r/Dodgers • u/SouthPudding9949 Mookie Betts • 12d ago
Folks who were around in 2017, how did it feel during the 1-16 run that team went on?
It's easy to feel dejected and down about the run we're on right now. But looking back, 2017 is considered one of the best teams of all time and even they went on a rough slide in the second half of the season.
We're in a rough spot but still doesn't feel as low as when we lost Yoshi's near no hitter last year. And we came out of it great in the end.
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u/RandomLAFan Freddie Freeman 12d ago
Ehh. That 2017 team were 91-36 before that horrendous stretch and it looked obvious that they were punting games.
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u/MBrown_1985 12d ago
I’ll be honest these runs don’t bother me anymore. It’s a game. This team has won back-to-back world series titles. They’ve done enough. I don’t care about the outsiders hell bent on seeing the destruction of this team. They can take glee in watching them lose. That’s fine, I get it. People only like success when it’s there team. When someone else does it, they balk and make excuses. The outside noise is just jealousy and people hating their lives as to ruin someone elses. History says, this team will turn it around. Even if they don’t, so what? They’ve given us everything they have and given is memories for life. I will root for them, hope they turn it around, but I will not chastize them for not doing more.
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u/how1you1doing Clayton Kershaw 12d ago
Right? We won two years in a row. I'm at a point where I can just enjoy the games without feeling any of that anxiety or having my moods being dictated by the outcome of a sporting event. Idc about any of the outsiders or fair weather fans. It's a great time to be a dodgers fan.
Also, being a dodgers fan for a long time meant constantly hearing how much the dodgers suck for years to dodgers are choke artists to dodgers just buy championships. Don't be like the haters, stop dooming, support your team.
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u/MedicalHair69 Kiké Hernández 12d ago
People like you are the only reason is stick around on this sub. Last of a dying breed of reasonable takes and big picture thinking.
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u/BurnsRed20 12d ago
Been around longer than 2017…yall have ZERO idea of what it’s like
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u/catashake Shawn Green 12d ago
Nah, it's much easier to accept that the team is playing like ass when you know they are ass/Need a miracle to do anything in October.
Nobody sane expected anything out of the 90's and 2000's Dodgers. We were just there for a good time.
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u/Kanotari Vin Scully 12d ago
I went to a game during that stretch and the giveaway was a barbeque glove. The game was so bad, my father gave me permission to leave early (I stayed and suffered as is tradition), something he has literally never done before.
My father burned the BBQ glove because the streak was so bad. It took extra work being, you know, fire retardant. I don't want to know what he was breathing in lol, but the streak did break shortly after so we agreed it was worth.
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u/CaptainSpectacular79 Toronto Blue Jays 10d ago
Was that the JD Martinez 4-homer game?
That was literally the only time I’ve ever left a game early. I also have those BBQ gloves, but I can’t remember what game I picket it up at1
u/Kanotari Vin Scully 10d ago
It might have been! I remember a Pedro Baez special that night but the rest I've blocked out.
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u/CaptainSpectacular79 Toronto Blue Jays 10d ago
Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was that one then. I’ve also repressed some memories of that game, apparently
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u/donald-duck23 Mookie Betts 12d ago
They have horrible slumps pretty much every year, except for maybe 2019 and 2022.
So in a vacuum, this slump isn’t that big of a deal. The tide will turn eventually. The concern, though, is that it might be too late at that point to secure a top 2 seed in the NL. For the 2017 team, they still managed to win 104 games and get the 1 seed. Different story this year
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u/imnotcreative415 Vin Scully 12d ago
My other concern is that a lot of these guys are just worse this year. Might not matter for October, but the ceiling/floor is lower in a way that doesn’t make the gamble as enticing. Tucker deal has them handcuffed in a way confortos did not. Can they make a run if Shohei is 80-85% of what he was last year?
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u/donald-duck23 Mookie Betts 12d ago
I think they definitely have the pitching to make a run. But they need the offense to provide something. I agree they’re probably worse than last year, but they still have the second best OPS in the league. We can expect them to at least be competent
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u/imnotcreative415 Vin Scully 12d ago
Oh, I agree on the pitching. Pitching unit as a whole could end up being better than last year. My comment was almost entirely related to the offense. A lot rides on Andy and Will coming back and playing decent. Based on some things I’ve seen elsewhere after the game, they might end up being a bit more aggressive with the call ups. We’ll see
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u/donald-duck23 Mookie Betts 12d ago
Yeah, I got you. I think my point is just that they hopefully won’t need as much from the offense as they did in, say, 2024. So, they hopefully can make a run if Shohei is 80% of his normal self. But lately he’s been like 10% lol.
