Have the Dodgers broken baseball?
“The Dodgers have just won their third World Series in the past six years. They’ve made it to baseball’s final stage five out of the past nine seasons. They haven’t missed the playoffs since 2012. They are baseball’s richest team, stocked with many of the best and most expensive players. It would be easy to conclude, as many have, that they’ve broken baseball’s competitive balance. Except that we just witnessed the most competitive World Series in history—a series so tight and exciting and unpredictable that it could barely be contained by seven games. For Toronto, it was a heartbreaking defeat. But the Blue Jays did something extraordinary, and they seemed to do it for each other. They were the most likable team I’ve ever seen. The Dodgers, likewise, demonstrated a level of depth and cohesion that went beyond numbers. There was so much joy and determination on display during these playoffs. This isn’t what baseball looks like when it’s broken. It’s what it looks like when it’s fixed.”
— Louisa Thomas, a staff writer whose weekly column publishes on Sundays. Revisit her piece on how Shohei Ohtani and his team are a sight to behold »
Daily Cartoon
“He got my vote when my in-laws threatened to leave the city if he wins.”
Cartoon by Guy Richards Smit
Fun & Games Dept.
Today, The New Yorker launched a new daily word game, Shuffalo. It’s an anagramming challenge with a twist: your goal is to unscramble a set of letters to make a word—but every time you do, an additional letter gets added to the set. As you play, the words get longer and the game gets tougher, culminating in an eight-letter scramble.
To learn more about Shuffalo, check out this video tutorial featuring the comedian Kate Berlant. Then try it yourself—and challenge a friend, a co-worker, or anyone who L-O-V-E-S a good S-O-L-V-E.
More Fun & Games
P.S. The President hosted a “Great Gatsby”-themed Halloween party this weekend in Florida, the night before SNAP benefits were set to lapse for millions of Americans. The event’s tagline, “A little party never killed nobody,” was a reference to the 2013 film adaptation of the novel. Joshua Rothman called that movie “lurid, shallow, glamorous, trashy, tasteless, seductive, sentimental, aloof, and artificial.”
Hannah Jocelyn contributed to today’s edition.
