Few fans to cheer Dodgers vs. Rays
ARLINGTON, Texas — A World Series like no other opens Tuesday night with Clayton Kershaw’s Los Angeles Dodgers pursuing redemption, Kevin Kiermaier’s Tampa Bay Rays seeking acclaim and Major League Baseball relieved just to reach the championship of the pandemic-delayed season.
Buzz figures to be dampened, with attendance down to about 11,000 in the smallest crowd for a World Series game since roughly 1909.
The entire World Series will be played on artificial
turf for the first time since 1993, at new $1.2 billion Globe Life Field, home of a Texas Rangers team eliminated on Sept. 20.
Los Angeles, baseball’s biggest spender, is back in the World Series for the third time in four years as it seeks its first title since 1988.
“I don’t know if you watched Game 7 [Sunday] night, but it sure felt like postseason to me,” Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner said Monday, after the Dodgers rallied to beat Atlanta 4-3 at Globe Life for the NL pennant. “The back and forth, the momentum shifts, big plays, big swings, big pitches, that was as much of a playoff feel as I’ve ever experienced.”
Tampa Bay, among the major leagues’ poorest draws and lowest-salaried rosters, made it this far only once before and lost to Philadelphia in 2008
While the Rays beat Houston for the AL pennant on Saturday night in San Diego, they had to wait until Monday to travel, allowing the Braves to vacate space in the Dallas at Las Colinas — Four Seasons.
“We’ll be able to get out there [Monday night], get a feel for the surroundings of the field and how the ball bounces,” Rays outfielder Austin Meadows said. “I’m excited for there to be fans. It’s been a long time coming.”
The winner will give its city a 2-1 advantage in major U.S. sports league titles during the coronavirus pandemic after championships by the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning on Sept. 28 and the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 11.
Both teams reflect the imprint of Andrew Friedman, the Rays’ general manager from 2005-14 and the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations since.
“Some of my best friends in life are there ,” the 43-year old Friedman said. “We joked when I left that we would meet in the World Series someday. To have it happen is surreal.”
After regular-season attendance dropped from 68.5 million to 0 and the first two rounds of an expanded postseason also were played without fans, Major League Baseball sold about 28% capacity for the NL Championship Series, which averaged 10,835 for the seven games at 40,518-capacity Globe Life Field. The Rays arrived in Dallas on Monday after playing the AL division series and AL Championship Series at empty Petco Park in San Diego.
Still, it was an accomplishment for MLB after a regular season in which 45 games were postponed for covid-19-related reasons, but just two were not made up. Rookie outfielder Randy Arozarena, the Cuban defector who led the Rays’ offense with seven homers in the playoffs, missed the first month of the shortened season after contracting the virus and didn’t play his first game until Aug. 30.
Kershaw, a 32-year-old lefthander with three Cy Young Awards and an MVP trophy, is 175-76 in the regular season but 11-12 in the postseason, including 1-2 in the World Series. He has been slowed this month by a recurrence of back spasms.
Tampa Bay starts Tyler Glasnow, a 27-year-old righty whose fastball averages 97.5 mph and who grew up in California admiring Kershaw. It will be the Rays’ first game in front of fans since spring training was interrupted on March 12 and close to the end of a lengthy bubble existence.
Glasnow and his teammates are looking forward to the end of the Series, when he can go to a bar or sit at a restaurant.
“Hugging someone or seeing family,” he said. “Just being able to be a normal person again.”
This will be the first World Series entirely at one ballpark since 1944 between the Cardinals and Browns at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis — and the fourth overall. The Yankees and Giants shared New York’s Polo Grounds in 1921 and 1922.
Los Angeles had a $95.6 million payroll on Aug. 1, according to figures compiled by MLB. Tampa Bay was 28th at $28.9 million, ahead of only Baltimore and Pittsburgh. The Rays eliminated the Yankees ($83.7 million) and Houston ($81.4 million) during the AL playoffs.
“Regardless of payroll, we know we can compete with anybody,” Meadows said.
Added Friedman: “Payrolls don’t decide the standings. We see evidence of that every year.”
Tampa Bay is known best for innovative thinking and hard-nosed players.
“They didn’t make it to the World Series on accident,” Dodgers star Mookie Betts said. “It’s not going to be easy by any means.”