The Dodgers won the World Series. That’s right, 2020, just get it all out of your system… Aside from the chagrin of this SF Giants fan, the World Series, played inside baseball’s version of a bubble (Big League Chew?), concluded in the most 2020 way possible—short of one side trying to cheat and then lying about the result and then refusing to leave the field after the contest was over. Somehow, a Covid-19 test for Justin Turner (Dodger Third Baseman and, one assumes, Game of Thrones extra) came back positive during the game. Hence, Turner was pulled from the lineup before the eighth inning. Not 2020 enough for you? Well, Justin Turner later returned to the field, where (occasionally maskless) he celebrated with his teammates. Hopefully, they were draft Dodgers as well, because something infectious was in the air. Put simply, Justin Turner’s enthusiasm was contagious. Jeff Passan in ESPN: “In this oddest of years, this most peculiar of baseball seasons, there was perhaps no more telling snapshot of the United States, circa 2020, than a COVID-19-positive man sitting on the ground, maskless, next to a cancer survivor, maskless as well, with indelible grins spread across their faces. Sports is and always will be a metaphor for society.” (All that said, and even with the Dodgers winning a championship, I do have one message for baseball during a year when we really needed the distraction. Thanks.)

+ And even this lifelong Dodgers hater feels pretty damn good that Clayton Kershaw won the big one. Here’s a look back at Wright Thompson’s piece as the season was about to begin. As Clayton Kershaw waits for baseball to return, a look at his family, legacy and future.