Here We Go Again: The Dodgers' Tiresome Return to the World Series

When Dominance Becomes Predictability

⚾ Baseball • October 17, 2025

Published | Sports Commentary

The Los Angeles Dodgers are heading to the World Series again. If you're reading this and feeling a familiar sense of déjà vu, you're not alone. The Dodgers' seemingly annual appearance on baseball's biggest stage has begun to feel less like an accomplishment worth celebrating and more like a foregone conclusion—a narrative beat we've all seen before, played out with depressing predictability.

Don't misunderstand: the Dodgers are undeniably talented. Their organizational depth, financial resources, and managerial acumen are the envy of most franchises. But that's precisely the problem. Their consistency has drained the excitement from their success. Where is the underdog story? Where is the drama? When a team reaches the World Series as frequently as the Dodgers have in recent years, it ceases to feel special.

                 Baseball thrives on unpredictability. The sport's greatest narrative moments come from teams that defy expectations—the wild card underdogs, the perennial also-rans that finally break through, the never-been-done-before achievements. The Dodgers have become the opposite of this.
             

Consider the broader impact on baseball fandom. How many casual fans outside of Los Angeles were genuinely excited to see the Dodgers in the postseason? How many sports bars paused their usual programming, eyes glued to the screen? For Dodgers fans, sure—but for neutral observers, the reaction ranges from mild interest to outright indifference. When you know what's probably coming, the journey loses its luster.

The relentless advantage the Dodgers maintain through superior payroll and infrastructure has created an imbalance that, while legal and technically deserved, has made them feel more like an exhibition squad playing against lesser competition than a team fighting for supremacy. They're not overcoming adversity; they're steamrolling it with financial and operational superiority.

Yes, they still have to win the World Series itself, and that's not guaranteed. But even that caveat feels thin. The Dodgers have now become what many fans hoped they'd never be: predictable. And in a sport built on the unexpected, that might be the greatest sin of all.

So here's to another October with the Dodgers. We all know they'll be competitive, likely fantastic. But we also know we've seen this movie before. And frankly, the box office appeal has worn thin.