, and that it’s inevitable he does.

And from Bill Shaikin at the LA Times, on “The parade that never was: The lament of the 2020 champion Dodgers”