The Los Angeles Dodgers were huffing and puffing their collective chest in the aftermath of winning the 2024 World Series against the New York Yankees in five games. It was quite the breakthrough for a Dodgers team that's been at the center of some very devastating postseason heartbreak over the past few seasons, and their smack talk towards the Yankees, while reeking of arrogance, was very much earned.
Nonetheless, former Yankees utility man and speedster, Jon Berti, didn't take too kindly to all the things the Dodgers were saying regarding the team in pinstripes, as they made it seem as though the gulf in quality between the two teams was so huge that they didn't belong on the same field.
“I don't know if I've ever heard a World Series-winning team talk as badly as they did about the World Series-losing team,” Berti said in an appearance on the Foul Territory podcast. “It felt like we were being disrespected to the point of we didn't even belong in the World Series.”
There were quite a few blunders that the Yankees made that turned the series on its head and made it look more lopsided than it was. Their decision to bring Nestor Cortes in to face Freddie Freeman was an inexcusable blunder that the Dodgers star immediately made them regret, while they had a few lapses in Game 5 that ultimately led to their demise in excruciating fashion.
But Berti wants to make one thing clear: the Yankees earned the right to play at the grandest stage of baseball, winning 94 games which was enough to earn them the AL East crown, and they could only play the opponent in front of them, so it's not like anyone could discredit the fact that they “only” had to beat the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians on their way to the Fall Classic.
“We won a lot of games last year. We won our division. We went and took care of Kansas City and took care of Cleveland. So we deserved to be there, unfortunately we didn't perform at our best,” Berti added.
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