I guess I'll have to take down my sign: 

THE WORLD SERIES: YANKEE-FREE SINCE 2009

They were so close to breaking their own record, too! No one's talking about that. Since they acquired Babe Ruth in 1920 and made the World Series for the first time in 1921, and then became the most successful, insufferable and loathed team on the planet, the New York Yankees have had the following gaps in terms of pennants:

• 2 seasons (1924-25)
• 3 seasons (1929-31)
• 3 seasons (1933-35)
• 1 season (1940)
• 3 seasons (1944-46)
• 1 season (1948)
• 1 season (1954)
• 1 season (1959)
• 11 seasons (1965-1975)
• 2 seasons (1979-80)
• 14 seasons (1982-1995)
• 1 season (1997)
• 1 season (2002)
• 5 seasons (2004-2008)
• 14 seasons (2010-2023)

Another season and they would've broken their own post-Babe Ruth record for futility!

Although ... maybe they did? Shouldn't the 1982-95 dearth eliminate '94 since no World Series was played? In which case, that era went pennantless for 13 seasons, and the Hal Steinbrenner group did 14. We have a new WEINER! And it's pinstriped!

This is the match-up the networks wanted, and some fans wanted, but it's not what I or Michael Schur wanted. The Yankees won their 41st pennant, the Dodgers their 22nd—and the Dodgers are second in all of Major League Baseball. That's how much the Yankees are ahead of everyone.

Actually this is how much the Yankees are ahead of everyone. The Dodgers have a chance to win their eighth World Series title, which would tie them with the Giants for fifth all-time, behind: the Red Sox and A's (nine each), the Cardinals (11), and the Yankees ... who have 27. Twenty-seven. Nearly three times as many as the second-place team. Rooting for them is like rooting for Jeff Bezos to get a tax cut.

Anyway, I'll be rooting for Shohei and the LA Dodgers, and hoping that my new sign, “THE WORLD SERIES: YANKEE-FREE SINCE 2024,” will have a long, long, long life.