Walk onto the field and see  40,000+ people filling the stands, with endless cheering and clapping. You can smell the fresh hotdogs and nachos everyone is drooling over. The energy in the stadium and its surroundings are electric. You have made it to the biggest stage in baseball; this is what every baseball player dream of of. The 2022 World Series has kicked off, and all eyes are on the same prize. The first World Series was on October 1^st, 1903, when the Boston Americans defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 9-game series. Since the beginning, the World Series has brought huge number of viewers. Everyone is thrilled to see the head to head battle and see who is going to be crown the champions.

Fast forward 119 years: the Philadelphia Phillies have been looking for another World Series since 2008, while the Houston Astros are trying to bounce back from their defeat against the Atlanta Braves last year. With two teams left and one hard battle, the Houston Astros came out on top in 6 games, but how did both teams work their ways to the championships?

The MLB playoffs were officially set in early October. The Houston Astros (1 seed) and New York Yankees (2 seed) had the American League bye while the Los Angeles Dodgers (1 seed) and Atlanta Braves (2 seed) had the National League bye. Which led to the first round of the playoffs, the Wild Card series. The AL Wild Card series had the Tampa Bay Rays (6 seed) face the Cleveland Guardians (3 seed) and the Seattle Mariners (5 seed) were set to face the Toronto Blue Jays (4 seed).  The Guardians defeated the Rays 2-0 in a best-out-of-3 series to face the Astros in the American League Division Series. In addition, the Mariners also defeated the Blue Jays 2-0 to face the Yankees in the ALDS. On the other side of the bracket, the Philadelphia Phillies (6 seed) were set to face the St. Louis Cardinals (3 seed) and the San Diego Padres (5 seed) were set to face the New York Mets (4 seed).  The Phillies swept the Cardinals to face the Braves in the National League Division Series. The Padres and Mets had a win-or-go-home situation, but the Padres ended on top to face the Dodgers in the NLDS. These winning teams celebrated as they punched their tickets to the next stage, the Division Series.

October 11th started the 5-game divisional series. The Braves, Phillies, Dodgers, and Padres faced off again this season as they are in the same division. The only difference is that they are on a bigger stage for more on the line. The Phillies defeated the Braves in 4 games, furthermore, the Padres beat the Dodgers also in 4 games. This caught people by surprise, “shock factor, very high. Disappointment is very high. It’s crushing,” Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said in a postgame interview with MLB. The Phillies and Padres were set to face in the National League Championship Series. On the other side of the bracket, the Yankees and Guardians went head to head as they played all 5 games. After a tough battle, the New York Yankees defeated the Guardians to move on to the American League Championship Series. The historic run the Mariners put up ended as the Astros defeated them in 3 games to meet the Yankees on a date to the ALCS.

Then there were 4. Winning this series meant they were going to the biggest stage in baseball, the World Series. The Phillies and Padres were set to face in a 7-game series. Phillies shut out the Padres in game 1, but the Padres bounced back to win game 2. After evening the series, the Padres fell to the Phillies in the following 3 games. The Phillies officially punched their tickets to battle for the ring. The Yankees and Astros met again in the ALCS for the 3rd time in the last six years. Houston ended up sweeping the Yankees in 4 games which left the Yankees and Yankee fans heartbroken. “I wanted to cry, so mad” LHS Junior, Yankee fan Braden Lee said.

The battle for the rings has officially ended and the Astros finally did it, they finally won without cheating. Since their last title, they have appeared in the World Series three times now, facing NL East each time. After falling short the first two times, they have finally beat a NL East team.