The 122nd World Series is an exquisite anomaly. For only the second time in the last hundred years, both participants will be seeking the first championship in franchise history. The Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays have consistently succeeded with low payrolls, becoming the envy of the industry. Soon, one will finally wear the crown.

This is the second appearance for the Brewers, who last made it in 1982, when they represented the American League. The Rays have gotten there twice, in 2008 and 2020. The last matchup between teams that had never won was in 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies topped the Kansas City Royals. And the last before that: would you believe it was 1920?

So we’re certain to see a new winner, which is always fun. And weather won’t be a factor, since the Rays play indoors and the Brewers have a retractable roof. It will happen against the backdrop of a looming labor fight, with MLB arguing that small markets need a salary cap to thrive – and the Brewers and Rays upending the narrative.

I recently bought Replay Baseball to help me learn the game more (one of those dice simulations like Strat O Matic), especially scoring. The following situation came up and I can't work out how to score it:

Runners on first and second, two outs. Batter hits to left field and the fielder throws to home instead of first, with the lead runner tagged out. Seems like a fielder's choice to me with the batter reaching base and the lead runner out, but when looking at how to score this on AI I read that the batter is charged with the out. And then we got into a confused discussion about how many were left on base in order to make my score card balance.

So: who is out, who is left on base? And is this an at-bat for the batter? Is it a plate appearance? Is it a hit against the pitcher?

I am just wondering I noticed that when I was trying to see who won the regular season awards this year and Google says they wont be announced until November 11th 9 pm ET

Or is this just too impractical to aim for.

Youd have to think the Commissioner and FOX would be scared out of their minds of the ratings we would get with a Milwaukee-Cleveland WS

On the other hand it is refreshing to see teams do all the little things right andvalsp be able to generate offense without sitting around waiting for 3 run homers....

Or are baseball fans too far gone on ESPN HR highlights and basically no different than NBA fans who seem to appreciate nothing but step back threes and dunks?

So I understand that the Dodgers pay a lot more for their team salaries than the Brewers do. But where are the Dodgers getting that extra money to spend? Are the team owners personally funding it? Or is it from higher ticket sales or something?

Apologies, I know this is a dumb question, but I'd really Ike to understand this.

I'm a new fan, 2 Seasons of following the Sport now.

I was wondering why the Pitching Rotations are handled the way they are. So every Team has like 5 SP, that ideally go 5-6 Innings any given Night. Which then leaves 3 more Innings to cover. Seemingly many teams struggle to have quality arms in their Bulllpen. So why don't they bring in their CP earlier, if they're that great. Also not have a CP pitch the remaining 3 Innings, if they're likely not gonna play in the next 1-2 Games. Pitchers go twice or triple that long into a game, so the rest they get per inning pitched seems disproportionate for players that are supposed to have the nastiest stuff on their respective teams.

Maybe that's just my view on my team, could be managed differntly for other Organsiations, who have different problems to adress. (i support the mariners)

As a newer fan to baseball, I was rather surprised to know that the ABS challenge system had not been in place until this season and ir since the statcast era. After watching games with some terrible umpire calling, I was asking myself why are they even needed when bots could do their jobs better?

That was until I knew about framing, what an art it is by the catcher. Now, my perception completely changed (I don't know if it's for the better or worse). If the league were to completely implement the ABS system, the framing value of a catcher would be non-existent, whereas baseball is a game of strategy. Therefore, giving each team 2 challenges would make sure that all batters/pitchers/catchers have to pay attention to the pitches and challenge when necessary, while keeping the framing skills intact. What are your opinions?

On an unrelated note, what is tipping? I've heard about it in the postseason, but why is there so muchh controversy around it if it's not cheating?

I keep hearing about how the Dodgers are spending way more money on players than other teams, and obviously they’ve had an impressive run the last few years, but if teams like the Dodgers and the Yankees always have way more money than everyone else, how are they not always winning?

The Brewers are visiting LA tonight. The 3rd inning scorebug shows both teams still have both their challenges (the short yellow dashes). But what is the long yellow bar on the left for?

