Outside The Confines: More baseball, please!

Happy Friday BCBers!

We took a day off from baseball yesterday for a no-travel-travel-day but now the Dodgers and Rays are back at it again for the next three days (and then a potential two days next week if the series is not settled by Sunday, and I think we’re all hoping to have as much baseball as possible this month).

In the first two games of the series we saw a lot of the best of what both teams can offer with dazzling displays of offense and defense, and incredible pitching, and some insane catches.

It’s a truly delightful experience to watch some amazing baseball before the end of the shortened season.

Now on to the links!

• Yadier Molina thinks there’s a Gold Glove conspiracy against him, but Matt Snyder points out why that isn’t true this year.
• The Dodgers are hoping to have fan experience and team revenue back to “normal” by 2022, writes Bill Shaikin.
• Daniel Brown shares how the loss of so many Hall of Famers has impacted Jeff Idelson of the Hall of Fame. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• W.M. Akers brings us the incredible true story of how Tom “Shotgun” Rogers killed one of his former teammates with a fastball.
• Stephanie Apstein talks about how Mookie Betts might prove to be a bargain for the Dodgers.
• The Nationals get to keep over $200 million in their TV rights case, writes Peter Hayes.
• Alex Rodriguez is making bold claims about how he would have raised the Mets payroll if he’d been able to purchase the team, shares Alex Smith.
• Clay Kershaw shakes off his postseason narrative with a strong showing in Game One of the World Series. Story by Jay Jaffe.
• Evan Drelich looks into new how much Jeff Luhnow knew about the sign-stealing scandal. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Andre Dawson is the first winner of the newest MLBPA award named for Curt Flood.

• Sam Miller and David Schoenfield chat about takeaways from the first games of the World Series.
• Dave Stewart talks about how pitching has changed since his era in a spotlight by CC Sabathia and Ryan Ruocco.
• Before Mookie Betts became a mega star he was almost a Brewer, writes Adam Berry and Adam McCalvy.
• Jayson Stark brings the weird and wild from World Series Game Two. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Michael Baumann explains that if the World Series comes down to a battle of the bullpens, the Dodgers might be in trouble.
• Buster Olney brings us the 10 best postseason performances in World Series history.
• Kevin Cash and Terry Francona have a long history of trading playful barbs, writes Stephanie Apstein.
• The Dodgers can’t seem to decide which of their young starters should actually, you know, start. Story by Pedro Moura. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Michael Clair asks the deeply important questions like “What was up with Justin Turner’s jersey stain.”
• This is just a Randy Arozarena links column now.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.