Another year, another World Series celebration at Dodgers Stadium by a team that wasn’t the Dodgers.
It was almost too much to take for Los Angeles fans who watched the Boston Red Sox take the series in five games Sunday by winning 5-1, the same score of the Houston Astros’ series-clinching win a year earlier.
“It sucks a lot,” said fan Brian Beck, who sat in the stands through both the Astros’ celebrations. “It’s one of the worst experiences as a fan ever.”
The locals have now gone three decades without a World Series title, a span where other LA teams including the NBA’s Lakers and the NHL’s Kings have won multiple championships.
Dodgers fan Glenda Morales looked dejected as she walked out of the stadium with her daughter, but insisted the feeling would pass, and so would the long championship drought.
“I’m not hopeless, I’m hopeful,” Morales said. “It’ll happen.”
Fans held on to a sliver of hope when Sunday began, with Clayton Kershaw, long the Dodgers’ best pitcher and a widely beloved figure in Southern California, on the mound for Game 5.
It didn’t last long as Kershaw gave up a two-run home run in the top of the first inning, and the Red Sox took a lead they would never give back.
The stadium’s many Boston fans, including famous ones such as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, sounded as loud as a home crowd by the final innings.
Dodgers fans stood and shouted for a rally one last time in the eighth inning when down 5-1, but many headed to the exits once it ended.
Some stayed until the bitter end, and after.
“We want a full dose of disappointment to fuel our rage against the people responsible for not getting us through the series,” said Scott White.
He suggested that Mike Scioscia, a former Dodger who recently stepped down as manager of the Angels, might be brought in to turn things around.
“He needs to come back home and teach these guys how to play Dodger baseball,” White said.
White said he feared his Dodgers were turning into the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, who went to the Super Bowl for four straight years in the 1990s and came away with zero championships.
Despite the sad scene on the field, many in Dodger blue said they didn’t regret coming.
Beck said while watching the loss was one of his least favorite experiences, being at the World Series with his sons was one of his best.
Chris Ellis, a Dodgers fan who lives in Vancouver, Canada, flew down for Saturday and Sunday night’s games, both rough losses. Yet he said he had no regrets.
“We lost to the Red Sox. So we lost to the best,” Ellis said. “It’s sports. You win, you lose. But the World Series is a bucket-list thing.”