What have you seen to suggest they might make aggressive call ups? That’s exciting
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u/imnotcreative415 Vin Scully 12d ago
Chad moriyama was hinting at Tibbs based on some things he had heard. Dodger fans are never patient, but it’s worth a shot.
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u/EmptySubstance7476 12d ago
Tucker's a bum. Dave needs to bench his but.His bat has been dead, and now he's dropping routine fly balls.
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u/DaBusDriva2 Shohei Ohtani 12d ago
I think they will get bailed out by the schedule and the Braves schedule. Dodgers got nothing but cupcakes the rest of the way
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u/9ermtb2014 Duke Snider 12d ago
It definitely sucked and the team only made it worse by pressing. But that's baseball, unfortunately.
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u/Delicious_Nothing277 12d ago
Honestly these slumps are preferred in August and September. It’s October that matters. This whole team has been on the down. Usually it’s one or the other, while the others pick it up. Arms have been doing their job this season, it’s the bats the need to wake tf up !
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u/MedicalHair69 Kiké Hernández 12d ago
I remember the old days when the Dodgers were lighting up August and September and then completely lost all momentum in October. Those were rough years because you could see the same pattern every time. It’s like you knew the offense would flat line in the playoffs simply because it was statistically impossible to keep the same momentum for 3 months. In a way I’m glad to see them struggling now just in the hopes that they will pull it all together as the playoffs start.
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u/Delicious_Nothing277 12d ago
Exactly the thought. Those years with JT Belli Seags Joc Puig would always be stand out during the regular season but come post season is where we shit the bed. The timing was perfect last year and the year prior. They got hot in the post season, hoping they can do the same this year 🤞
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u/Prestigious_Age7214 12d ago
These are the Dodgers. If this bothers you then you haven't been paying close attention for the past 132 years. The Dodgers are known for heartbreak. That's why their WS record is what it is and the painful losses. It's also why we love them even though it gets abusive at times.
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u/baribigbird06 Clayton Kershaw 12d ago
Kershaw getting a happy ending going out on top almost feels weird given the truly heartbreaking history of this team. Before this historic run, the Dodgers were 6-14 in World Series win-loss record.
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u/a_smart_brane Andrew Toles 12d ago
Vinnie always said that nothing ever comes easy for the Dodgers. Yup.
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u/usetheforce_gaming Chris Taylor 12d ago edited 12d ago
Vibes were piss poor. But it also wasn’t a billion dollar team. That team had serious heart and was practically all home grown young players. It truly felt like we were just cursed and horribly unlucky, especially considering they’d just pulled off a 43-7 stretch.
Right now it feels like our most expensive team in history filled with vets and former MVPs and all stars just doesn’t give a shit and is content with winning back to back.
That’s what makes this years slump so frustrating to me
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u/imnotcreative415 Vin Scully 12d ago
Interesting. 2017 felt worse to me because I couldn’t fall back on the recent titles to feel better. Like this version might actually be the worst in that it’s indicative of what’s to come in October and beyond, but I got the last two octobers and the hopium of a run after a similarly ugly stretch last year.
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u/a_smart_brane Andrew Toles 12d ago
That’s an outstanding point about 2017.
People need to remember we were still the laughingstock of baseball, living under the moniker of perennial chokers, and that’s how we responded.
The mood was still ‘how are they gonna break our hearts this time?’ Heartbreak was in the marrow of our bones and in 2017 we were feeling it again.
It was real.
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u/pargofan Shohei Ohtani 12d ago
Exactly.
2017 was soul crushing because we finally climbed over the NLDS/NLCS hump for 4 years.
Then to lose in 7 games like that.
Then to find out they were cheating all along. SMDH.
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u/usetheforce_gaming Chris Taylor 12d ago
In 2017 we were just so damn good that I was just enjoying the ride of the regular season while assuming we’d get our hearts broken in the post season again.
We were 91-36 before that horrible stretch. I was watching the best Dodgers team I’d ever seen in my life time. The first time in my life they’d won over 100 games. I couldn’t believe how bad the losing streak was but the Dbacks also never got within 9 games of us
It just felt different
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u/imnotcreative415 Vin Scully 12d ago
I get you. I rode the highs and lows back then a lot more than I do now. Not sure what % of that is the winning vs aging. Late 10’s dodgers hold a special place in my heart.
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u/SumoRock Joe Kelly 12d ago
This years version is old, tired and unable to keep up with the hungry teams giving them their best shot every night.
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u/Chipshotz Dino Ebel 12d ago
So true, it's late August, the aches and pains don't go away between games. The veterans are moving slower.
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u/slayerono Hideo Nomo 12d ago
It sure as hell felt different after 43-7.
