Although I am not a rabid sports fan — and in fact I maintain that society exalts athletics far too much — I can’t help taking a certain satisfaction in how the Los Angeles Dodgers met their comeuppance in grand fashion in Major League Baseball’s 2026 playoffs. Not just because I’m rather partial to the San Francisco Giants, but because the resounding defeat of the mighty Dodgers could be construed as a metaphoric triumph, a reason to hope and perhaps even (dare I say it) indulge in optimism in the face of these perilous times.
The Dodgers thought their bottomless pockets would buy them another trophy. Instead, they got clobbered in a four-game sweep by the Milwaukee Brewers. Nor was this merely a fluke; the Brewers outplayed them all year, racking up a better overall season record, and defeating L.A. in four of the seven matchups between the two teams, including three out of four that were played late into the season.
This wasn’t supposed to happen, dammit.The Dodgers’ payroll was greater than that of the other three championship playoff teams COMBINED. And in Amurrca, the big pocketbook is supposed to conquer everything, squashing the challengers like bugs.
With their gargantuan purse, the boys in blue were able to snap up every superstar that came on the market, building an invincible army of ultra-beings. This included the legendary Shohei Ohtani, who is quite possibly the greatest player in history. Or at least he’s bagged the largest contract ever, weighing in at just south of a billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a B. And they got blown away by a team with zero superstars, players who get compensated in mere millions.
Almost nobody saw this coming. Certainly not the bookmakers. The thing about the David and Goliath motif is that Goliath usually wins. Which is what makes it so surprising — and so inspiring — when David does. And here in the world of America’s Pastime, we’ve been shown a vibrant illustration, none too soon, of the fact that the rich and powerful don’t always prevail. Maybe ninety percent of the time. Hell, maybe even ninety-nine percent of the time. But not always.
It seems especially auspicious that the triumph of the Brewers over the Dodgers occurred just before a bout of midterm elections in the U.S. that are especially crucial. (Aren’t they all these days?) In recent days, American politics has turned into a puppet theatre manipulated by billionaires. Could it be that the billionaire Goliaths are about to meet their downfall too?
We’ll see. But we’ve already seen, on baseball fields in Los Angeles and Milwaukee, that such things can and do happen sometimes. Money is a very powerful, quite dominant force. But it’s not omnipotent.
