The Historic 2017 Baseball Season Comes to an End

As the 2017 MLB playoffs begin, many are getting excited to support their teams through the postseason, but before we look ahead to this year’s potential champs, let’s take the chance to review some of the highlights of the regular season.

First of all; Aaron Judge. The superstar rookie stole the spotlight this year with his bat, hitting 50 home runs to beat Mark McGwire’s record for home runs as a rookie. He also claimed ownership over the 2017 records for the longest home run at 495 feet and the hardest hit at 121.1 miles per hour. At the rate he’s going, this Yankees rookie is definitely going to be one to watch for future seasons.

Speaking of home runs, 2017 power hitters like Judge and the Miami Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton brought in 5,694 dingers to beat the previous record for total MLB home runs in a single year with two weeks left of the regular season.

Yet another remarkable occurrence during this season was the overwhelming success of the Indians; the team from Cleveland burst into a 22 game winning streak stretching into mid September, and hopes to carry their success into the postseason as they fight for the league championship in the World Series.

Impressive as the Cleveland streak may be, the Minnesota Twins proved that you don’t have to have the longest streak to be a contender. Hailing from the twin cities, this group made history as the first team to go into the playoffs the year following a 100+ loss season.

The 2017 season was full of record breakers and definitely isn’t one to be soon forgotten, though it’s not quite over yet. As the baseball fanatics among us hang  onto every last minute of the game before it ends for the year, it’s time to see who could claim the title of 2017 MLB World Series Champions.

So far, both leagues have held their Wild Card Games, a one game do-or-die series during which two high performing teams compete for the final slot in the playoffs. This year’s competitors were the Colorado Rockies vs Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League while the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees played for the American League position. After 9 long innings from each side, Arizona came out victorious over Colorado and the Yankees eliminated Minnesota in a 8-4 win. And yes, Aaron Judge did hit a home run during the game.

Wild Cards aside, other teams that have a shot are the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, Washington Nationals, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

With eight teams remaining, many have been making predictions as to who has a chance to win it all. For instance, Joelle Lok (9th), Dodgers fan, gave her prediction for the turnout of her favorite team:

“I think the Dodgers have a very good chance of going all the way this year. They finally have an overall great team and I think they’ll finally get the chance to compete for the World Series title in a while.”

Whoever you choose to root for, this World Series seems destined to be one for the books. A win from either the Diamondbacks or the Yankees would only be the sixth time since the Wild Card game was introduced that a team went from playing in the Wild Card game to winning the World Series. If the Cubs were to win it all, those players would join ones from only 7 teams who have ever won back to back World Series. One of the favorites this year, the Cleveland Indians currently have the longest World Series drought, dating back to 1948, that they have a shot at ending. The Houston Astros, though they haven’t received as much attention, are coming out of three 100 loss seasons in recent years and the team has never won a championship title. Similarly, the Nationals have never won a World Series, though their having only existed since 2005 means a lot of history has yet to be made with this team.  The Dodgers are also eager to get out of a drought, as they haven’t won it all since 1988, though they’ve made 9 postseason appearances since then.

Whichever jersey you decide to wear this October, the 2017 postseason promises to be a good one, and a fitting finale to the record smashing season this year saw.