The 2018 World Series is a clash between two big-market powerhouses in the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. The highly-anticipated matchup has garnered excitement not just across baseball, but other professional sports leagues as well.
Particularly in the NFL, where Los Angeles Rams star running back Todd Gurley has shown his support for the Dodgers by wearing a Manny Machado jersey at a recent press conference.
On the other side, the New England Patriots have similarly offered words of encouragement to the Red Sox. Five-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady, who grew up a San Francisco Giants fan in Northern California, is particularly confident that Boston will get the best of Los Angeles in the Fall Classic, via the an interview on WEEI:
“I was a Giants fan growing up and now I’m a Red Sox fan. I mean, it couldn’t set up any better for the Red Sox to win the World Series. And I think they’re going to do it. It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. It’s been a while since they’ve been to the World Series, but everyone is paying attention, everyone is following them. They’ve had an incredible season, and we’re all cheering them on. It’s going to be pretty sweet.”
Now an athlete in New England, it makes sense that Brady has since become a Red Sox fan and is showing support for the club in the 2018 World Series.
But the future Hall-of-Famer additionally made sure to recall his hatred for the Dodgers as a child, citing six-time All-Star and 1981 NL Cy Young Award winner Fernando Valenzuela as one of his most disliked players in the rivalry:
“There were a lot of them, oh my God. I mean, Fernando Valenzuela. He was the one when I was young, we all didn’t like. He was so great, he used to beat the Giants all the time. There was a lot of them. That Giants-Dodgers rivalry was always pretty great.”
As Brady points out, Valenzuela was a proverbial thorn in the Giants’ side during his 11-year career with the Dodgers. In his career against San Francisco, the southpaw posted a solid 3.11 ERA and 1.29 WHIP over 336 innings pitched — earning 20 wins in that span.
