Despite the Moans, a Good Year

As Miami exploded in a World Series victory celebration minutes after midnight Sunday, young Jaret Wright surveyed the scene from the bench of the Cleveland Indians. In this season of improbabilities, he had pitched earlier that night in game seven, a mere three years out of Katella High School in Anaheim. Somehow, he seemed to have it all in perspective, even in the chaotic, losing moment: “It was fun. . . . It was a great experience.”

This season gave us quite a ride, and it found the grand old game itself in transition. Some of the changes are wonderful, expanding the base of the game and appealing to a wider group of fans. For example, we need to look no further than the postgame scene to see the influence of the stream of players arriving from abroad in recent years. Meanwhile, 1997 brought us interleague play for the first time, providing head-to-head meetings between the Dodgers and the Angels and, in New York, the Yankees and the Mets.

Baseball is a game that we associate not so much with change as with reassuring habits and tradition. So experimentation is not always welcome. The unnerving prospect of league realignment was under discussion as the season wound down. Also, the possibility of further expansion already has caused critical speculation about dilution of thin pitching talent.

The series itself showed what made-for-television tinkering has done to an American institution. Even casual viewers were wondering why a summer game was being played on 38-degree nights.

But despite premature predictions of the game’s demise, it was a good season after all. Baseball showed its sturdy adaptability, and its renewable capacity to provide good fun.