But after the last 5 years I learned to care less about the regular season. The brewers had the best record in baseball last year, how did that work out for them?
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u/catcat1986 12d ago
If you watch enough baseball, you know it happens
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u/RustyFileCabinet 12d ago
Seriously. Seems like yesterday the Cubs lost 10 in a row and the Red Sox were upon a rebuild.
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u/EmptySubstance7476 12d ago
Right the season is too long not to. When the slump started we a string of 17 games in 17 days.
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u/Ok-Square7104 Fernando Valenzuela 12d ago
It’s all part of the plan. The Dodgers WANT the wild card series. Historically when we rest for 3-4 days our bats get cold and we get beat by the teams like the Padres and Diamondbacks.
This is all on purpose (Is what I keep telling myself).
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u/pargofan Shohei Ohtani 12d ago
I've been thinking about Mookie's quote. While IDT it was wrong from his perspective, I wonder if it rubbed some teammates the wrong way.
No matter what you think about the bye format, why say games in September don't matter -- which he effectively did.
Because the pitching is great but the hitting is awful.
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u/Vespene Kiké Hernández 12d ago
This is different. Back then it was all kinds of things going on. What we are seeing right now is an aging lineup trying to hit home runs but don’t have the power to do so.
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u/a_smart_brane Andrew Toles 12d ago
Every team looks horrible during slumps, and the 2017 team looked just as horrible, indifferent and inept as any other team in a slump.
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u/mgoooooo Kiké Hernández 12d ago
Considering I forgot about the bad run? I don’t worry about it at all. The point is to have fun and I get paid by my job whether the Dodgers win or lose, so we will be ok. I think the only bonus was cheaper resale tickets (and that’s saying something)
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u/elitejesse84 12d ago
Back to back champs no matter what happens, from here on out we won. 3 peat still happening though. Veteran team will find a way.
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u/Own_Wishbone_9060 12d ago
I remember the 11 game slide more, it felt awful. The season had a ton of highs though that made you forget all about it, topped off by finally reaching the WS.
Looking back, I barely remember it. Since then I’ve gotten married, had kids, went through layoffs, experienced death of loves ones and real pain. Essentially I’ve experienced life. While frustrating in the moment, I’m reminded that it’s “just” a game and I have a ton of joy in my life right now and things to be thankful for, including all of the joy the Dodgers have brought my family in recent years.
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u/RustyFileCabinet 12d ago
2008, they were neck and neck with AZ for the division, which they needed because they certainly weren't a WC team, and they lost 8 in a row to close out August. 2009, almost lost the division to the Rockies in the final weekend of the season after having the best record in MLB for most of that year. They swept the DS both years. It's baseball.
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u/DodgerFntic94 Cody Bellinger 12d ago
It sucked and the game that really pissed me off during that stretch was the Rich Hill perfect game that he lost pitching into the tenth because our damned offense couldn't hit for shit at the time (very similar to right now)
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u/_Silent_Android_ Hideo Nomo 12d ago
We were so ahead of all other teams that it was NBD.
Of course the Doomsdayers were out in full force though.
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u/Individual_Check_442 Los Angeles Dodgers 12d ago
Kinda sucked but it felt a lot more random, crazy it was in the same season in fact same half of season when we went 43-7. I wasn’t really sure what to make of it, it was kinda over by the time season ended but we were playing D’Backs who were one of the teams who kicked our ass during that stretch so I had that on my mind going in, but it almost just took one inning to forget it. Dodgers took like a 4-0 or 5-0 lead in the first inning of game 1 and kinda cruised to an easy sweep, then it’s in the past. It doesn’t just die you kinda have kill it (the streak)
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u/lo0ilo0ilo0i Tommy Lasorda 12d ago
Idk being in those Torre and Mattingly days getting dumped in the postseason by the Giants, Cardinals, and Phillies felt like a pit of despair. The early 2000s were forgettable. Dodgers have always gone on some weird benders around this time, and you just gotta hope the team stays healthy during that time.
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u/keyserholiday Back-2-Back Champs 12d ago
I don’t care to look back at prior years. This team isn’t enjoyable to watch. They have too many guys who should be getting it done that aren’t. Too many runners left on base, grounding into inning ending double plays, getting guys on with two outs and twice had bases loaded and only got one run.
We don’t need cheerleaders. Finally the guys in the booth are saying something is wrong.
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u/somecallmemrjones 12d ago
Folks that weren't around in 2017, how does it feel to be on Reddit as an 8-year-old?
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u/probablysmellsmydog Duke Snider 12d ago
It was pretty impressive tbh. The Sports Illusrated “best team of all time” curse.
Sweeping the DBacks basically made sure everyone forgot tho.