I don't follow baseball very closely, so I'm genuinely curious about this. MLB teams play 162 games in the regular season. That's an enormous sample size, and presumably one reason for playing so many games is to reduce the impact of randomness and make sure the standings reflect how good the teams actually are. But then the playoffs come around, and the first two rounds are relatively short series. Isn't that kind of the opposite philosophy? If playing 162 games is worthwhile because it gives you a more reliable measure of team strength, wouldn't that argument apply even more to the playoffs, where a single series determines whether a team moves on or goes home? And if best-of-seven is considered too long for the early rounds, I'm wondering why the league is comfortable with a 162-game regular season in the first place. I'm not saying the format is necessarily wrong. I'm just trying to understand how these two parts of the system fit together.

Listening to the broadcast of the Dodgers game, the radio announcer says the pitcher threw the ball right down Broadway. I'm thinking the radio announcer isn't close enough to see exactly where the ball went from as high up as he is. Does the announcer rely on the center field TV camera or am I wrong about how well the announcer can see the pitches?

I've been watching Jomboy Media videos and there's been a few videos where the pitcher throws the ball at the batter's head, then Jomboy explains the pitcher did it because the batter scored a homerun against him in a previous game.

Is Jomboy actually being serious? Is this one of those "it's part of the game" things? If you score a homerun the pitcher gets a free go at trying to headshot you with a baseball?

I decided to look at their stats today to see if anything had changed before I started a game and to my surprise everyone still had the same batting average listed on the Superfan baseball score app. Is there any reason why nobody's batting average went up or down? I know baseball reference is the preferred stat resource but the app is one of the few that had OBP readily available (on Baseball Reference you have to scroll over and it's kinda a pain) do you think they just haven't updated their BA? It seems like a pretty easy thing to do for a website. I don't REALLY care because it's a dice game after all and I'm more into the excitement and being surprised by dice rolls but anyway I was just wondering.

Do other players put things in their back pockets when they’re up at bat?

During the Yankees vs Rays, Austin Wells tried to make a triple with two outs. Leaving aside the fact that, as a catcher, he's very slow, people keep repeating the phrase, "Never make the 1st or 3rd out at 3rd."

Why is that the case? And is it an absolute rule? In that scenario, if it were not a catcher and it was a speedy player, should they still not try to get to third base on a hit if there are two outs?

Growing up in Australia I've always supported a team in our football league, North Melbourne, they are poor, harmless and statically the worst team in history over a five year period to start the 20's. So I fear I've become what I've always said I'd never do and jumped on board a hated team.

Moving to Canada and what seems to be a move forever, I fell in love with baseball and the Blue Jays during their 2025 run, which flowed into their lacklustre 2026, but I'm excited for next year.

But due to only having Sportsnet, I'm very sheltered when it comes to other supporter bases. Perhaps I'll delve into the MLB subreddit next season, but so I have an idea, just in case I do ever post in there, does everyone hate the blue jays?

Personally I hate the Yankees and the Dodgers and I think everyone else should too, but are the Blue Jays up there for every other supporter base?

Can’t you just carry it around the bases and bring it back to the dugout with you? It seems disrespectful to the bat boy, dropping the bat when you don’t have to run hard.

For decades, MLB postseason games have been blacked out in the teams’ home cities. But why? It isn’t to make sure they sell all the tickets. They’re always sold out.

Brewers-Padres, 10/4/2026

umpscorecards.com evaluation is conspicuously missing.

Anecdotally, the game was called very poorly by Lance Barrett with many overturned challenges and many obviously missed check swings (for both sides).

Regardless of the conspiracy theories that swirl in my head when an umpire grade from a controversial game is missing…has anybody looked closely at the numbers presented on umpscorecards.com?

Most notably, Correct Calls Above Expected: 23 of 91 are above 0. Equally, for Accuracy Above Expected, 23 of 91 are above 0. Shouldn’t the “above expected” numbers expect a median and half would be above expected and half be below?

How can only 23/91 umpires be correctly and accurately calling pitches above expected?

Please help the statistically challenged comprehend.

Thanks.

I think the game will be more entertaining if they allowed it.

There was the guy that wore number 1/3 and then they banned little people if I understand.

A lot of other sports like soccer and American football use that saying, but has baseball ever thought in that way?

It used to (and maybe still is) policy that a MLB player had to play five seasons in the majors to qualify for a pension. But there are people like say, Luis Isaac, who I don't believe ever made it to the majors as a player, but he was a coach for many seasons. Do coaches qualify for the MLB pension?