In case you don’t follow baseball, the L.A. Dodgers won the World Series Tuesday. I’m not a Dodgers fan, but, whatever. They beat the Tampa Bay Rays for the championship title, the Dodgers first such win in decades. The Rays beat the Houston Astros in the play-off series, so there may be a little residual disappointment around the World Series this year on my part. Moving on…
Dodgers fans began assembling in downtown L.A. after the 3-2 win in the Texas Rangers new ballpark in Arlington. The fans formed an impromptu parade downhill from the stadium on Sunset Boulevard. They honked and cheered from their vehicles, according to the Los Angeles Times. Some people lit fireworks, some climbed traffic lights. As the crowd became rowdy, police declared an “Unlawful Assembly” and issued a Dispersal Order. They were still trying to disperse the crowd in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
An Unlawful Assembly has been declared and a Dispersal Order has been given in the Downtown L.A. area of 8th to Pico & Broadway to Figueroa. The area has been closed.
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) October 28, 2020
Earlier in the evening, Vin Scully, the legendary broadcaster for the Dodgers, issued a message in support of a calm celebration.
“Well, the word is out. The Dodgers are world champions, and I know you want to celebrate like everybody else but let’s do it properly,” Scully said in the video. “Let’s do it the way the Dodgers did with pride in themselves and pride in our great city. Let’s show the rest of the country that we know how to celebrate the proper way. So, congratulations to the ball club. Congratulations to you, and, together, let’s celebrate the right way in honor of our city and of the Dodgers. Go Dodgers.”
A message to all Angelenos from @TheVinScully pic.twitter.com/3vsib2ciC4
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) October 28, 2020
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department delivered a message, too, calling for COVID-19 guidelines to be followed. There is concern the celebration could turn into a super spreader event. The World Series title was the second championship title celebrated in a matter of weeks for a Los Angeles team. Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health said Monday it was “highly likely that Lakers fans gathered weeks ago for watch parties and other maskless events ahead of the team’s NBA championship win, and that may have contributed to the recent spike in coronavirus cases.” LAPD is also preparing for election-related protests, as other spots around the country are as November 3 approaches.
Congratulations Los Angeles Dodgers for winning the World Series Championship! Please celebrate safely and continue to adhere to Covid-19 health guidelines. #MLB #WorldSeries #Dodgers #LosAngeles #Champions #socialdistance #YourHealthIsFirst pic.twitter.com/oIGwDDsV9c
— LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) October 28, 2020
About 2,000 people had crowded the streets outside the Staples Center to celebrate the victory against the Miami Heat in Orlando, and at least 76 people were arrested in alleged instances of vandalism, unlawful assembly and failure to disperse, according to the Times.
The LAPD earlier Tuesday received approval to start recording and saving aerial footage of protests and other large gatherings taken by its helicopters, something the local chapter of Black Lives Matter called the “height of state repression and surveillance.” Los Angeles, like other major metropolitan cities, is preparing for election-related protests, civil unrest and possible violence on or around Nov. 3.
Pollster Frank Luntz had a quirky take on the Dodgers win. He noted that every time the Dodgers win the World Series, the Republican candidate wins the presidency. Will this year provide the same result? Luntz essentially says, Who knows? It is an interesting fact. Luntz also confirms that enthusiasm for Trump with Republican voters is still higher than that of Democrats for Biden.
“Every time the Los Angeles Dodgers have won the World Series in the last 35 years… Republicans have won the White House,” Luntz said on “Mornings with Maria” reacting to the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the World Series in Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.
“I don’t know if that is a correlation,” Luntz said adding that the game was “quite an evening.”
Luntz went on to explain the latest polling numbers that show only two-thirds of former Vice President Joe Biden voters think that he will win. By comparison, Luntz said 81% of Trump voters think that their candidate will win.
“So, on election night, the assumption on both sides is that they are going to be successful. So, how the votes are counted, how quickly they are counted is going to have a tremendous impact on those first hours right after the polls close and will have an impact on what the expectations will be as the night goes on, as the days go on, and I emphasize days in what they expect to happen in the final count,” he said.
It’s 2020, after all. Anything can and probably will happen. Polling still favors a Biden win but Trump is experiencing some momentum during the last days of the campaign. Now is the last push for making his case for re-election and Trump is taking full advantage. Despite recently fighting the coronavirus, he’s out campaigning across the country, holding several events a day and flying back to Washington for such events as watching the swearing-in of his latest choice for the Supreme Court. He is still the Energizer Bunny in full campaign mode. Contrast that with Sleepy Joe who looks frail and speaks in a soft raspy voice but somehow manages to sound angry all the time. His is a campaign of doom and gloom and a very dark winter approaching while Trump tells his supporters that the best is yet to come. It is being reported that Independents are breaking for Trump in recent polling. That is very good news for Trump.
I’ll end with these tweets from an angry old actor/director in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, 73 years old, thinks that between ‘his’ sports teams winning championships this year and the upcoming Biden landslide victory (his words, not mine), that 2020 may be salvaged after all. The self-centered Hollywood guy also accuses Trump of “killing” Americans, as other leftists are prone to do.
Trump’s closing strategy: Blanket the country with super spreader rallies and kill as many Americans as possible.
— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) October 27, 2020
My Lakers won the NBA title. My Dodgers won the World Series. Now a Biden landslide will begin to salvage 2020.
— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) October 28, 2020
What a meathead.