I don't have too much to say about this year's World Series, as it continued the current trend in the game of strikeouts and home runs, with not much in between, as every game except the fifth had more strikeouts than hits The most impressive effort was by the Houston Astros in game five, when they scored nine runs without a home run and the most dubious was Braves manager Brian Snitker taking pitcher Ian Anderson out of game three after five no-hit innings (yes, I know he had his reasons). Most of the games were close to four hours long with as many as a dozen pitchers used and only Braves pitcher Max Fried going as many as six innings, in game six.
Once again we had to put up with TV announcer Joe Buck, with an occasional intelligent remark from John Smoltz; I found I was able to "see" more with ESPN radio announcer Dan Shulman, effectively low-key in the manner of Vin Scully. Buck belongs to the bombastic announcer style of Yankee announcers Michael Kay and John Sterling, rooting for their team to win and trying to impress with their questionable assertions. The best post-season announcing team only did one game, a White Sox/Astros game for the MLB network: Bob Costas, Buck Showalter and Jim Kaat, with much intelligent analysis and the ability to sometimes be quiet and let the game speak for itself.
Incidentally it was a pleasure to see how well catcher Travis d'Arnaud played for the Braves in this World Series, batting .292 and doing a superb job of handling the pitchers. d'Arnaud is part of a long line of former Mets, including Nolan Ryan, who were traded or discarded by the Mets and had impressive careers thereafter.
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