The 2022 MLB season is now over leaving fans with lots of memories to cherish forever. Throughout the year, fans were treated to watching Aaron Judge chase the AL home run record and Albert Pujols chase 700 home runs. The Philadelphia Phillies and Seattle Mariners put an end to their playoff droughts. The Braves and Mets gave fans a division race that will be remembered for years and the Dodgers put forth the fourth most impressive win total in MLB history with 111 wins. There are so many more things to list like Shohei Ohtani becoming the first player in history to qualify for the league leader stats as a pitcher and a hitter. With one of the best seasons in recent memory now in the rearview, we turn the page to the MLB Postseason, the ultimate decider of MLB dominance. Here are my predictions for who will make and win this year’s Fall Classic, The World Series.

The Chicago White Sox have tugged at the heartstrings of the Southside faithful for 153 games where they now find themselves with a record of 76 wins and 77 losses and ten games behind the AL Central champion Cleveland Guardians. This is a disappointment of a season for a young team that won the division by 13 games before being ousted in four games by the Houston Astros last season. Coming into the season there were massive expectations for this White Sox team to improve on their 93 wins from last year and win the division for a second straight year. The latter, a first in franchise history, would be the floor according to expectations that projected this team to make more noise in a crowded AL landscape. However, this White Sox team has found themselves mired in mediocrity throughout the season, sporting a .500 record a staggering 25 times so far this season.

It seems like everybody reaches a point where they join the “get off my lawn” music crowd. The same crowd that reminisces about old days whether they were alive to experience that era or not. The people whose minds become increasingly closed off with every new artist whose name has no face attached to it. The hyperbolic sense of importance and current relevance for an artist who made their debut fifteen years ago. It seems to be that time for a good portion of my friends, and I find myself relating to them in rare circumstances. So this leaves the question, which artists can the new entries into music geriatricness rely on to give them that dose of nostalgia they so desperately crave?

The success both artists have seen while making music almost entirely by themselves is a testament to their individual talents when put in front of a mic. In today’s era, it is common practice for artists to attempt to increase the chances of reaching a new fanbase by putting as many features as possible on their album, sometimes to a fault. The logic makes sense, if a fan of artist A will listen to whatever song that artist is on, let me put artist A on my album and attempt to endear myself to their fanbase. However, this logic only contextualizes how impressive the consistent growth we’ve seen from Rod Wave and Youngboy Never Broke Again actually is.