Editor's Note: Welcome to our monthly roundtable. With the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays underway — the Fall Classic's first trip to Canada in a generation — our sports editor convened the thread mid-series. We are also delighted to welcome two new staff writers, Patrick Kim and David Lee, to their first table. Lightly edited for length and clarity.
Yonghyuk Choi
Okay. Emergency mid-series table.
Dodgers–Blue Jays. The most expensive roster ever assembled versus an entire country in a trench coat. Canada hasn't hosted a World Series since Joe Carter.
So, table: what's the real story here? The superteam or the nation?
Minwoo Jung
The nation, and it is not particularly close. Observe what a World Series in Toronto accomplishes: a border becomes a narrative. A country of forty million faces the hegemon on the one field where the terms are exactly equal — nine innings, identical rules.
There are Canadians watching this series who could not have named three Blue Jays in April. That is not a sports phenomenon. That is a political one.
Anthony Min
Counterpoint. The superteam is the story, because the superteam is the business model.
The Dodgers converted financial scale into roster depth. Then into global reach. Ohtani is not a player at this point. He is a market with a batting stance.
Patrick Kim
First thread, so let me disclose my credentials: I come to baseball as a culture writer, not a box-score guy.
What fascinates me is that this series is a monoculture event. I literally just published the monoculture's obituary and here it is, doing a farewell tour. Two countries synchronizing their evenings. Strangers in elevators with bullpen opinions.
Which is to say: Anthony, real question. Can you buy that? Because the Dodgers kind of tried.
Anthony Min
You can buy the team. You can't buy the evening. The evening requires close games. No line item for that.
Yonghyuk Choi
And they HAVE been close. This series has aged every manager involved a decade.
But here's the uncomfortable one. Is a team this good good for baseball? The old worry: when payroll predicts October, thirty fanbases become five.
The counter: dynasties create villains, villains create ratings. Everyone outside LA has a rooting interest tonight, and it's wearing a maple leaf.
David Lee
Rookie observation from the other new guy. People are talking about the time zones as much as the teams.
Games ending after midnight on the East Coast. Kids asleep by the seventh inning. If the sport's future is new fans, it's strange to schedule your biggest nights for when they can't watch.
Every league says it wants the next generation. The broadcast windows say something else.
Minwoo Jung
The realist's rule, David: watch what an institution does, never what it says. You will find the principle travels well beyond baseball.
Yonghyuk Choi
Spoken like our Editor-in-Chief. Okay — predictions. On the record, so December can humiliate us properly.
Me first. Seven games. The Dodgers have more ways to win, but Toronto has the one thing analytics can't price — a building that shakes. Give me the shaking building.
Anthony Min
Dodgers. Depth beats destiny over seven games. It usually does.
Minwoo Jung
Toronto. Occasionally the story is simply too good, and history has a documented weakness for good stories.
Patrick Kim
I predict the deciding game becomes a where-were-you night. Yes, that's a coward's answer. It's my first week; I'm pacing myself.
David Lee
Whoever loses, that city is unbearable for exactly one winter and then fine. You could set a meter by it.
Closing statements
Yonghyuk Choi
A World Series two countries refuse to sleep through is the best ad baseball has run in years. Whoever lifts the trophy.
Anthony Min
The Dodgers treat championships as a product line. Impressive. Slightly chilling. Coming soon to a sport near you.
Minwoo Jung
Nations are granted very few safe places in which to feel like nations; a ballpark in Toronto in late October is one of them.
Patrick Kim
Shared evenings are the rarest commodity in culture now, and this series is manufacturing them nightly.
David Lee
Somewhere a ten-year-old is hiding a radio under the blanket for the tenth inning. That kid is the whole future. Schedule for her.
What do you think? Is a superteam era good for baseball, or bad for it? Let us know in the comments below.
