By Peter Valentino

Last year, I wrote an article on how great the 2016 World Series was and where it ranked in history. I talked about how television ratings doubled compared to the 2015 World Series, going from an average of 14 million viewers to 22 million viewers. This year, the average number of viewers was 18 million viewers, which is decent considering it had two of the four biggest markets in the country and it wasn’t the Cubs ending their drought. This World Series was defined by the long ball, as it had a record 25 home runs (a record that was broken by Game 5). Aside from the “duds” in the final two games, the series was incredibly entertaining because of all the home runs. Games 2 and 5 were considered some of the best World Series games of all time, but where does this entire series go in terms of all World Series?

This World Series had its share of controversy as well, especially from Yuli Gurriel and Dallas Keuchel. First, Gurriel made the slant-eye gesture after hitting a home run off Yu Darvish in Game 3, which was a situation that the two players eventually handled pretty well. Gurriel was apologetic, while Darvish did not want to incite anything between the two teams and attempted to quell the situation. MLB gave Gurriel a five-game suspension that starts at the beginning of next season, which drew ire from people who thought he should have missed games in the World Series. Dallas Keuchel said after game two that the balls were “juiced,” or manipulated in a way to make the ball travel farther, meaning more home runs. Admittedly, the weather was hot in LA for the first two games and players aim for home runs in almost every at bat, but there probably is something going on with the baseballs. There’s no proof, but a lot of pitchers have said that the balls do feel different.

Regardless of controversy, this series has its place in history. It’s probably in the top 10 because of its fun games like Game 2 and 5, but I can’t put it in the top five. 1997, 1991, 1986, 2016 and 2011 would probably be my top five in no particular order, with 1912, 1924 and 1961 also going ahead of it off of the fact that it was a walk-off in extra innings, regardless of the fact that no millennial remembers them. This World Series had two incredible games that should be remembered and had a plethora of stars, but overall, the World Series wasn’t better than the aforementioned fall classics. Maybe in a few years, if the Astros become a dynasty, this will be the World Series that started it all. It will also be interesting to see how this affects Clayton Kershaw, a man who has won everything but a World Series. He’s a future Hall of Famer anyway, but he’s gunning for the greatest pitcher of all time. Will this be the only chance he gets at the title? And how much longer will this Astros lineup be together? Time will tell how this World Series is remembered.