Lakers and Dodgers Celebrate World Championships in Their Respective Bubbles
For the second time in the history of the city of Los Angeles, and for the first time since 1988, both the Lakers and Dodgers have captured their respective championship trophies in the same year. Major League Baseball’s Dodgers ended their 32-year-long World Series drought when they took down the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays in Game 6 on Oct. 27. Their last championship came in 1988, so this triumph has been a long time coming for Dodger fans.
The Dodgers have been serious contenders for much of the last decade, winning nine consecutive National League West division championships. They were unable to get over the hump when they reached the World Series in 2017 and ‘18, falling to the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox. With the regular season schedule shortened from 162 games to 60 for the 2020 season as well as players being subject to lockdown restrictions and daily COVID-19 tests, this truly was a season like no other.
Despite the significant slash in the number of games and an expanded playoff system, the best team in baseball still ended up on top. Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager took home the World Series and National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player awards. The real winner here for the Dodgers is Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles’s longtime ace. Kershaw has long been known for his woes in the postseason these past eight years but was finally able to pull it together to lead his boys in blue to the Commissioner’s Trophy.
Conversely, the Lakers have won multiple championships since the late 80s, with this year’s title being their first since 2010. They won the series in six games on Oct. 11 against the surprising Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat, the former team of L.A. megastar LeBron James. With this finals win, James once again has cemented his legacy as one of the greatest to ever play the game of basketball. While it’s fun to debate whether LeBron or Michael Jordan is truly the “GOAT”, it’s important to take a step back and appreciate the greatness LeBron has displayed on the court throughout his 18-year-long NBA career.
With the 2020 season now in the books, LeBron has played in nine of the last 10 NBA Finals with three different teams. Pause and just think about that for a moment. It’s just incredible to even fathom that. Wherever he has gone, success has followed. He won two rings in Miami after beginning his career in Cleveland. He then returned to The Forest City and made four straight finals appearances against the Golden State Warriors, coming away with only one championship. Following his departure from Cleveland, James took his talents to Southern California, winning his fourth title in his first year in purple and gold. James has continued to defy the odds, even as he approaches his 36th birthday on Dec. 30.
This was not an easy road for the Lakers and their fans in particular. On Jan. 26, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, passed away along with seven others in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif. This tragic loss shook the NBA family at its core. As fans around the world paid tribute to Bryant’s memory, the entire Lakers organization had to rebound and refocus their pursuits on chasing a championship. The Lakers secured the top spot in the Western Conference, finishing with a regular-season record of 52-19. They bulldozed their way through the Western Conference playoffs, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, and Denver Nuggets in five games each to reach the finals. Although Miami put up a decent fight, it was not enough to keep down the potent Lakers offense, who were playing for more than just a championship.
The NBA and MLB both took extremely unorthodox routes to complete their seasons. When the country shut down in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both leagues had to suspend their seasons. The NBA was already in the middle of their season when they were forced to put everything on hold, throwing the entire schedule into limbo.
The season had originally been expected to be completed in June after starting in October of last year. The NBA approved a plan for a restart in early June that would take place entirely on the grounds of Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla. The campus was temporarily crowned “The NBA Bubble”. With strict guidelines and limited personnel, the bubble played host to 22 of the 30 teams who finished off their regular-season schedules from late July to mid-August. The postseason ran from Aug. 17 until Oct. 11. Once the clock hit 0:00 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, it had taken 355 days to complete the entire season, the longest such season in NBA history.
MLB instituted a bubble plan similar to that of the NBA. The baseball season was originally expected to begin on March 26 but was of course pushed back because of the onset of the pandemic. The season did not kick off until the league ratified a plan in late June, with an expected start date of July 23. Rather than have teams fly all across the country to play each other, MLB set the schedules to have each team only play opponents in their geographic region. East coast teams stayed on the east coast, central teams stayed in the central, west in the west. MLB did have to take more than a few emergency maneuvers when two teams, the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals, experienced COVID-19 outbreaks where each team had over a dozen players and coaches test positive for the virus. The outbreaks led to several schedule changes and an abundance of uncertainty over whether or not the season could be completed.
The regular season concluded on Sept. 27 with 16 teams, including the Marlins and Cardinals, making the playoffs via an expanded structure. Following the completion of the Wild Card round, the American League playoffs shifted to two bubble stadium-hotel systems in Southern California. Games were played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. The National League playoffs shifted to Texas, hosting games at Globe Life Field in Arlington, the newly built home of the Texas Rangers, as well as Minute Maid Park, the regular venue for the Houston Astros. Once an American League and National League champion had been crowned, the 116th World Series was held exclusively at Globe Life Field.
Contrary to the NBA, MLB decided to allow a limited number of fans into the National League Championship Series and World Series, both of which took place at Globe Life. The announced capacity of roughly 11,500 spectators was highly controversial among fans and medical experts. None-the-less, many Dodger fans were able to be in the house to witness their team capture their long-awaited World Series championship. In a year that has been so improbable, Los Angeles has somehow found a way to put two of their professional sports teams in the limelight.
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