Because the 2020 MLB season is only 60 games long, some have posed the question of whether winning the World Series will come with an asterisk and be devalued.
Cubs starter Jon Lester is not one of those people. In fact, he doesn’t care how long the season is — he wants to win a championship.
“No, a trophy’s a trophy. I don't care if it's 60 games,” Lester told reporters on Saturday. “I mean, you still have to win, you still have to play good baseball. It's not like they're just handing them out at the end, like ‘Oh hey here's your participation trophy 'cause you guys showed up this year.' That's not the case.”
Those comments echo that of Cubs manager David Ross, who said two weeks ago "If they’re passing out a trophy, I want it." They likely hold true across the Cubs, whose schedule is entirely against NL and AL Central teams this year. The Cardinals, Brewers and Twins are coming off playoff appearances; the Reds and White Sox are on the upswing, and the Indians won 93 games.
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The regular season is only 60 games, but the postseason format is unchanged. Teams who reach October face the same path to the World Series as years past. Whoever wins it all this year — assuming MLB can finish the season with COVID-19 afflicting the nation — will earn it.
“I think at the end of the day, we look back on this — yeah, people will talk about this season — but you still have to show up, you still have to play well and you still have to do your job in order to get that trophy, to get that ring,” Lester said. "That's still important to us and still important to me.
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“I'm still fighting for that and I don't care if it's 60 games or 190 games or whatever it is. You still have to play well to get that trophy.”
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