The baseball world was abuzz Wednesday morning with talk of an incredible World Baseball Classic final between the United States and Japan that ended with the most storybook finish possible.
Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, teammates and arguably the two best players in the world, went head-to-head with two outs in the ninth inning of a one-score game.
When Nas said “It was Written,” this is what he meant.
Ohtani won round one, as Trout put it, striking out his buddy to seal the victory and title for Japan. Baseball as a whole also won, all thanks to those two players and that moment.
Curiously enough, the one loser in all of this is the ballclub that employees both Trout and Ohtani. The franchise in Anaheim that can’t figure out how to squeeze some winning of its own out of those two. The Los Angeles Angels, a team that should be absolutely embarrassed after seeing the theater its stars provided for everyone else on Tuesday.
At one point during the broadcast, play-by-play man Joe Davis mentioned how fans were finally getting a glimpse of Trout in a big game. And he was right.
In 12 big-league seasons, Trout has exactly one playoff appearance and three playoff games to his name. We’d literally never seen one of the sport’s all-time great players in a game with stakes that high.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that the Angels were wasting his career by not building a good enough team around him, they landed another all-time great player in Ohtani. A player literally changing how the sport is played with his ability to hit and pitch and do both at MVP levels. And all the Angels have done in five seasons with those two players who just created one of the best moments in baseball history is compile a losing record every year.
Their 40-1 title odds for this upcoming MLB season are tied for 14th. They only have the third-best odds to win their own division.
It’s been said before, but it’s especially true now, the Angels should be ashamed. What we witnessed Tuesday – those players in those high-leverage moments – is something they owe to their fanbase. If the Angels can’t figure out how to win with Trout and Ohtani soon, I promise you another team will come with a big bag of money for Ohtani to show them how it’s done.
