Outside The Confines: Your World Series winners

The crisp air of November is here, and with it, the final days of the baseball season. What began in February with pitchers and catchers reporting to their camps in Florida and Arizona ended in Houston, with one team who didn’t have the best record in baseball getting to declare themselves the best team in baseball.

What a weird sport this is, that we love so much, isn’t it?

On Tuesday night, following a 7-0 shutout victory, the Atlanta Braves were crowned the newest World Series champions, following an intense six-game series. They left no doubt about it in the winning game, trampling Houston’s hopes to force a Game Seven in front of the hometown crowd.

And now, with the World Series complete, hopefully we can vary the content of these posts a little.

Now, on to the links!

• Adam McCalvy looked at the three things that will decide the 2021 World Series.
• Andrew Simon and Matt Kelly look at the best Game Six games in World Series history.
• Emma Baccellieri looks at the comforting impact of Travis d’Arnaud on the Braves pitching staff this postseason.
• Jay Jaffe looks at some brilliant postseason performances from athletes with minimal overall playing time.
• Four men have been at the core of the Astros lineup through multiple postseason journeys, and this may be their last time to win together, writes Jeff Passan.
• Some interesting contenders are on the table for the potential sale of The Athletic, write Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel.
• Albert Pujols is slugging away in the Dominican League, so enjoy this postgame walk-off celebration, posted by Matt Monagan.
• According to David Adler, it has never been easier to steal a base than it has been this postseason (free tacos!)
• With Bob Melvin off to San Diego, Jake Mailhot asks the question on everyone’s mind: where do the Athletics go next?
• AP reports that the Indians logo is being removed from the Progressive Field scoreboard to make way for their offseason rebranding.
• Ken Rosenthal looks at what helped the Astros bounce back to keep things interesting in the series. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Clinton Yates looks at the combo of Braves base coaches in Ron Washington and Eric Young Sr.
• T.J. Quinn reports that a trial delay is being sought by the lawyers for former Angels employee Eric Kay.
• In what will come as no surprise, the Mets have dismissed Zack Scott two months after his DUI arrest. Reporting by Michael Shapiro.
• Ben Clemens assesses some so-so pitchers who come up huge in big postseason moments.
• It has been a World Series dominated by relief pitching, which might be something we see a lot more often in the future, writes Tyler Kepner.
• David Schoenfield looks at the way that built the Astros and Braves teams this year and their different paths to the World Series.
• No, we don’t want to think about it either, but Evan Drelich walks us through what a MLB lockout would look like. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Probably not what Steve had intended when he tweeted this...

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